Travel management companies (TMCs) are failing to convey their value to their clients, according to a new survey of travel buyers.
The poll of 90 buyers by the UK and Ireland Institute of Travel Management (ITM) found that two thirds believed that TMCs will either "diminish in importance or fail to flourish."
The respondents said that despite increased fees by TMCs, they were not seeing a parallel rise in effective savings.
They added that there seemed to be little difference in the various TMCs with 65% of corporate buyers saying they had changed their TMC either just once or not at all in the past decade.
60% of the buyers cited savings as the main driver in globalisation programmes but only 38% said their bottom line had improved.
But 52% said that a second objective of globalisation - a single data source - had got better.
Paul Tilstone, ITM's executive director, said: "The issue is how long it should take for an organisation to see the expected incremental savings, if at all.
"The facts that the trend towards globalisation is not new and that 44% of our survey respondents control spends of over £20 million suggest that it may no longer be realistic to see financial return as the primary benefit of globalisation."
Colin Goldney, managing director of ITM's research partner Argate Consulting, said: "TMCs have to demonstrate their value to the travel procurement process more effectively.
"There are just as many buyers who think TMC service levels have stood still as there are those who believe that they have improved in the last three years.
"Technology is unquestionably better, but the only other aspect in which there is a consensus for improvement is the quality of management information."
NH Hoteles' profits up in 2006
The hotel business of Madrid-based company NH Hoteles saw its net profit rise by 39.4% and its operating profit rise by 27.4% to 80.2m for the first six months of 2006.
Revenues for the hotels, the third largest chain of business hotels in Europe, rose by 13.1% to 497.11m.
Across the board, its revenue per available room (revPAR) rose by 12.3%, occupancy rates increased by 3.78% to 67% and average prices moved up by 8.26% to 79.2.
The group said is properties in Germany had done well, earning a pre-tax profit of 2.81m.
Revenues there totaled 102.32M, a 12.5% increase, and the revPAR went up by 15.97%, driven mainly by a 13% increase in average prices, to 65.9.
Spain, the Benelux countries, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Hungary and Romania all also recorded increases in revenues and revPAR during the six months.
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