NBTA Taps ASTA Staffer As Exec. Dir.
The National Business Travel Association yesterday named Bill Connors to serve as its new executive director, a post that has remained vacant for the past seven months. Connors, a former senior vice president with the American Society of Travel Agents, will begin his duties with NBTA on Jan. 22.
Connors fills the position vacated by Marianne McInerney, who resigned in May "to pursue another opportunity," according to Allison Marble, an NBTA spokesperson.
Several NBTA officers took on some of the executive director's duties throughout the year and also conducted an extensive search for a new executive director.
"The board, especially the executive committee has been very active in keeping the association running in the absence of an executive director," Marble said. "They all obviously have their own jobs in addition to being board members and they all took on a lot of responsibility."
The executive director is a paid staff member with NBTA, who is responsible for the functional and organizational aspects of the association.
Meanwhile, following this year's slumping corporate travel expenditures, NBTA today released a study forecasting that travel expenditures will remain flat next year as full recovery of corporate travel is not expected before 2004.
The survey revealed that of 200 responding travel managers, 38 percent will have their 2003 T&E budgets decrease by up to 8 percent. Nearly one-third reported flat 2003 budgets, and 11 percent of travel buyers expect a budget decrease of 2 percent to 4 percent. Nearly one-third of respondents indicated that 2002 air travel expenditures fell by 10 percent or more.
"Corporations will remain prudent in 2003 regarding their travel budgets," said NBTA president Kevin Iwamoto. "While travel is still an essential part of doing business, economic conditions must improve before corporations are willing to return to previous spending levels."
On the hotel side, one-third of travel managers experienced fallen hotel expenditures this year as nearly one-third expected flat expenditures next year.