Security concerns - and not the cost of travel - will be the biggest priority for travel buyers during 2013, according to leading business travel agency HRG.
Clients will continue to consolidate their travel programmes but one of the main drivers for this move will be to keep track of their travellers in case of emergency, said HRG’s group commercial director Stewart Harvey.
“Security is the top issue in all new tenders, literally jumping from the back of the document to the front,” added Harvey. “In 2012 we saw more clients put security before cost concerns and we expect this trend to continue in 2013.
“Incidents like the Icelandic volcano eruption and Arab Spring were significant wake-up calls for corporates, who are now more focused on how on to keep track of their employees in the event of an emergency.”
Harvey added that travel costs would always remain “important to clients” and that prices were likely to increase next year with unbundling making “price increases less transparent”.
“The core ticket price may only rise by 1 per cent, but individual ancillary fees, such as baggage fees and onboard food and services, are likely to rise by 6-8 per cent,” he warned.
HRG expects that buyers will want consolidate in three major areas next year: consolidation, compliance and control.
“First and foremost, corporates want to bring everything together into one place,” said Harvey. “Clients want the ability to see all of their travel-related data – including spend and traveller location – at the touch of a button.
“They also want to fine tune policies so that they better encourage cost-effective behaviour, and, finally, to keep travel spend down through employee compliance.”
Harvey also predicted that buyers would increasingly use smartphone products that could be “aligned with corporate travel policies in order to drive compliance and reduce overall spend”.