Traveler safety and well-being is the top priority for U.S. travel managers at small and midsized programs, while cost is their biggest pain point, according to a survey of 299 travel stakeholders at U.S. SMEs conducted by Corporate Traveler and the Global Business Travel Association.
The survey—conducted from June 17 through June 20 with participants from companies with between $200,000 and $10 million in annual travel spending—showed 40 percent named traveler safety as their No. 1 priority, and an additional 29 percent said it was their second- or third-highest priority. That ranked it as a higher priority that cost savings, which was named a top-three priority by 57 percent of respondents, split about evenly in ranking it first, second or third, according to the survey. Companies with less than $1 million in annual spending were more likely to rank cost savings as their top priority.
Rising costs, however, were the most-cited pain point by travel managers in the survey, named by 63 percent of respondents, more than double the next-highest pain point: measuring success, cited by 38 percent of respondents. More than half of respondents said they are facing tighter budget restrictions, which are affecting their current decision-making process, according to the survey.
The survey also showed that about two-thirds of respondents said they currently are looking for a new travel management company. Their top factor in evaluating TMCs was the availability of travel options, said to be important or very important by 86 percent of respondents. Other highly rated factors included customer service, rated important or very important by 84 percent of respondents, and value and cost savings, with 82 percent of respondents deeming it important or very important.