An insight into business travel trends – does your investment pay off?

When you pack your bags and head off on a trip, you often travel with the objective of scouting out new customers. But is that investment in travel paying off?

The white paper, which is based on a telephone survey of travel managers who handle budgets ranging from less than €250,000 to over €50 million in 590 European companies, found that the main reason European corporations spend on travel is to acquire and develop clients. This is particularly relevant as 43% of the organisations surveyed intend to build on their activity abroad in the next three years, leading to an increase in their budget spend.

Cost or Investment?

Paradoxically though, these companies view business travel spend as a cost rather than an investment, confirming the space in the market to improve the travel services these organisations are currently receiving.

Business travel spend can be broken down into two parts: the expenditure on the travel itself, which is known as the “direct cost”, or the expenditure on internal travel procedures and expense reimbursement, called the “indirect cost”. Controlling direct costs is one of the main priorities for those managing travel budgets, however the study details that 47% of corporations believe that direct cost-saving optimisation has reached a plateau and that they now need to focus on optimising their indirect costs.

Amadeus cytric Travel & Expense

This is where a global integrated travel and expense solution, such asAmadeus cytric Travel & Expense , steps in to meet corporations’ needs. Through this solution corporations can manage their travel programmes seamlessly from trip planning, to booking, accounting and reimbursement. An intuitive self-booking tool, together with a strong mobile app, is also a necessity to encourage adoption by employees so that they can be safely tracked while abroad – which was travel managers’ second priority in the survey.

Business travel certainly pays off when it’s supported by the right tools at home – and it’s clear from the study that the uptake of travel and expense solutions is a trend that’s set to continue. To discover further insights, download a copy of the2015 European business travel and expense analysis white paper, and get in touch to discuss how we can help you shape the future of your travel and expense management programme.