Richard Crum

By Richard Crum, President, AirPlus International, Inc.

In the current economic climate, Travel Management is more important than ever. It’s improving the role and status of travel managers in one very notable way. Last year’s AirPlus International Travel Management Study of 1,500 travel managers in 15 countries provided significant evidence that lack of time, resources and status was preventing them from optimizing the power of their travel programs. Fast forward to 2009 and there appears to have been a change. Several travel managers have been quoted in industry publications as saying that senior management is finally giving them the support to make the radical changes to travel programs for which they had been pleading for years.

AirPlus and ACTE decided to put these claims to the test in a survey of the ACTE buyer membership, and the results are startling. No fewer than 62% of respondents say the economic downturn has made senior management more receptive to their ideas for managing the company travel program.

The jointly released whitepaper is entitled: Empowered employees – how travel managers are adapting and thriving in the global recession and examines why the situation has changed and how travel managers are taking advantage of their newly gained empowerment to transforming their travel programs. It also gives travel managers tips on how they can maximize the opportunity they have been given, not only to improve their travel programs but to consolidate their enhanced status within the organization.

Additional resource:
Empowered Employees. How Travel Managers are Adapting and Thriving in the Global Recession.
(PDF, 593.5 KB)