The main point that comes across from the new Verband Deutsches Reisemanagement (VDR) Business Travel Report 2007 is that travel managers save companies money
The report, the fifth the VDR has done with consultants BearingPoint, shows business travel in Germany increased in 2006.
There were more trips 157.8m compared to 150.7m in 2005 but the price of these trips has also increased. Total costs for business trips in 2006 were €47.4bn, compared to €46.2bn the previous year.
Of the 2006 figure, €8.7bn was spent by companies with more than 500 employees while the bulk, €38.7bn was spent by companies with fewer than 500 workers.
But it was the larger companies which got better value for money. Those with more than 251 employees spent 5% less in 2006 but increased their travel volume by 9%. Smaller companies with fewer than 250 employees saw both costs and volume rise by 4%.
The crucial difference was that 36% of the larger companies had travel managers while the figure for the SMEs was only 7%.
But it is in what the VDR calls its "core question" that the value of travel management emerges.
VDR asked companies: “Do you or your travel agency negotiate contracts for company rates with suppliers (hotel, air, rail, hired car) or do you (also) take advantage of current daily rates?”
The vast majority of companies with travel management used a combination of daily rates, negotiated rates or both.
For example in hotel bookings, 34% used negotiated rates, 16% daily rates, 17% both but with the aim of increasing the use of daily rates and 25% both but with the aim of using more contracted rates.
But of the 8% of companies which used neither method, 34% had no travel management. Of the companies which also used neither method air, rail and car hire suppliers, 40%, 39% and 52%, respectively, had no travel management.
The Report comments: “The answers to this core question show quite clearly that companies without travel management waste money.
"The share of businesses that neither negotiate contracts nor take targeted advantage of daily rates is extremely high.
"All of them are in effect putting themselves at the mercy of the suppliers' pricing."
The VDR report also revealed a change in the responsibilities of travel managers. There was a huge growth in travel managers responsible for travel expense re-imbursement, up from 52% in 2005 to 66% last year.
But the report said this was largely due to the fact that SMEs, companies with 10-500 employees, allocated this responsibility to their travel managers. Larger companies, the VDR said, tended to outsource this and allow their travel experts to concentrate on management issues.
The replies also show that more managers had responsibility for vital issues like business traveller insurance and safety, which was up from 36% to 37%, and for keeping in touch with travellers, up from 10% to 15%.
But one area where travel managers' responsibility surprisingly decreased was in event management, an area of growing activity with an "above-average increase in meetings and congresses expected in 2007."
Only 35% of travel managers looked after this area compared with 45% in 2005.
The explanation, the VDR said, was that companies were possibly appointing event managers to work alongside travel managers.
This, as expected, did not apply to the SMEs where just one person was responsible for both areas.
The absence of a travel manager also shone through in companies asked about their special event policy.
Most companies with travel managers had their own policy, or one that was integrated with the travel policy or said they were about to adopt a special policy. Only 41% had neither policy nor plans.
For companies without travel management, 59% said they had no policy and no plans for one.
But the summing up of the VDR report is that the basic mood among companies on business travel is "quite confident with more companies able to make detailed statements on their future plans."
The number who thought travel would decrease for air, rail and care hire was a tiny minority, 7%. The vast majority expected travel either to stay the same or increase.
For example, 67% thought their air travel would stay the same while 23% expected theirs to increase.
But there was one set-back for the increasingly active "green" lobby. The report found that few travel decisions seem to be based on environmental considerations.
* to see the full report in either German or English, please go to: www.geschaeftsreiseanalyse.de