Travelers at European companies are twice as likely to handle their trip reservations through a travel arranger or central travel department as travelers in North America, according to an Egencia study. Examining 2013 itineraries for 5,190 Egencia clients in 13 countries, the study also found that companies on both sides of the Atlantic which operate in only one country have far more travelers who book through an internal arranger than those working for multinational organizations.
Egencia defined as "centralized" those companies at which more than 60 percent of reservations are made by travel arrangers or internal travel services (whether online or offline). "Decentralized" companies are those at which fewer than 40 percent of reservations are made in that fashion. Companies in between were categorized as "mixed." In Europe, 57 percent of represented companies operate a centralized model, while 14 percent are mixed and 29 percent centralized. In North America, 28 percent are centralized, while 11 percent are mixed and 61 percent decentralized.
Perhaps most strikingly, 100 percent of Egencia's represented North America-based multinational clients have a decentralized booking process, whereas 61 percent operating only in their home market are decentralized or mixed. In contrast, 70 percent of one-country Europe-based Egencia clients surveyed are centralized, though 40 percent of European multinationals centralize. "The more a company is spread out geographically, the more it decentralizes its booking, with more of the travelers booking travel for themselves," Egencia concluded.
The study also found that the average travel arranger makes 64 bookings per year—seven times more than the average traveler. Arrangers make reservations on average one day further in advance but are twice as likely to cancel the bookings they make because they lack visibility of travelers' schedules and trip imperatives. For similar reasons, arrangers buy fully flexible tickets 40 percent more often than travelers and nonrefundable tickets 50 percent less often. Egencia indicated another reason for this disparity is that travel arrangers have a greater understanding of total cost of ownership, including the cost of nonrefundable tickets that cannot be used by travelers who change their itineraries.
Egencia suggested that decentralization will increase owing to globalization and, as travelers increasingly prefer to make their own self-service decisions, consumerization. However, for companies that continue to operate a decentralized model, the Expedia-owned travel management company recommended tapping more decisively into the expertise of travel arrangers, who are "central to travel policy and optimization strategies for enterprise purchasing."
Egencia added that travel arrangers "should be involved in travel policy design because they are an important point of reference for change management, travel policy enforcement and control. Many European companies can leverage the travel arranger's expertise in travel management, purchasing techniques and the use of online booking tools to improve purchasing performance for business travel."
Other recommendations included encouraging travelers to communicate their "preferences, expectations and flexibility of plans" more effectively to arrangers and using technology to transfer itinerary information directly to travelers' electronic diaries.