CFOs Easing Travel-Spending Reins, Says Amex Survey

Chief financial officers are seeing their companies beginning to loosen limits on travel spending, but restrictions for internal meetings largely remain in place, according to an American Express cosponsored survey of 479 financial executives that was released today.

The 2010 CFO Research/American Express Global Business and Spending Monitor, fielded in February, shows that 26 percent of respondents plan to increase business travel spending this year, part of 57 percent overall who will either maintain or increase such spending. In the 2009 survey, only 2 percent of respondents expected an increase in travel spending.

"Overall, we're seeing some positive signs of stabilization and growing optimism about recovery," said Wendy Prewitt, vice president in American Express' global commercial card sector. "Companies are really balancing that with some of the policies, controls and disciplines they put into place over the prior year."

Prewitt said survey results indicated most travel spending increases are restricted to travel that generates top-line growth. Only 14 percent of the finance executives said they would loosen travel policies for staff meetings this year.

Even so, only 34 percent plan to implement further internal travel restrictions this year, compared with 81 percent in 2009. Similarly, 35 percent said they would restrict travel to conferences and events, compared with 79 percent in 2009.

Finance executives said discretionary travel spending is still frozen, and more are turning to remote conferencing technology to supplement internal travel. "They still say there's no substitute for face-to-face meetings in terms of generating business," Prewitt said.

While the executives indicated some of the newly introduced policies and cost-cutting measures would remain even after the recovery, some, such as International Flavors and Fragrances finance director Roger Blanken, said the conferencing technology does not fully replace even internal travel.

"A lot of our internal face-to-face meetings are now sitting in front of a monitor or a camera somewhere and having those discussions," Blanken said in the survey report. "What we're missing now is maybe sending a group of perfumers from New York to Paris or sending some perfumers from Holland to Indonesia and sending people around to collaborate."