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Travel managers anticipate increased use of travel alternatives in 2010

While many signs suggest the economy is stabilizing and the global recession is ending, the majority of business travel managers will continue to seek out alternatives to travel provided by technology in 2010. A new survey conducted by Kotler Marketing Group, in conjunction with the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), entitled "2010 Corporate-Travel Spend Plans & Tactics,” provides a detailed analysis of enterprise travel spend plans, including breakdowns by region, industry sector, and company size.

The study includes an in-depth analysis of the growing use of electronic alternatives (e.g. web- and video-conferencing) to offset travel. Findings include:

More than half (55%) of respondents say they will rely on electronic alternatives more in the future than they have previously, in order to meet their travel spend reduction goals
Those companies who had widely deployed conferencing technologies saw, on average, greater travel spend reduction in 2009, with conferencing having the biggest impact on internal travel
Following best practices for conferencing deployment and demand management correlated with even greater travel reductions
Most respondents expect continued increases in the use of electronic alternatives for purposes ranging from team meetings to large events, to meetings with suppliers and partners. More than 40% even see their organizations replacing more sales-related travel with conferencing over the next few years.

Despite these plans to rely more on conferencing technologies, doubts and confusion persist about the effectiveness of these technologies as travel replacements. For example, respondents were asked about the effectiveness of conferencing in lieu of travel for five common meeting purposes:
- There was only one meeting type where a majority of respondents said web-conferencing was “usually” an effective replacement.
- Video-conferencing was not rated as “usually effective” by a majority of respondents for any of the five purposes.

The full report provides a detailed breakdown of the findings by industry, geography, company size, and offers key insights into planned travel replacement and travel spend tactics for 2010 and beyond.

“Travel managers expect to continue to balance the conflicting pressures of maintaining savings with the need to travel as they start the New Year,” said ACTE Interim Executive Director Megan Costello. Vicky Karantzavelou - Thursday, December 31, 2009