What business are we actually in, ITM chief asks
The travel industry must ask itself the fundamental question of what business it is actually in, Paul Tilstone, chief executive of the Institute of Travel Management (ITM), said.
"We believe that what we do is essentially about the management of the mode of a meeting - whether it's a one-2-one face to face meeting or a conference of a 1,000 or a video conference, a teleconference or a webcast," he said.
It was to meet this challeng that the ITM was changing its name to the Institute of Travel and Meetings Management.
Its tag line will also change from ‘Supporting the business of business travel' to ‘Think Differently about Travel'.
Mr Tilstone was speaking at the 25thanniversary celebrations of the Swedish Business Travel Association in Sweden.
He said the largest percentage of business travel was meetings related.
There were many different types of meetings both intra and inter company.
"It is therefore based on communication - ultimately meaning that there is a great more flexibility in the mode of the meeting and therefore in the implications for travel," he said.
Each type of meeting/communication has a different level of interaction from the simplest, the e-mail, through audio conferencing, web conferencing and video conferencing up to the face to face meeting.
"This illustrates the ultimate business we believe we are in - and when you relate it to the management of meeting modes or about corporate communication, you take travel to the heart of what makes a business tick.
"Travel is simply one of the means to achieving company objectives through meetings and communication," Mr Tilstone said.
Earlier in his presentation, Mr Tilstone said there were five key factors influencing change in the industry. These were:
- - Increasingly complex changes in distribution
- - An increasing trend towards specialisation of products and services as well as a convergence of procurement and supply
- - The growing role of Corporate Social Responsibility including issues like work/life balance and the environment
- - A rise in "travel alternative" technology like video conferencing
- - The national economy.
Companies were taking all these issues into account and beginning to engage in what is called ECO-nomic Rationalisation, he said.
"This is defined as ‘where businesses focus on traditional economic factors, such as cost and efficiency, to manage their travel programmes, resulting in a sizeable CSR impact for their company.
"In other words it is the company which implements a video conference system to reduce the impact of travel on its employees.
"This ensures they are more efficient and there is also the fact that it will save them a sizeable percentage on travel costs.
"The net result is less environmental impact and perhaps greater employee health/happiness," Mr Tilstone said.
He gave as an example the Swedish company Skanksa which has saved £2m on travel alternatives and in the process cuts its employees' unproductive time.
Visit www.itm.org.uk