Julie Oliver, Managing Director

AirPlus talks with Julie Oliver, Managing Director of Business Travel Direct about ways of adapting to changes brought on by the recession and how to embrace the new opportunities that lay ahead for TMCs…

 

 

AirPlus: The British Chamber of Commerce recently announced that the worst of the UK’s recession is over – could this mean that we are nearing a possible happy ending to the financial drama that played out over the past year?

JO: I think it is a little early to say that the worst is over. While there is more positive news around, companies still need to see some concrete improvements before considering increasing their business travel expenditure. Overall our clients have followed the general trend of booking less air travel. Coupled with this we have seen an upturn in rail bookings.

AirPlus: In your experience what have been the most common cut-backs in business travel during this economic crisis?

JO: In common with the rest of the industry we have seen cutbacks in business travel overall. Specifically there has been a marked decline in air travel, especially in business class. Even when people have been travelling there has been a drop in the number of trips involving overnight stays at hotels and in car rental, or the purchase of more restrictive tickets.

AirPlus: In your opinion are the recent changes in booking behaviour a temporary measure to save costs, or are companies getting more serious about establishing and enforcing long term travel policies? How does it impact the TMCs?

JO: The shift from business class travel to economy class and no frills airlines had started before the recession especially for short haul flights and was being written into travel policies. The recession has highlighted the need for closer scrutiny of costs and I believe we will see more companies setting up travel policies to help them control costs and improve traveller tracking. I see travel policies as a positive development as they lay clear guidelines for both travellers and TMCs. Having an enforceable policy makes it easier for the TMC to monitor expenditure and, hopefully, deliver savings. In addition we can speed up the booking process by enabling travellers to make bookings through our online portal, which has the policy parameters loaded on it.

AirPlus: Companies that are enforcing travel embargoes may argue that their actions also benefit the environment. Are the topics around the environment and green products increasingly playing a role in companies’ travel policies since the recession?

JO: The environment was a key topic before the current crisis with many of our clients incorporating travel within the organisation’s overall green policy.

In recent times companies have been focusing on the bottom line by cutting travel rather than considering offsetting measures.  I think that once we are out of this crisis companies will once again look at how to make their travel ‘greener’ and perhaps we will see the current switch from flying to rail travel become a permanent measure.

AirPlus: Social media (i.e. twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, etc…) is increasingly being used by hotels and airlines as a way to reach and interact with customers. How do you view the role of social media in the BTM and to what extent can TMCs benefit from it?

JO: I think this is becoming more important not just for interacting with customers, but finding new ones.

AirPlus: Has the economic downturn created more opportunities for networking platforms and sharing the knowledge amongst BTM professionals, or has it brought fiercer competition and less interaction in the industry?

JO: I think as an industry we have always been great networkers and sharers of knowledge. I can’t talk for other TMCs but in times like these, there is much greater opportunity to really prove your worth as a strategic partner and that in itself brings a great amount of pleasure when you achieve the savings result and changes in behavior buying in line with what you’ve set out to do with your corporate nine months beforehand.

AirPlus: Looking into a ‘crystal ball’, do you see any major developments or changes which are likely to affect the current business travel landscape? In your view, what sort of changes are likely to take place?

JO: I think that one big change we will see is that there will be fewer TMCs as some will unfortunately go to the wall and some will merge with larger companies.  I think the crisis will also have forced change on TMCs as they have had to adapt and change the way they do business.

Business travel will come back as companies will need to travel again in order to secure new business and service existing clients. The big question is what form this travel will take. It may well be that the days of travelling in first or business class have gone.

AirPlus: What motivates Business Travel Direct in the current climate? What is your message to the other TMCs?

JO: Our main motivation continues to be the same: to provide exceptional service to our clients and continue to help clients secure maximum value for their travel budgets. We are also helped by our flexible approach which means that we are quickly able to adapt our service to offer what cleints need in fast changing circumstances.

Like other TMCs we are also looking at alternative areas where we can secure revenue. If we are not booking flights, then we need to look at other services such as airport car parking that we can offer. Travel avoidance is a big thing for corporates and as strategic partners we should be helping them with this, but we need to find a model that rewards us for the work we do when no services have been purchased.

My message to other TMCs is listen to your clients and make sure you are aligned with what they are trying to achieve.