With the goal of establishing a forum for specialists in corporate travel management, the National Business Travel Association Mexico (NBTA Mexico) held its 2nd Annual Corporate Travel Conference in Mexico City January 22 to 23.

More than 250 corporate travel professionals were in attendance, representing a 25 percent increase over last year. The event highlighted the importance for companies to have specialized travel managers to buy corporate travel. Travel is required for companies to operate effectively, but for most it does not represent a core business. Thus,

Michael Lyons, NBTA Vice President and a travel manager with a large U.S. financial organization said, “defining objectives for corporate travel in a particular company is a great help in developing effective strategies to generate savings.”

Until recently, the finance department or human resources was responsible for coordinating and buying corporate travel in many Mexican companies. In some cases, companies worked with a travel agency, but often these agencies did not specialize in business travel and were not able to provide the required content or the level of service.

With a travel manager, a company has the possibility of achieving important savings while monitoring the quality of services offered to its travelers.

The argument for the creation of a specialized corporate travel management function was a central focus of many at the conference. “Travel spend can be reduced by 15 to 30 percent when one has the services of a travel manager,” said Verónica Crespo, Member of the Board of Directors for NBTA Mexico, and Americas Travel Agency & Technology Manager for Hewlett-Packard Company.

The conference gave attendees an opportunity to learn about the diverse technological solutions that have been developed to help buyers with the search for corporate travel services. Among these solutions are platforms that can be integrated into existing corporate management systems. “As long as the information available from suppliers increases, companies will need more capability to process it, which will help in achieving travel objectives and greater savings,” said Celso Cordeiro, Director of Consulting for Concur.

While technological tools offered corporate travel solutions, there are still barriers in Mexico that complicate the process. One such barrier is the lack of low-cost carrier inventory in the Global Distribution Systems (GDS).

Faced with these challenges, Andrés Rojas, Director of Information Technology for BCD Travel, said: “For the user, it is not important how the systems work, but that they really do work and that they meet client needs.”

J. Grant Caplan, Principal of Consulting Strategies, summed up the challenge this way: “On the one hand, there are companies that have not implemented the necessary technological tools for effective content search, and on the other hand, much of the travel services inventory in some countries is not in the GDS.”

José Luis Suárez, Commercial Director for airline Volaris, said: “The possibility for us to integrate into the GDS is open, but at the moment we will continue with the existing distribution channels, as they enable us to offer the best price to our buyers, whether through our website or though pre-buy of a high number of seats.”

Despite questions about the U.S. economy, conference participants project increases in business travel this year.

Aldo Ruiz, Regional Director, Global Sales Office Latin America & Caribbean for Marriot International, said, “We expect corporate travel to continue to grow during this year. According to NBTA, the projections for 2008 show that published hotel tariffs will increase between five and seven percent, while the cost of corporate travel will increase between six and eight percent.”

Continued business travel growth will drive major modifications in the travel supplier markets. Antonio Valle, Commercial Director for Interjet, said, “The participation of low-cost carriers in the domestic air traffic will potentially increase by 300 percent. At the moment, Mexican airlines transport 19 million passengers but they have an immediate potential to capture 60 million passengers who currently travel by buses and have the economic capability to fly.”

All these changes will force corporate travel managers to develop strategies to optimize their operations. Rodolfo Silva, Director Latin America for GetThere, said: “Travel managers should create a travel program with technology as its foundation, and it should involve the areas of finances, procurement, marketing, human resources and systems”.

A recurrent topic at the conference was an emphasis on business travelers’ safety. Technological tools play an important role in this respect, as they facilitate locating employees in an emergency situation regardless of their destination worldwide.