As more and more countries around the world begin lifting
coronavirus lockdown restrictions and reopening borders, there are some key
aspects that continue to pose challenges for travel managers – namely
quarantine measures for travellers imposed in individual nations. The UK is one
such example, with a mandatory 14-day self-isolation period going into effect
this week with only a short list of exemptions.
The travel industry’s reaction to the measures have been
widely publicised; hundreds of firms have written to the government in protest,
while British Airways, Ryanair and Easyjet have set aside their rivalry to
launch joint legal action against the restrictions. They all say the same thing
– that these measures should have been put in place earlier in the pandemic,
and that they will cause a huge amount of damage to the UK’s economy at a time
when many European nations are preparing to allow summer holidays by lifting their own restrictions.
But what about business travel? Traditionally, trips tend to
be placed on the back burner during the summer as employees take holidays or
need to stay close to home while their children are off school. But in a
situation where business has been largely stalled since at least March, research
from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) shows many employees are
eager to get back on the road, with 43 per cent of companies considering
resuming travel within Europe in the near future and 54 per cent globally
planning to restart all travel regardless of country or region. FCM Travel
Solutions surveyed 1,600 of its global clients and found that 70 per cent of
them want to get back to travelling sooner rather than later. But quarantine measures were highlighted as the top concern in a recent survey of business travellers by BCD Travel.
With that in mind, the question now is how travel managers
are going to deal with the hurdle posed by quarantine.
‘Problematic origin’
For one global travel manager in the professional services sector based in
Europe, the UK’s quarantine does not pose an immediate risk because their
company still has a blanket travel ban in place. However, they said: “If we
were to start allowing travel tomorrow, we wouldn’t be looking at anything
outbound or inbound for the UK because it would be too disruptive to include
the two-week quarantine [in the trip].”
According to Scott Davies, CEO of the Institute of Travel
Management (ITM), this is a common thread among members. “Our members want
quarantine abolished,” he commented. “Its existence effectively removes the
possibility of business travel. It renders the UK a problematic origin and
destination for international business travel, which will hinder our economic
recovery.”
He said in some “exceptional or mercy cases” travel might be
allowed even with the quarantine in place, but that this “will be managed
manually on an individual trip basis”.
Marcus Eklund, FCM’s managing director, said that while
leisure travellers may be willing to take the risk and go on holiday anyway
hoping that the quarantine measures are “unenforceable”, as suggested by
Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary, the same cannot be said for business travel.
“Business travel is more governed by travel and HR departments and the
government regulations around travel, so it’s very unlikely that people will
start travelling anyway because it’s not the individual’s decision,” he said in
a recent interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Guy Snelgar from Barndello Consulting said: "I think the key to managing, controlling and protecting
travellers in the months (and possibly years) ahead is going to be
flexibility. The experience of the last
few months have shown how quickly situations, circumstances and advice can
change. Whether it is quarantine rules,
R-numbers, or government advice, what we think we know now could well be very
different next month.
"In that environment, flexibility and the ability to adapt
quickly will be paramount. Every
organisation and every corporate travel programme will be different – for many,
the perfect storm of safety concerns and an unprecedented economic outlook will
be enough to keep travel locked down for a while yet. But from those that are ready, willing or
even eager to travel, each will have their own level of risk and control that
they want to implement, largely due to where and how they travel.
"Corporate online booking tools can be highly effective at
applying very specific rules around when, where and how employees can travel,
as well as what approval process is needed. For example, blocking trips or routing booking requests to specific
destinations to an HR or security manager, alongside the usual budget approval,
is quite possible. However, many of them
can also be complex to configure those controls, needing a request to a support
specialist, or even the developer themselves, to make changes. In a world where countries are changing their
advice and rules around travel on a daily basis, travel managers need
to be able to implement changes to their own guidelines almost immediately,
maybe even changing the CBT’s policy rules themselves. TMCs and technology
suppliers who are able to deliver that speed and flexibility around the system
controls will be well placed in this constantly-changing landscape."
Davies added: “Business travel enables economic activity and
must be safely re-introduced at the earliest possible opportunity, with
proportionate and workable measures in place. Every day we can’t travel is bad
for the economy and bad for jobs.”
Framework for take-off?
And the business travel industry has made its own proposals to the UK
government for allowing travel to resume. The Business Travel Association has
suggested implementing the use of rapid polymerise chain reaction (PCR) testing
to allow restriction-free travel from Europe’s three busiest destinations for
short-haul business travel: Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Passengers arriving
into the UK from one of these cities would need to book a test in advance of
their arrival, with results available within an hour. If the result is
negative, people should be allowed to avoid quarantine.
BTA chief executive Clive Wratten said: “This pilot can
restore confidence across the business community that there is a practical,
safe and immediate alternative to the stranglehold of quarantine.”
The European buyer said the plan could work but added
“business travel alone won’t rescue the travel industry”.
Another proposal from American Express Global Business
Travel (GBT) would see business travellers who book through a TMC given the
same exemption to the quarantine rule currently offered to transport and
seasonal agricultural workers, healthcare professionals and people who
regularly commute between the UK and Europe for work at least once a week.
Echoing the comments of many of his industry colleagues,
GBT’s chief commercial officer Drew Crawley said the government’s plan is
“irrational and disproportionate and unhelpful at this stage”.
“Business travel can be the engine room that really
kickstarts the economy,” Crawley commented. “It’s hugely important. We’re an
island and we need to travel and generate exports and imports. It’s critically
important not to quash that.
“It’s a relatively small segment to start with which would
allow airports and airlines to test their new Covid-ready processes. So it’s an
interesting way of opening up airports, getting a little bit of volume through,
testing those processes and trying to win confidence.
“The other benefit of starting with managed business travel
is that it’s a nice tight unit. It’s booking through TMCs, which means
travellers can be contacted and located before, during and after their trips.
That should give some comfort to employees and employers that they’ll know exactly
what’s going on all the time.”
Another European buyer in the pharmaceutical industry said
they think GBT's proposal “is generally a good idea to get business travel in the
EU Schengen, UK and other countries going again, but I would say this would
need to come with a mandate on high levels of ‘protection’ during trips. That
would have to include things like wearing a mask in the cab or taxi, at the
airport and especially during the flight. I don’t understand why some airlines
still aren’t requiring this for intra-Europe travel. I think business
travellers should act as role models and follow rules that are stricter than supplier
recommendations.”
GBT said it has also been engaging the Department for
Transport on its proposal and is gathering feedback from its clients on where
they want to travel so it can suggest destinations for establishing ‘air
bridges’ between countries with a low infection rate – something the government
promised to look into when it implemented the quarantine measures.
But Davies said these so-called travel corridors would pose
their own challenge for travel management and would “create complexity both for
travel managers and travellers”. He added: “It’s possible that bookings would
have to be made offline to ensure policies are followed and additional levels
of approval may still be required. But business travel professionals are
experienced in handling disruption and would put programmes and policies in
place to keep people moving.”
Either way, the first review of the quarantine measures by 29
June could be what makes or breaks the future of the UK’s travel industry.
-Dawit Habtemariam and Andy Hoskins contributed to this
report