Volker Huber

Travel managers have never been more sought-after for pushing through cost reductions than right now. However, they are often not sufficiently backed by their companies’ managements to play out the aces they have up their sleeves. 

Travel managers currently have many reasons to be content. For one reason, the global recession draws more attention to them than ever before.Now that companies need to economize, travel managers are able to modify travel guidelines faster, introduce corporate credit cards or put into practice other ideas for process optimization – processes which were not often taken seriously a while ago. According to the latest study conducted by the global Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), 62 % of all travel managers believe that the recession has caused their companies’ managements to be more open to suggestions with regard to increased travel-management effectiveness. Even though – thanks to clever travel management – travel managers momentarily have good opportunities to distinguish themselves as cost reducers, they often have to adhere to tight limits when it comes to their daily work. The reasons are manifold.

Cost pressures and budget cuts
For the AirPlus International Travel Management Study 2009, 1500 travel managers from 15 business-travel markets worldwide gave detailed information on the framework conditions of their daily balancing acts: increasing cost pressures due to budget cuts on the one hand, the responsibility to – despite the situation – create optimal framework conditions for travelers on the other hand.

Flexibility helps to tap savings potential
Enhanced flexibility could improve work quality, and, hence, increase the results of savings measures – this was another one of the study’s main results. Very often, this wish was expressed by small and medium-sized companies. Enhanced flexibility mainly refers to receiving the opportunity to purchase more services from airlines, hotels or rental-car companies at daily prices.

Support by top managements
More support by top managements to achieve their goals also made the travel managers’ wish list. Interestingly, 16 % of travel managers in large corporations expressed this wish, as compared to only six percent in medium-sized and four percent in small companies. The reason may be the larger number of hierarchy levels in large corporations that generally complicates direct relationships between CEOs and travel managers.

Furthermore, the travel managers were asked to define the degree of professionalism of travel management within their companies. It may hardly be surprising that positive evaluations of the travel managers’ own professionalism increased with the size of the travel budgets they administered. What is astounding, however, is that about one third of those interviewed estimated their own professionalism as being only “mediocre”; another 16 % classified themselves as “under average.” These responses may be the clearest reflection of the gap between the travel managers’ demands on their own work and the lack of possibilities they are given to put these demands into practice in their daily work routines.

Full-time travel managers are the exception
However, these rather self-conscious appraisals are linked with a very different kind of problem that inhibits many travel managers: the permanent battle against time. One out of every three travel managers said that he or she does not have sufficient time to do a really good job in accordance with his or her own understanding of the tasks. Particularly in small companies, travel managers complained about their lack of time for optimally supporting travelers. Some figures to compare: on average, travel managers in small companies are in charge of 31 travelers; in medium-sized companies, there are 101 to each travel manager and in large companies 351 travelers. However, this also means that the smaller the company, the more varied the tasks the travel manager has to cope with besides organizing travels. Full-time travel managers are rather the exception than the rule in small and medium-sized companies. Albeit, the question remains how much more money could be saved, if companies allocated more resources to their travel management teams.

Despite all the calls for more time, rights and attention by top managements, on an international average, 82 of the interviewees responded that their work is generally appreciated within their companies. If it is possible to strengthen this appreciation, companies will continuously profit from boosted travel management and more self-confident travel managers. This, at least, would be one bit of good news in the current situation.

Author: Volker Huber, Senior Vice President Global Sales & Solutions, AirPlus