The Institute of Travel Management (ITM) has announced its newly-launched Future Role of the Travel Manager taskforce, established in March to “re-enforce the strategic importance” of travel buyers within their organisation, will shift focus to support buyer members amid an increasingly difficult operating environment.
The UK-based organisation said buyers are currently facing “enormous pressure” within their organisations due to ongoing post-Covid supply chain disruption and “major service issues” across the industry.
The taskforce, which consists of 12 ITM buyer members from diverse industry sectors, said it has recognised an “urgent need” to provide travel managers with practical guidance on how to navigate the current situation, moving away from its original mandate to raise the profile of the travel managers.
“Our buyer members recognise that the industry is doing its very best to meet demand for travel that has returned with vigour, but the ecosystems, infrastructure, resource and service levels are just not able to meet the current business traveller’s needs,” said ITM head of programme, Kerry Douglas.
“Travel managers are being pulled further and further into the operational challenges and being forced into a position of trying to defend the very basics of their travel programme and supply base which is a far reach from what they want to be doing in bringing strategic value to the company,” she added.
ITM said buyers are reporting record amounts of leakage and out-of-policy bookings, with some also being questioned over the validity of their company’s travel programme and choice of suppliers.
“With the industry ecosystem in its current state, and no clear indication of when things may improve, our Future Role of the Travel Manager taskforce has switched focus to supporting the buyer community with the current, very real challenges they are facing, to help rebalance operational noise, lead internal conversations and move towards controlling those areas that can be controlled,” Douglas said.
As an initial step, ITM is planning a ‘Controlling the Controllables’ workshop for buyer members in December, where Festive Road’s Louise Kilgannon will provide insights.