More than 100 delegates, including at least 75 travel manages attended a forum in Madrid organised jointly by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) and AEGVE, the Spanish travel managers' association.
The morning session which was open only to corporates discussed hotel deals and negotiated rates.
Jose Canovas del Castillo, director of FCM Travel Solutions in Spain and one of the moderators at the event, said travel managers were very interested in the deals that agencies made, especially regarding commissions and overrides.
"What the travel managers were asking for was more transparency on this issue. They were not comfortable with agencies and also wanted part of the overrides," he said.
There were also presentations by TQ3 and Carlson Wagonlit Travel and a session on security and insurance.
The last session was a presentation by Mayte Sabone, travel manager in Spain for Eli Lilly who, Mr Canovas said, talked about new online tools for RFPs, RFIs and e-auctions which could save corporates money.
"We had many more travel managers than at the Forum in Madrid last year," Mr Canovas said. "In Spain, the position of travel manager is still developing and only a few companies have them.
"There is a lot of work to do so these sessions are very productive."
He said ACTE and AEGVE want more local travel managers to attend ACTE's global conference scheduled to be held in Barcelona in October 2006 and there was a possibility that some sessions there would be held in Spanish or have instant translation.
"Other countries are much more fluent in English than the average Spaniard," he said.