Almost half of 86 travel buyer members of the U.K. and Ireland's Institute of Travel & Meetings now have responsibility for meetings as well, according to a survey the group published yesterday.
The survey found that 48 percent of respondents combine the two areas of expenditure. Of this group, 32 percent have brought the two together only in the past two years. In addition, 40 percent of the buyer members who do not manage meetings at present said they intend to start doing so in the next 12 months and an additional 15 percent believe this will happen within two years.
Buyers who currently manage both travel and meetings stated that on average they are saving an additional 17 percent on their budget by combining the two.
"Procurement departments have pushed travel and meetings together," said ITM chief executive Paul Tilstone. "They started with travel, which is transaction-based and easier to get your arms around, and now they have moved on to meetings to apply some of the same principles. If the marketing department previously had hold of meetings and events, procurement people are creating savings by bringing that spend into existing airline deals or creating deals where they never existed before."
The survey indicated that travel buyers are not only extending their reach over meetings. One-third of respondents said they also manage what the ITM described as "travel avoidance communication," such as videoconferencing and telephone conferencing. Another 37 percent said they manage some aspects of travel avoidance communication and a further 10 percent plan to do so. On average, respondents estimated that these alternative communications would reduce their company's demand for travel by 18 percent over the next 10 years.