Ricardo Ferreira
The Association of Corporate Travel Executives in August named Ricardo Ferreira, director of Brazilian travel management company Alatur Viagens e Turismo, as its first board member to represent Latin America. A veteran ACTE member, Ferreira works for a 16-year-old corporate travel and meetings agency that is part of the Virtuoso transnational TMC network. In a region that stretches from "Tierra del Fuego to the Rio Grande," as Ferreira described it, the biggest challenge lies in developing resources and an educational curriculum that can be universally applied while also offering market-specific guidance. Ferreira spoke with The Transnationalrecently to discuss the latest wave of travel technology adoption in the region and other challenges facing corporate travel management programs in Latin America.
You said Alatur has built its own self-booking tool, with which five clients have reached adoption of 50 percent. Generally, how is the Latin American market for technology developing?
I think our market here works according to paradigms. Many years ago in Latin America, it was important to have airport services. All the passengers would arrive and someone would be waiting at the airport for them. And then, in another paradigm in the late 1990s, you had to be part of a multinational company, part of a global alliance of travel agencies, etc. Then, you saw the need for reports, reports and more reports. Now, the new paradigm is self-booking. In different forms, in different ways, in different degrees of efficiency, everyone is trying to offer self-booking tools and there are subtle differences between the products. This is one of the things that ACTE is trying to do in the market: offer complete comparisons and workshops on what each system does. I don't think there is a better system or a worse self-booking system, but there are systems that are adequate for one corporation and not for another corporation. There's just a lot of smoke from companies that claim their products are the best. Good service is a prerequisite and now corporations are beginning to choose agencies that have a better self-booking system, a more productive tool that will save time. It's taken for granted to have good service, and if you promise to deliver apples then you deliver apples. The big difference is in how you deliver the apples and how fast, etc. There is notice in the market now that companies are changing agencies not based on service, but the procurement or finance department saying, "No, we have a better offer. We need specific technology." The next big trend you will see in Latin America is expense reporting tools and reconciliation tools. There is something relevant happening right now in Brazil, which is means of payment. American Express was the only consistent means of payment up until 18 months ago. The other card vendors were very quiet. What we're seeing now in Brazil is that American Express, the entire operation, was acquired by the biggest bank in Brazil [Banco Bradesco S.A., announced in March 2006]. Bradesco paid something like $500 million for the Amex operations in Brazil, both the card and the business travel operations. I don't know if this had anything to do with it, but now Visa and MasterCard have awakened to the huge volumes of money moved by corporations buying air tickets, hotels, etc., and there has been a lot of frenzy on this front now. So, travel managers, who before only had the Amex system as an option, now have to understand other systems.
We see that more global distribution system channels are opening in Brazil and throughout Latin America. How much content is available through these systems for travel managers?
There is a mixed situation in Brazil where the true domestic airlines--the most relevant airlines, TAM and Gol--do not have a significant portion of their content distributed through the GDS. So, you have to access their portals. Typically, in Brazil, the GDS has 30 percent to 35 percent of content and the other 65 percent you have to access through their Web sites. Travel managers do not regularly access the GDS. I'm not aware of many that have access on their desktop or laptop. It took us 15 or 18 months to develop a system that would capture the information from at least three different sources: TAM's portal, Gol's portal and the GDS. Early in 2007, we and other agencies managed to integrate the content and make it visible for our consultants.
Are airlines in Latin American countries meeting the needs of travel managers?
Brazil--and Latin America in general--is very confusing because even though it's a region, it's very difficult to find common patterns. We've had a very big issue in Brazil over the past year with the air traffic situation. It started with the accident of a Gol flight [Flight 1907, on 29 September 2006]. It was clear that there was confusion in the air traffic control. In our region, the big issue is the soundness of the air traffic system in its "rawest" sense. This issue has monopolized discussions. There has been such a huge change in Brazil. Just a few years ago, we had three major airlines: Varig, Vasp and TransBrazil. These airlines are gone. Varig was almost gone, and now it's back in a different format. The scenario of the Brazilian aviation offer has changed dramatically. What Varig was, and what it has become is something completely different. So, "steady" is not how I would describe the airline scenario in Brazil. I assume that this has pretty much happened in other countries in Latin America, but not so strongly. It's not business as usual. I see a very strong bond developing between travel managers and TMCs because the external situation is so challenging. We have to be together.
Are those relationships mostly local, or are you seeing regional and multinational service agreements?
We've seen companies in the past try to align their businesses for Latin America. We're now seeing some companies still doing that but we've seen other companies really challenge their headquarters and say, "We will not go with the TMC that is good for headquarters. We will go with a TMC that is both good for headquarters and for our local travelers." We've had quite a few successful challenges. I don't want to say which ones we've won and which we would not participate in the bid, but I see it as a big pattern. A few years ago, if your headquarters decided on X TMC then everyone would align with X TMC. Now, I definitely don't see this solidity anymore. There are leaks all over.
Why is ACTE now ramping up its activities and attention on the Latin America market?
It's not possible to have a real, global travel program if you have no concept of what a travel program is throughout the world. I think [the National Business Travel Association] is a very good association, but it's following ACTE, which is really becoming international. ACTE has had a presence for a number of years in Asia and Latin America, and has been developing programs in Brazil for at least the past five years. NBTA has offered programs there for the past couple of years--good programs, with a different scope and different type of audience--but I believe the key issue is that you cannot have a program that is U.S.-devised and with U.S. tastes. You have to have influences and outreach to the world. The [ACTE] membership in Latin America is 140 or 150 members--suppliers and travel managers in pretty much a 50:50 ratio. We believe that just in Brazil, there are approximately 400 official travel managers. Some of them are pros. I still see a lot of people in corporations assuming the role of travel manager who think that theirs is a unique situation and that no one really deals with travel management except them. I think there is a whole world of experience to be shared. I don't think a lot of these managers have a professional identity yet. We in the industry in Latin America welcome these newcomers. They are key to the industry because, in a way, they regulate the relationship between their company and the whole world of suppliers. ACTE can give them the identity of a skilled professional with thousands of other people, to share best practices and ideas. We have a board meeting in Munich before the [October] global conference where I'll be laying out my vision for the region. This is a chance for Latin American ACTE members to influence the decision-making and voice their concerns.