Associations Offer Alternative To U.S. Travel and Meetings Regulations
Seven industry associations today jointly released recommended corporate travel, meetings and events spending guidelines for the few hundred companies that are eligible to receive federal government emergency financial assistance.
The guidelines, which aim to put standard controls around corporate travel, come in response to government proposals that would regulate T&E spending and other such expenditures as executive compensation and bonuses for companies receiving taxpayer funds.
A Senate bill introduced in January calls for the U.S. Treasury Secretary to "develop and publish corporate governance principles and ethical guidelines for recipients of emergency economic assistance, including restrictions governing the hosting, sponsorship or payments for conferences and events; the use of corporate aircraft, travel accommodations and travel expenditures; expenses relating to office or facility renovations or relocations; and expenses relating to entertainment, holiday parties, employee recognition events, or similar ancillary corporate expenses."
A Feb. 4 bill introduced by Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said that "any company receiving TARP funds would be required to prominently disclose on its Web site its expenditures on corporate events and junkets, bonuses and compensation, corporate jet use and executive travel, club memberships, and lobbying. The information would be updated monthly."
The American Hotel and Lodging Association, the Destination Marketing Association International, Meeting Professionals International, the National Business Travel Association, the Professional Convention Management Association, the Society of Incentive Travel Executives and the U.S. Travel Association developed these policy proposals as an alternative to regulation.
Notable guidelines include provisions that the CEO is responsible for these controls and any related cost that exceeds $75,000 "must be supported by a written business case identifying a specific business purpose," and that adherence to these policies is subject to independent audit.
Other guidelines provide specific spending parameters around meetings and incentive travel, which U.S. Travel Association president and CEO Roger Dow said are based on research and data provided by industry associations and incentive and meetings companies to "figure out what makes a prudent expenditure."
Other proposed guidelines include a recommendation that total annual expenses for meetings and incentive travel should not be more than 15 percent of the company's total sales and marketing spending. They also suggested that the amount spent for an employee incentive/recognition event not exceed 2 percent of the total compensation of eligible participants
The associations also supplied a series of what could be deemed "legitimate business purposes for meetings, events and incentive/recognition travel." Some examples are product launches, sales conferences, training and staff development, professional conferences and trade shows.
According to the U.S. Travel Association, meetings and events account for 15 percent of all travel-related expenditure, create nearly $40 billion in tax revenue and generate more than one million jobs.