Spanish companies will invest 7% more in travel in 2018
The investment of Spanish companies in corporate travel will grow by 7% this year compared to 2017, more than double the average forecast in Europe, which will stand at 3.4%. This is according to the European Business Travel Barometer 2018, prepared by American Express Global Business Travel, a study in which almost 1,000 companies from 10 countries have participated.
Participants in the survey have pointed to an increase in their corporate travel spending of 3.1% last year, a figure that exceeds the average forecast in Barómetro 2017 (2.5%), as well as an increase in travelers of 2.4%. Data that reinforce the progressive economic recovery which, according to European companies, has not been notably conditioned by geopolitical factors such as Brexit or the recent travel restrictions pushed by the Donald Trump administration.
Specifically, 60% of respondents believe that the Brexit has had no impact whatsoever on the European business travel industry, while 65% are of the opinion that the restrictive policies put in place by the United States have had no influence on European business travel.
The survey shows that corporate travel is a powerful business tool, as it is aimed at customer retention (30%) and new business generation (21%). In contrast, travel for internal meetings (down from 26% in 2016 to 17% in 2017), replaced in many cases by videoconferencing.
Regarding these data, Luis Dupuy de Lôme, general manager of American Express Global Business Travel España, stresses that “when it comes to doing business and establishing commercial relationships, face-to-face is still irreplaceable. In this sense, the good health of business travel in Europe is a reliable indicator when it comes to observing economic growth and the international expansion processes of companies.
As for the use of providers of the so-called “collaborative economy”, the study reveals that, in Europe, this is the last option chosen by companies during 2017. However, looking to the future, the figure changes, as 35% intend to include the use of this type of supplier in the next year and 28% expect to do so within more than two years.
The main barriers to incorporating it into their travel policy are the lack of coverage in security issues and integration with risk management tools or competitiveness with respect to traditional suppliers in terms of prices, refunds, cancellation policies or payment methods.
PRIORITIES
At the European level, traveler safety is once again the top priority for companies, a trend that has been gaining momentum over the last few years;This is followed by traveler efficiency and productivity, cost control and traveler satisfaction measurement.
According to data from this year's Barometer, 65% of European companies have already implemented solutions or tools aimed at ensuring the safety of their travelers. In the case of large companies, this percentage rises to 84%, and to 71% in medium-sized companies, but drops to 52% in small companies.88% have tools in place to communicate with the traveler in case of emergency; 86% have put in place mechanisms to assess the risk of business travel based on a specific destination; 83% already have the ability to locate their employees at any time; 83% have the ability to repatriate their travelers immediately; and 82% provide pre-trip information to their travelers, including assistance and access to medical services.
The second priority for European companies is to ensure traveler productivity and efficiency during corporate travel, with no notable differences depending on the size of the company in question.
In this sense, mobile devices have become a central pillar in supporting and facilitating processes for travelers. Some 83% of European companies consider the mobile booking process as an additional and complementary booking method to online and offline channels. Among large companies, the percentage rises to 90%, compared to those with fewer than 250 employees, where this figure stands at 80%.
In Europe, cost control
This year, cost control ranks third and, in some countries, such as Spain, it drops to fourth place, given that third place is occupied by traveler satisfaction.
More than half of the participating companies (55%) consider that they have already reached the limit in terms of cost optimization, especially in small companies (where the percentage rises to 62%), a fact conditioned by their size, as they have fewer possibilities when it comes to developing cost optimization strategies.Companies are focusing their objectives on optimizing indirect costs (41%) and improving efficiency and travel conditions for their employees (24%), while direct cost reductions are less important;The reduction of direct costs —
historically the main variable on which it is focused— has fallen to 35%, down 7 points from last year to éeste.
TRAVELER SATISFACTION
After two years of notable increases, the measurement of traveler satisfaction has remained stable in 2017 compared to 2016 data. Some 56% of the companies participating in the Barómetro indicated that during the past year they have measured it in some way and one in three companies (32%) have configured their travel policies based on the results of these surveys.
The areas where the traveler's opinion is crucial to the company's decision-making are the choice of booking tools such as mobile or tablet (72%), the choice of solutions that guarantee the quality of the traveler's travel experience (72%), the choice of solutions that guarantee the quality of the traveler's travel experience (32%), the choice of solutions that guarantee the quality of the traveler's travel experience (32%), the choice of booking tools such as mobile or tablet (32%), and the choice of solutions that guarantee the quality of the traveler's travel experience (32%);The choice of solutions that guarantee traveler safety or "duty of care" (62%) or the possible inclusion of new suppliers in the travel policy, such as those framed in the so-called collaborative economy (61%).
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