German Corps. Increase Travel

<B> German Corps. Increase Travel</B>

By Paul Needham

<I>Frankfurt</I> - Economic growth and globalization will lead German firms to spend more on business travel this year.

But companies will try to shorten business trips by cutting down on the number of hotel nights and cracking down on lengthy and expensive internal procedures such as authorizing trips.

In 1997, the top 500 firms spent U.S. $24 billion on business travel, according to the German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche.

The survey revealed that overseas trips by German companies were getting longer and more expensive with 25 percent lasting more than a week, compared with16 percent in 1996.

More than 50 percent of direct travel costs were attributed to air, rail and car travel, 25 percent were attributed to hotel accommodation and 20 percent of the costs were for other travel expenses and entertainment.

The indirect cost of internal travel planning and administration came to a staggering 17 percent of companies' direct costs.

About 50 percent of firms claimed they used the bonus points of frequent travelers for company purposes.

This year, respondents said that they expect to reduce the number of overnight stays, use rental cars instead of private cars and cut back on internal costs.

More than 56 percent of companies are employing travel managers, compared with 49 percent the year before.

Only 30 percent of firms now have travel management departments, compared with 36 percent in 1996, while agency implants have risen 5 percent, to 19 percent.

The number of firms asking agents to monitor travel policy rose 15 percent, to 54 percent, last year.

And 45 percent of firms demanded management information reports from agents last year compared with 27 percent in 1996.