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| Business travel is growing in the Asian giant, and the art of corporate travel management is gaining traction. |
China business travel spending is forecast to increase 21 percent to $245 billion in 2013 and is poised to overtake the US as the world’s largest business travel market by as early as 2015. That means having the biggest economy, the largest travel industry and the world’s busiest airport. Still, only a small fraction of Chinese companies have adopted Western-style travel management practices, so there is a great opportunity in the sector. The country’s businesses are looking to the rest of the worl...
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| With the merger of American and US Airways, the competitive airscape is certainly less crowded. |
By most lights the dizzying consolidation of the United States airline industry is over, having reached an uneasy equilibrium of sorts with projected regulatory approval of the American/US Airways merger. Now comes the interesting part – how it all plays out in terms of managed corporate travel. Not all that long ago, back in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century the elite eight still reigned: United, Continental, Delta, Northwest, American, US Airways. The bracket was filled out by two...
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| Consolidation, technology and new business models are recharging the conventional car rental business. |
Consolidation is the name of the game in the US car rental business these days. What was once an industry comprised of nearly a dozen major companies battling it out for market share has dwindled to just three giants. Enterprise Holdings, with its Alamo, National and Enterprise brands is far and away the market leader, Hertz with Dollar and Thrifty is a distant second and Avis Budget is close behind at third. “They all started merging a few years ago and although a bunch of indies still remain, 93 ...
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| Trusty corporate cards could disappear with a mobile payment solutions slight of hand. |
Business travelers who need a quick pick-me-up in between connecting flights or meetings currently have the option of stopping into a Starbucks and buying a tall latte with their mobile phone. Could they one day make all their purchases on a business trip in a similar fashion from their corporate account? It’s a distinct possibility, but the day where that is commonplace is still perhaps several years away, industry experts say. Mobile payments are still a nascent, but rapidly growing, trend in the consu...
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| Technology is changing everything about train travel from how fast you go to how you buy your tickets. |
As business travelers spread out across the globe, especially in Europe and Asia, there’s been a global explosion in high-speed rail. Over the past five years, this mode of transport – once considered hopelessly out of date – has become the travel industry’s most dynamic and fastest-growing sector. Business travelers are attracted to high-speed rail because of price, the ability to work en route, WiFi connectivity, delivery to city center and the thought of avoiding airport check in, security, pass...
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| Signs of certainty are reappearing in business travel. But beware the hidden pitfalls. |
A gradually improving economic picture is once again injecting some predictability back into business travel. Barring any radical shocks to the world economy, experts forecast moderate price increases in 2013. While the industry continues to invest in technology enhancements that will streamline costs, other tech innovations including gadgets and apps will greatly enrich the business travel experience. “Demand is picking up,” says David LeCompte, CEO of Short’s Travel Management. In a recent press releas...
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| Businesses are going the world over and travel management companies are ready to take them there. |
Corporations need to travel to where the business opportunities exist — that’s nothing new. However, these days those opportunities can be in more remote or less traveled areas, such as in the case of mining or oil and gas companies. When it comes to operating on a global landscape, the demands placed on travel management companies (TMCs) are as strong as ever, and these companies must be constantly looking at ways to adjust their business models to meet the needs of their corporate clients. “Companies t...
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| Aviation in the region south of the Rio Grande is hot and getting hotter. |
Latin America continues to be a bright spot on the world airline stage, and in a just-released forecast from International Air Transport Association (IATA), the region is again expected to post profits this year, another signal of the dramatic turnaround in a part of the world that has seen more than its share of industry chaos. “It is absolutely clear that the hard work of the last decade has transformed the region’s air transport industry for the better,” IATA director general Tony Tyler told the...
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| The word is out – Africa is energetic, enigmatic and open for business. |
Occam’s Razor is a handy rule of thumb for philosophers and mathematicians that basically states, when faced with a problem, the solution with the fewest ifs, ands or buts, is probably the one you should go with – at least until a better one comes along. That advice is probably a pretty good guide for doing business in sub-Saharan Africa as well. In this vast stretch of continent from the tropics to Cape Agulhas, nearly 50 separate sovereign states and dependencies share – and sometimes vie for – some of...
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| With mobile apps taking over ground connections, “hailing a cab” may soon be as obsolete as “dialing a phone.” |
In the late 1980s, as air carriers began to offer software allowing consumers to view airfares over the nascent and growing public Internet, a new phenomenon arose. Access to information about prices and inventory helped consumers make more informed choices. As Internet access and bandwidth grew, and airline booking software became more user friendly, airline pricing grew intensely more competitive. By 2010, the average airfare cost per mile in the United States dropped 60 percent below (in inflation-ba...
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