A certification program for travel management consultants, a
forum for matching entrepreneurs and investors and an index aimed at tracking
travel trends against economic indicators are among a wide range of initiatives
announced by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives at its global
conference in Berlin on Monday. ACTE also launched a university-accredited
learning program in 18 countries and an award program to recognize emerging
talent.
The consultant certification program, Consultants Corner, will
be introduced in the first quarter of 2011. Executive director Ron DiLeo and
president Chris Crowley said it would assess consultants on their product
knowledge in an attempt to bring standardization to an area of corporate travel
with little consistency at present. ACTE has a database of 500 consultants in
20 countries. However, Crowley said ACTE is not attempting to impose conformity
of methodologies upon consultants.
"We're not trying to over-regulate," he said.
Although certification would be based in part upon content knowledge, the
emphasis will be on helping corporate buyers compare charging structures—for
which ACTE will create a recommended fee structure, return on investment models
and contract wording. Consultants also would have to complete an ethical
questionnaire.
DiLeo said the program would enable ACTE to provide a list
of consultants from which buyers could choose and help consultants with their
marketing and pitching skills. "ACTE gets half a dozen calls a week asking
for consultant recommendations," he said.
DiLeo also said the "angels" website, planned for
launch in the second quarter of 2011, would be the first specifically designed
to help travel entrepreneurs find investors. He added that investors often are
wary of travel because they regard it as an inherently unstable market but that
he expects investors from both outside and inside the sector, such as global
distribution system companies, to take an interest.
Meanwhile, the ACTE Index, to launch in either November or
December, will track monthly responses from 200 buyer members to up to 10
simple questions, such as whether travel spend is rising or falling. DiLeo said
previous research carried out by the travel management company Rosenbluth
International, now part of American Express, showed correlations between, for
example, a business' travel spend and its stock price. "I think we'll be
able to draw real correlations [with economic indicators] in 12 months,"
he said.
A survey of an unspecified number of ACTE buyer members
published on Monday found that 70 percent in the United States and 64 percent
in Europe anticipate greater travel spend in 2011.
This is the first ACTE global conference since the U.S.
National Business Travel Association announced its decision to rename itself the
Global Business Travel Association. Crowley said there is enough room, and
supplier sponsorship, for two worldwide organizations. "There is not such
a narrow band of suppliers that we have to hunt for the same shilling in every
marketplace," he said.
ACTE said there are more than 800 delegates at the Berlin
conference, of which 301 are buyers.