SME Travel Managers’ Salary & Job Satisfaction Report

2024 Average SME Travel Manager Salary: $119,958

There’s a lot that goes into that number, so lets’ take a deeper dive and see where you fit. 

For SME travel managers in 2024, there’s good news and bad news in that top line number. First, the bad news: The 2024 respondent set that managed travel for programs with $1 million to $24.9 million in total annual spend reported a 2.4 percent lower salary than the respondent set for BTN’s 2023 Salary Survey, where the average SME travel manager salary came in at just over 123,000. However, that doesn’t mean that on an individual basis, SME travel managers are losing ground with their salaries. Another way to look at it—rather than comparing the 2023 cohort of respondents to 2024, is to see what BTN’s travel manager respondents in the latest survey actually told us about the direction of their salaries.  

Looking at the same group of travel managers year over year, salaries improved in 2024 by 4.8 percent. The 2024 cohort of respondents reported their 2023 salaries at an average of $114,412. Seventy-two percent of respondents saw an increase in their salaries in 2024, some by more than 20 percent. Twenty percent of respondents said their salaries remained steady, and just 8 percent reported that they brought in less in 2024 than they did in 2023.  

There are plenty of other stats worth considering, however, when comparing your salary to a benchmark. 

Travel Program Size

Like the results of BTN’s full survey—which also included program spending bands of $25 million to $49.9 million, $50 million to $100 million and those that invest more than $100 million in travel annually—the larger the travel program grows, the higher the average salary for the travel manager. That’s a rule of thumb. It didn’t hold precisely for our 2024 SME cohort, given the 2.5 percent salary dip seen for travel managers at the helm of $3 million to $9.9 million programs. 

Keep in mind that within each average—and because travel managers for SME programs often hold other job functions from office managers to heads of finance—salaries can vary widely, especially in the lower spending bands. (Check out the next section on job title.) 

Who’s Managing Travel?

Just 22 percent of SME respondents to BTN’s 2024 Salary Survey manage travel as their full-time position, and most of those individuals were running travel programs in the largest SME band $10 million to $24.9 million in annual spend. As BTN finds perennially in its Salary Survey, the travel management function in a small or midsize company can land in numerous positions across the org chart. The below is a rough guide to such positions among the 156 small and midsize travel managers who responded to the Dec. 2024 survey, along with the average salary levels for each title.  

Especially for the lower salary bands in the SME universe, leveling up comes with significant compensation leaps. Moving from a travel coordinator position to travel specialist spikes a salary by almost 19 percent. Moving from travel specialist to a full-fledged travel manager can grow the average salary by about 12.5 percent. After that point, the percentages taper off a bit, but graduating to a senior or global travel manager role still increases a salary on average by about $12,000 annually, representing a nearly 11 percent increase. Travel management within the SME sector offers a clear trajectory for salary advancement. 

The biggest salary jump is seen when titles step away from travel management proper into a senior centralized position of vice president, senior vice president and above. BTN received limited data for this title category, so keep in mind that variations in that data set could skew the salary level. That said, if we threw out the top and bottom salary in that set, the average salary remained pretty steady around $185,000 so we feel confident in providing this as a general benchmark. In this title set, as well, fewer hours are spent dedicated to travel management directly. There may be an individual reporting to this title who has more direct management of the category.

Longevity

Once in travel, always in travel? There are definitely some die-hard travel managers out there and they thrive in this complex industry where it seems there are never two days that are the same. Sticking to the role, as seen in the previous “Salary by Job Title” chart can offer career advancement opportunities that come with seniority. 

All these factors overlap when looking at salary levels, so keep in mind that years in the role and more senior titles often can go together. Here’s where our 2024 respondent cohort netted out when considering only how many years they had spent in the practice (note: this is not necessarily years in the same job or for a single company).

The Travel Management Function Is Changing

Every year BTN asks travel managers how their role is evolving—what responsibilities might be waning with time or becoming less effective with changing market dynamics and what skills travel managers now need to develop to remain relevant and effective in their roles. 

Tech, Data, Innovation on the Rise

The trend line this year was very clear. Travel managers for small and midsize programs are focusing significantly more on travel (and expense) technology solutions, data analysis and an overall drive for more innovation in their travel programs. 

Forty-six percent of SME travel managers said they were more focused in the last 12 months on corporate travel technology and booking tools, while 44 percent said they were more focused on travel program innovation than they had been 12 months ago. Forty-two percent said they were analyzing more data as they looked to optimize and innovate with their programs. That’s on top of a spike in focus on the same areas in the previous 12-month period, as shown in BTN’s 2023 Salary Survey. Clearly, there’s an urgency to drive digitization and a more seamless technology experience within the travel program. There’s a commensurate urgency among hiring companies, therefore, to retain the travel managers who can make that happen.   

That said, the push for innovation and digitization was slightly lower for SME respondents to BTN’s survey than it was for larger companies. In looking at the total respondent set that included large and “mega” programs, the full cohort reported 52 percent were more focused on corporate travel tools, 51 percent had increased focus on innovation and 49 percent and data analysis. 

Program maturity may account for that difference. At least some portion of the SME cohort is likely working on launching a program or running a program in its early years. As programs mature, seeking more digitization and innovation is a natural progression, but BTN has noted a clear acceleration in that drive for the past three years running. It’s a trend that travel managers should be following closely and working to match their skills to the rising demand. 

Complexity Rising

The truth about travel management is that it’s getting more complex and more demanding, not less. This may be why innovation is in such high demand—companies and travel managers may be looking at how to make their jobs doable and how to do more with the resources they have in place. 

Judging from SME responses to BTN’s Salary & Job Satisfaction Survey, job responsibilities are a story of more, more, more. Not many responsibilities have fallen away from travel managers—with the exception of virtual meetings, which have lost relevancy for travel as they have become simply a way of doing business for many companies. But in most other cases, and across the balance of responses, the importance of job responsibilities like sourcing and procurement, payment systems management, traveler safety and well-being, and program communications is steadily rising. More than a third of SME travel managers stated they are focusing more on these areas than they did 12 months ago, and only a handful are focusing on them less.

What’s the Next Step?

While 74 percent of SME travel managers said they were either adequately or well recognized by their companies for the work they do, only 53 percent said their pay reflected complexity of their work and level of responsibilities they handled. A whopping 47 percent said their salaries were low for their responsibilities. And travel management, as reviewed above, isn’t exactly getting easier.

Consequently, career advancement is on the minds of about 45 percent of SME travel managers who responded to BTN’s Salary & Job Satisfaction Survey. But most of those strivers are looking to stay within the travel management universe.

Thirty-three percent said that in the next two years they would be pushing for a more advanced travel-related position with their current employer, while 12 percent said they wanted a different or different level position with a different employer. Just under 50 percent envisioned themselves in the same position with their current employer or a similar position elsewhere. Six percent of SME travel manager respondents said they would be retired within two years.