Fare unbundling is the top issue that travel managers would like to discuss with the European Commission, according to a survey of NBTA Europe buyer members released last week. Of the 152 buyers polled across 13 European countries, 62 percent said they want the Commission to look at unbundling and comparative pricing. The next most popular topic was traveler security, at 54 percent, followed by rail infrastructure and collaboration at 48 percent and airline alliances at 42 percent.
A total of 83 percent considered it very or somewhat likely that unbundling will become more widespread in Europe, while only 1 percent thought it not at all likely. Other changes expected by buyers are the passing on of card merchant fees, considered very or somewhat likely by 73 percent, and reduced settlement terms for air transactions, considered very or somewhat likely by 59 percent.
Buyers also were asked to choose the issue currently demanding most of their attention. The most common choice proved to be an age-old challenge for travel managers: enforcing policy compliance, with 30 percent of respondents. However, the second-most popular selection, return on investment of travel and meetings at 23 percent, is a much newer topic. It figured well ahead of better-known themes, such as implementing technology at 13 percent, and supplier product changes at 9 percent.
When asked how important understanding the ROI of travel and meetings is to them, 43 percent evaluated it as very important and another 40 percent as somewhat important, while none considered it not at all important.
More than one-third assessed reducing the environmental impact of their organization's travel-related emissions as very important and another 44 percent as somewhat important. Just over half said alternative technologies, such as videoconferencing, have reduced their level of travel and meetings, while 42 percent said it has had no impact at all, and 2 percent reckoned it has increased their travel volumes.