ALEXANDRIA, Va. and BELLEVUE, Wash. , Aug. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The NBTA Foundation, the research arm of the National Business Travel Association, and Egencia®, the corporate travel arm of Expedia, Inc., today released sample results from its Corporate Travel Policy: Benchmarking and Insight study, evaluating travel management trends and policies across North American and European organizations and assessing travel policy effectiveness overall. One significant finding is that stricter policies requiring purchase of non-refundable tickets and the lowest logical fair for air travel could equate to an estimated $29.8 (1) billion in total corporate savings.
"Travel is fundamentally different than other products and services in that it can't be standardized or commoditized. No trip is ever exactly the same, and that makes travel exceedingly difficult to control." said Craig Banikowski , NBTA President. "To help the business community make informed travel policy decisions, this study evaluated widely varying travel programs and companies to expose the most successful practices of travel management and avoid lost savings."
Based on best practices and insights from 689 North American travel buyers, the study takes a comprehensive look at policy mandates versus guidelines, consolidation, booking procedures, class of service, advance purchases, pre-trip approval, groups/meetings and emergencies, among other issues – all of which comprise variables that make travel difficult to standardize.
"We know companies are updating their travel policies and working to reduce costs," said Christophe Peymirat, Vice President of Global Marketing, Egencia. "But certain practices to dramatically reduce travel costs like driving travelers to non-refundable tickets are far from commonplace. Based on our research, companies could achieve significant annual savings using a lowest logical fare travel policy. For example, companies can save as much as 38% on air spend by encouraging travelers to be flexible, book within a two-hour window of original departure time and use a connection when possible."
Enforcing Travel Policy
For companies that do specify ticket type, it seems unclear how that requirement is enforced. Sixty-two percent of respondents said travel policy is more a guideline than a rule, and 67 percent said there are few or no consequences for policy violations. The study suggests that organizations could dramatically benefit from better enforcement.
A key recommendation from the study to help enforcement and realize savings is to consolidate all travel purchases through one or more designated Travel Management Companies.
Requiring Non-Refundable Tickets
The study found that non-refundable tickets represent a significant opportunity for savings. In fact, non-refundable tickets average 49 percent less expensive than refundable tickets on some U.S. domestic routes, and 56 percent less expensive on some international routes. Yet, nearly a third of companies (32%) don't specify that travelers should purchase non-refundable tickets – doing so could have saved companies billions in 2009.
Providing Guidance on Premium-Class Travel
The premium charged by airlines to upgrade to first class in the U.S. and business class internationally averaged 223%, or $3,327 more than economy class on a selection of trips sampled between U.S. and international destinations. Limiting premium-class travel is an effective way to control costs, and many companies have put this into practice over the last two years.
Sixty-six percent of companies that have updated travel policy in the last two years have reduced premium-class air travel, and only 9 percent allow travelers to upgrade to first or business class on flights within North America .
Other key practices to net travel savings identified by the study include:
The complete Corporate Travel Policy: Benchmarking and Insight study is available through
Study Methodology
NBTA Foundation and Egencia retained TRW Travel & Expense Management LLC, a leading consulting firm specializing in travel management, to administer this study. The consultants leveraged several tools to create a comprehensive report, including reviewing published information about travel policy, conducting a series of telephone interviews with Travel Managers in the U.S., Canada , France , Germany and the UK and executing an online survey of travel managers (NBTA Direct Members / Contacts and Egencia Customers) in the U.S. and Canada . Full methodology details available upon request.
About the NBTA Foundation
The NBTA Foundation is the education and research foundation of the National Business Travel Association (NBTA), the world's premier business travel and corporate meetings organization. NBTA and its regional affiliates – NBTA Asia Pacific, the Brazilian Business Travel Association (ABGEV), NBTA Canada, NBTA Mexico and NBTA USA – serve a network of more than 15,000 business travel professionals around the globe with industry-leading events, networking, education & professional development, research, news & information, and advocacy. The foundation was established in 1997 to support NBTA's members and the industry as a whole. As the leading education and research foundation in the business travel industry, the NBTA Foundation seeks to fund initiatives to advance the business travel profession. The NBTA Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. For more information, see www.nbta.org and www.nbtafoundation.org.
About Egencia, an Expedia, Inc. Company
Egencia is the fifth largest travel management company in the world. As part of Expedia, Inc., (Nasdaq: EXPE), the world's largest travel marketplace, Egencia helps businesses get ahead by offering the only truly integrated corporate travel service. Egencia's industry expertise helps drive results that matter, delivering meaningful advancements that have a real impact. By combining a powerful offline and online service, Egencia delivers a complete corporate travel offering supported by global market expertise and a best-in-class technology platform.
For more information, go to www.egencia.com
Egencia and the Egencia logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners.
© 2010 Egencia, LLC. All rights reserved. CST #: 2083922-50/
(1) Figures based on total air spend of $48.7 billion for North American corporations in 2009 with 80% domestic, 20% international, fully-refundable and unmanaged.
SOURCE Egencia; NBTA Foundation
