The overwhelming majority of travel buyers are against the idea of allowing unmanaged travel within their companies, according to research by Carlson Wagonlit Travel.
The study found that only 9 per cent of buyers were in favour of unmanaged travel, which allows travellers to book through any channel they wish to use, with 62 per cent against the concept.
The report also revealed that 87 per cent of buyers said that their companies had not tried using unmanaged travel and had no plans to do so.
Those few buyers who plan to introduce some elements of unmanaged travel, or have already done so, said that their main motive for the change was to increase the satisfaction of travellers.
The TMC produced the report, entitled "Where now for managed travel?", after surveying 149 travel buyers, as well as conducting an online survey of 469 travellers and travel arrangers from five companies.
The CWT report makes the case that fully-managed travel programmes were now “more user-friendly, cheaper and represent a more effective way to tackle programme leakage”.
It also revealed data, based on three independent studies, showing that bookings through TMCs were between 9 and 24 per cent lower than fares available on the open market.
David Moran, CWT’s executive vice president for enterprise strategy and marketing, said: “We do expect to see consumer trends continuing to influence corporate traveller behaviour and expectations, with a clear emphasis on increasing traveller choice.
“However, recent feedback from our customers has shown that while this migration towards increased choice is steadily taking place, today’s solutions are not yet robust enough to allow them to relax their booking channel policies.”
To read the CWT report, click here