The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) held its first gala dinner this year, to mark the opening of the 2011 ACTE Global Education Conference in New York.
ACTE’s first annual Black and Red Gala, attended by 150 people from the business travel industry, raised $100,000.
The event, which will become a yearly feature in the calendar, included a charity auction and was sponsored by American Airlines, British Airways, Starwood and American Express.
Some $33,000, one third of the amount raised, will be donated to the International Red Cross for their work in Japan.
ACTE’s current president, Chris Crowley from BCD Travel in London, said that supporting Japan’s recovery “is the most important thing we can do as a business”.
Crowley commented on how watching the events unfold in Japan had been “devastating”, but he had also found inspiration from the resilience of people rising to the challenge.
He said the business travel industry needed to “have confidence” in Japan’s ability to recover, and should be supporting the country’s airlines and companies by booking business with them.
“Japan is an integral part of the global economy,” he added.
“We work in a global industry, and we are a global community,” said Crowley. “We can help... if we do not pull together then we all fail.”
The remaining sum raised at ACTE’s Black and Red Gala will go to the ACTE Centre, the association’s global centre for education and research.