The cost of organising smaller meetings could rise by up to 30% next year, American Express said at the ACTE conference.
In its Global Business Travel Forecast for 2008, it also predicted hotel rate rises of up to 24% in upmarket and up to 22% in mid-market properties in London.
But the report by Amex's advisory services said it also expected economy fares on domestic and short haul flights in the UK to fall by between 5% and 10%.
More generally, Amex said it expected domestic/short economy fares to rise by 2%-5% in Europe and by 1%-4% globally.
Business class fares on international routes are predicted to rise by 6%-10% in Europe and 5%-8% globally.
Hotel rate rises are estimated at 12%-14% in both mid- and upper-range properties in Europe and by 11%-14% in both categories globally.
Joakim Johansson, Amex's newly appointed vp for advisory services EMEA, told a press conference in Munich that the 30% rise in smaller meetings costs was the result of rises in room rates, air fares and food and drinks costs.
"The focus is turning towards smaller meetings, between 10-50 people. With larger events, companies have control of spend.
"But with smaller meetings there is less visibility and therefore less control. The size of these meetings is growing. When it used to be 10, there are now 15, when it used to be 15, there are now 20.
"The corporates are trying to control them, by using stronger language in their meetings policy and through globalisation.
"But they have become a huge expense for corporates. This is going to be a key are for 2008," he said.
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Also from the ACTE conference
Thalys aims for GDS presence by late 2008
Thalys, a European train company serving Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne, is aiming to have its inventory on the GDSs by the end of next year.
Béatrice Pâques, the train company's director of marketing, said that it was currently in talks with Amadeus.
The GDS built the software enabling Eurostar, the cross-channel high speed train service, to put its inventory on all GDSs alongside airlines.
Ms Pâques said that Amadeus was building a global platform for rail booking which Thalys hoped to use.
Ron Heeren, head of sales for the Dutch rail operator NS Hispeed, said his company's inventory would be on the GDSs when the service from Amsterdam to Brussels ands Paris went high speed next year.
He said his company had an arrangement with KLM which would enable this to happen.
Earlier in an educational session on managing rail spend, two travel managers complained of the difficulty of using self booking tools for rail reservations.
Volker Spichal, director of European affiliates finance for pharmaceutical company Boston Scientific, said his SBT worked "okay" in France but there were problems in the Benelux countries in getting access to fares or having seamless travel.
Fabian Kleinung, travel manager for EADS, said he was in the process of implementing an SBT in the UK, France and Germany and later in Spain.
"But we are having to deal with little loopholes and technically it is not easy," he said. "There is still a lot for the national rail companies to do."
Both pointed out the lack of common standards for bookings in rail companies across the continent, most of which were monopolies.
Ms Pâques said that railways had not originally been designed for international travel and the new Railteam initiative between seven train companies announced earlier this year was the first step in them working more closely together.
Crum hits out at "green" taxes
Richard Crum, the new president of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), said that green taxes levied by governments made "no sense."
He said: "History tells us that they are unlikely to have any direct affect on our actual goals of reducing the impact that ravel has on our environment."
He told a press conference at the Association's global education conference in Munich this week that the travel industry had made many of its own efforts to reduce its environmental impact without government involvement.
"Aircraft manufacturers have voluntarily made thousands of improvements in their products, making them lighter, quieter and certainly more fuel efficient.
"If governments want to make a serious dent in the 2% of the world's carbon emissions resulting from air travel, they should focus their resources on eliminating congestion in the airways.
"Not by charging passengers for the privilege of flying in circles due to air traffic control delays."
Mr Crum who is also international president North America for AirPlus, said ACTE would "aggressively oppose" any taxation or penalisation of the travel industry.
Companies missing savings from integration
The vast majority of companies are missing out on potential savings by not integrating their travel technology.
A new study has found that only 9% of companies are getting the benefits of integrating their self booking tool with their expenses management system.
The study was commissioned by technology company Amadeus and carried out by the Business Travel Research Centre (BTRC) at the UK's Cranfield University with 168 ACTE members.
Marcos Isaac, director of corporate and distribution channels for Amadeus, said there were four main productivity benefits of full integration.
These were: accuracy of data, reduction of time spent on reporting travel expenses, automatic transfer of data and traveller profile and a cut in the need for manual input.
Mr Isaac said that earlier research by the Aberdeen Group found that companies which fully integrated spent $15 integrating expense reports while non-integrated ones spent $31.
He said integration presented a challenge and the whole project had to be planned.
But he added: "The benefits in terms of productivity can reach 50% according to the Aberdeen study and can create a better overall travel experience."
CWT and MasterCard link up on data
Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) has launched a new card-based travel data programme for corporate buyers.
CWT clients who use MasterCard will receive data on all their T&E spend.
The service gives travel managers facilities to analyse spend on their travel programme.
Paul Adler, vp global commerce for MasterCard, said the programme will allow "users to understand better travel spending patterns around the world."
Doug Weeks new ACTE president-elect
Doug Weeks, senior manager of strategic sourcing and global travel for Booz Allen Hamilton, is the new president-elect of ACTE.
He will take over the post in January 2009 after the current president Richard Crum has served his term.
Mr Weeks has worked in the industry for 11 years and has been a member of ACTE since 2000.
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