The GTMC plans to extend its lobbying influence to Brussels after successfully stepping up its profile at Westminster.
Gareth Morgan of Cavendish Communications, the GTMC’s lobbyists; said Parliament now took the organisation seriously.
“The big change in the last 12-18 months has been the recognition of data from the GTMC. If there is a question on business travel we are now starting to get into the territory where we will get a call.”
The Davies Commission had approached the GTMC recently as part of its investigation into airport expansion. “They wanted to know how business travellers were getting to the airport. To get a call from them for additional evidence was heartening.”
Ajay Sodha, chair of the GTMC’s industry affairs strategy group, said there was a lot more that could be done, especially in Europe: “I don’t think we understand how powerful an influence we can have. Our 40 members have 10,000 employees and £7 billion turnover. Quite a lot of our members have offices across the whole of Europe. There’s no-one else like the GTMC.”
Sodha said GEBTA, the pan-European business travel organization set up in 1990, was “slowly dying”, with only three members, including the GTMC and a Spanish organisation left and that there was a niche to be filled in Brussels by the GTMC as a dedicated business travel group.
The first step will be the creation of a European policy group to deal with EU issues that affect the UK.
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