Egencia increased its corporate travel sales by 37 per cent in 2012 as it continued to expand across the globe.
The TMC, which is part of the world’s largest online travel company Expedia, made gross sales of $3.6 billion last year – up from $2.6 billion during 2011. The brand only broke through the $2 billion sales mark in 2011.
Revenue for Egencia also rose by 62.5 per cent to $291 million for 2012 compared to $179 million in the previous year.
Egencia benefitted last year from the acquisition of the VIA Travel Group, the biggest TMC in the Nordic region. It also won accounts from major companies such as healthcare technology firm Caradigm, online deals site Groupon and software specialist PROS.
Expedia has also extended its reach into business travel through the purchase of French technology specialist Traveldoo in 2011 which has now opened its first office in the UK.
The TMC, which was set up in 2002 following Expedia’s acquisition of Seattle-based TMC Metropolitan Travel, has now expanded its operations to cover 55 countries worldwide.
Graham Kingsmill, Egencia’s UK managing director, said that around 20 per cent of sales through Expedia’s main leisure brand were thought to be from business travellers booking independently.
Kingsmill, who was speaking at a session at this week’s Business Travel Show in London, said that booking patterns showed that Expedia made about $5 billion in bookings per year from the unmanaged business travel market.
“20 per cent of Expedia’s revenue is coming from business travel which is outside of Egencia,” added Kingsmill. “That works out at about $5 billion in spending per year.”
Kingsmill said that this showed the “increased consumerisation within business travel” which travel managers needed to take into account in their policies and programmes.
“You have to have a good understanding of what travellers want and give them the ability to book when and where they want to,” he said. “ A well-designed travel policy will save money although some travellers will always test a travel policy aggressively.
“Booking in advance and taking advantage of special fares and promotions can save money but you always need to check the smallprint.”