Travel buyers’ main focus for 2013 is to save money on flights and ground transport, according to a survey by Carlson Wagonlit Travel.
CWT asked around 800 travel managers around the globe for their top five priorities for this year with air and ground transport savings coming top of the list. This was followed by improving traveller compliance as the second most important issue.
Buyers in the EMEA region said that the third biggest priority was to optimise online adoption whereas those in the rest of the world were more concerned with controlling hotel spending.
Christophe Renard, CWT’s vice president of marketing, communications and business intelligence, said: “The challenging economic climate means that there is continued pressure on buyers to both reduce costs and manage travel in a more cost-effective way.
“As air and ground travel represents the majority of spend within a travel programme, it is not surprising that it is the number one priority for most travel buyers, even though it is an area that is already well advanced in terms of optimisation.”
The survey also found that buyers in the EMEA region were going to spend less time on using social media to improve the traveller experience and implementing expense management tools.
The report also looks at the likely trends in business travel this year and forecasts that there will be a “modest” rise in prices of less than 5 per cent due to global inflation.
“Travel managers will need to monitor programmes and suppliers closely, paying particular attention to areas such as rising ancillary fees and fuel surcharges,” said the report.
CWT added that technology changes would also have more of an influence on the corporate travel market this year, including the introduction of travel review sites and apps specifically targeted at business travellers.
“Travel management 2.0 will also be a major theme in 2013 as companies seek to find the right balance between exercising the right level of control over traveller booking behaviour while ensuring that travel is still “managed” for budgetary, and safety and security reasons,” said the report.
“Finally, risk management will also play a key role as companies send travellers to increasingly high-risk areas and duty of care during business travel becomes an integral part of a company’s legal responsibility to its employees.”