Amex travel survey shows cost to be a key concern

Keeping costs down will be the key factor in organising business travel this coming year, with all modes of transport being closely monitored by companies in order to find the best available deal. The results of the latest American Express Global Business Travel Barometer reveal that 87% of companies surveyed say that keeping on top of travel expenditure is their number one priority.

The survey identifies a number of key methods for optimising corporate travel budgets, something that should be of interest to administrative professionals, as in a survey conducted last year by PA Life no fewer than 96% of respondents said they were responsible for booking business travel for their executives. The factors are:

Seeking the best available price
Evaluating the total cost of travel
Monitoring unused tickets
Purchasing tickets in advance
Utilising online tools
Renegotiating supplier agreements
Implementing/increasingly using expense management tools
Using rail travel as an alternative to air
Increasingly using audio, video, web conferencing and other means of virtual communication

Traveller security continues to be a primary concern for companies, with 64% citing this as their main consideration for 2014, placing it second overall after cost control. The majority of those surveyed have put measures in place to enable employees to be located (65%) and contacted (81%) at any given time.

In terms of seeking out the best price on offer, booking with low cost carriers (this now accounts for 26% of total air spend of the companies surveyed) and moving employees from business class to economy are ways in which companies are trying to achieve this.

Air travel has decreased in popularity, representing just 37% of spend compared to 40% in 2012 and 53% in 2011, while the hotel category continues to increase its share of the total business travel budget.

Looking to the year ahead, survey respondents identified the following five priorities:

Cost control/cost savings (87%)
Improve traveller security (64%)
Gain a complete view of travel expenses (56%)
Increase traveller satisfaction/comfort (55%)
Enforce travel policy (50%)