ARC Corporate Travel Department Accreditations Slow To A Trickle

While the Airline Reporting Corp.'s Corporate Travel Department accreditation program experienced continual growth from its inception in 1998, only two programs have been accredited since January 2006. However, those involved with the program don't see the CTD format going away.

Today, 211 companies hold ARC accreditation as CTDs, but only about 150 travel programs actively participate, according to Mike Premo, ARC vice president of marketing, sales and customer care. The bulk of the accredited departments are midsize programs with less than $10 million in ARC sales. However, such large programs as Wal-Mart, Chevron, Charles Schwab and Limited Brands also have gone the CTD route.

ARC is considering implementing a multicurrency reporting platform by 2008, which could rekindle interest in Corporate Travel Departments. Premo estimated that the number of accreditations would increase by 20 each year, despite the recent lag.

"When some new tools come out from ARC in the future, the CTD ranks will really swell," said Duane Futch, director of global travel for Wal-Mart.

The GDS negotiations also may have played a role in the recent decrease. "When CTD accreditations initially increased, there were commissions everywhere. When the airline commissions went away, some of the financial opportunities diminished," said Bob Langsfeld, partner of the Incline Village, Nev.-based Corporate Solutions Group.

Langsfeld, who coordinated the annual Corporate Travel Department conference for the past two years before handing over the reins to ARC for the 2007 conference in November, said there is no way to pinpoint why approximately 60 of the accredited travel departments are not participating in the program or why there has been a decrease in new accreditations.

"As revenue streams change and shrink, there are changes to everyone, whether it's a company or a CTD," Langsfeld said. "If a company has the interest to reduce some of the cost, then it can still be a viable alternative."

The model has allowed the Federated Department Stores travel department to act as a "cross-functional team" serving as both travel agent and help desk, all while driving efficiencies in online booking and reporting, said Bobbi Huber, director of corporate travel and meetings services. Since Federated began using the accredited CTD model almost five years ago, the centralized travel department has been able to mandate online booking—which now has an adoption rate of more than 90 percent using Worldspan TripManager XE—and expense reporting, and data has been integrated using the IBM ERS system. "For us, it has really been about the reporting capabilities and the ownership of the data," Huber said.

With no accredited CTD program, Huber said costs would be driven upward. "It's like going backwards if it goes away," she said. "We'll have to segment out reporting and auditing. It's called travel and expense for a reason. Too often they are segmented and separated and they shouldn't be."

Despite the downturn, Langsfeld said the accredited Corporate Travel Department program would remain. "There can be different configurations, different flavors and some people have the opportunity to perform exceptionally under a certain configuration," he said. "A lot has to do with the individual travel manager and the corporation's attitude."