Many travel buyers this year find themselves in uniquely
challenging positions. Their companies are healthy and growing and must
continue chasing business wherever opportunities lie. That means more travel,
and perhaps more corporate travelers. At the same time, the financial shocks
organizations weathered, the procurement discipline they adopted and the
scrutiny applied to every bit of spending has generated an ever-higher level of
cost vigilance. The trick is to allow travel programs to meet corporate needs
without losing sight of the methods used to make that travel efficient and
productive.
Many business travel suppliers are at their own set of
crossroads. Mid-2011 brings promise but requires caution.
[Click here to download the full 2011 Business Travel Survey as a pdf.]
In absolute terms, business travel is growing. Many
corporate travel management companies listed in this year's 27th annual Business Travel Survey reported noticeably larger 2010 transaction volumes.
It was a clear year of recovery. With strong business
transient and corporate group demand but new supply constrained, lodging
companies, for example, are watching occupancies and average daily rates rise.
However, lukewarm global macroeconomic trends and social
upheaval in some regions suggest the current post-recession period may be more
challenging than typical financial recoveries. In the airline sector, for
example, high-yielding business travel demand is strong and the current pricing
environment favors higher fares, but any optimism is muted by fears about fuel
prices, which can ruin otherwise positive financial performance. Among car
rental companies, demand similarly is strong and fleets are tight, but intense
competition has led to lower corporate rates so far in 2011.
The 2011 Business Travel Survey explores the trends and
industry developments impacting corporate programs, preferred agreements and
service levels for business travelers. To do so, BTN editors altered the makeup of this resource issue in an effort
to provide more readable data, more relevant comparisons and a better snapshot
of the health of the business travel industry's key supplier segments. For
example, the annual chauffeured transportation section is not included, owing
to a lack of public data and few meaningful comparisons in that highly
fragmented business.
The airline section includes for U.S. carriers similar data
as in years past, though certain general information has been replaced with
corporate travel fare data. Given currency exchange complications and unaligned
fiscal calendars, foreign airline companies are excluded.
In past years, BTN
combined hotel companies and owners of large hotel portfolios, such as real
estate investment trusts, and ranked them all by revenues. To produce a more
succinct set of tables with information germane to corporate travel management
professionals, BTN this year is
providing key metrics—including average daily rate and occupancy—when available
for the major hotel brands, as well as listing the net profits of publicly
traded hotel companies. The real estate companies are addressed in a separate
table.
As always, BTN
appreciates the chief executives and owners of the 39 travel management
companies who authorized ARC to release data, and again thanks ARC for
providing that data to create an apples-to-apples comparison in the TMC
section. BTN also thanks all the
suppliers and industry sources who provided information and commentary, and
looks forward to another year chronicling corporate travel.