As business travel to and within Latin America grows, more
companies there are tightening controls around travel programs, consolidating group
and transient travel and pushing online booking tool adoption. The region still
faces challenges with content fragmentation and control over payment methods,
however.
In a March Association of Corporate Travel Executives
webinar on Latin America travel management trends, BCD Travel Latin and North
American affiliates program president Barbara Blue said companies in the region,
particularly in Brazil and Mexico, increasingly are adding dedicated travel
management professionals to their rosters. A 2010 study by ACTE and AirPlus of
about 200 buyers indicated that a slight majority of companies there still
delegate travel management as a part-time responsibility to employees with
other roles, however. Corporate travel departments are virtually nonexistent in
the region, Blue said.
As economies throughout the world emerge from the recession,
corporate travel in the region is poised for further growth. In Brazil, for
example, "it's like the economic downturn didn't even happen there,"
Blue said.
Colombia also is a growth market, "the next big market
after you talk about Mexico," Blue said. The country in recent years has
seen a sharp boost in meetings and events, particularly in Bogotá and
Cartagena, said Claudia Davila, corporate tourism director for Proexport, Colombia's
primary tourism organization.
"We've had a lot of new investment in hotels, and
people are starting to realize that we exist," Davila said. "Within
the United States, we still have to change the perception we have, but it's
really growing."
Local management and understanding, however, is essential to
any successful travel program in Latin America, Blue said. "The one
mistake our colleagues from the U.S. make is to impose a U.S.-based or global
program onto the region," she said. "Cultures are very different in
every country. You can have global programs that are tailored to local
expectations, but many don't even travel down to the region to get to know
their colleagues."
While most companies in the region have much smaller travel
volumes than their North American counterparts, thus limiting their ability to
implement some best practices, in recent years they increasingly have been
consolidating meetings with transient travel, said Ricardo Ferreira, vice
president of HRG Brazilian affiliate agency Alatur. This primarily applies to
Brazil, as meetings programs are less mature in other South American markets,
Blue said.
Online booking tool use also is on the rise in Latin
America. The ACTE/AirPlus study indicated that 81 percent of buyer respondents have
a self-booking tool for at least some portion of their Latin America
operations, though only one-third have implemented one across the entire
region.
Latin American online booking adoption remains a challenge,
particularly because many low-cost carriers in the region do not make their
content available through global distribution systems, Blue said. Latin America's
hotels also are highly fragmented and often must be booked by phone.
"I have a client in Brazil who has 80 percent adoption
online, but that's mostly the domestic market," she said. "GetThere
and Cliqbook have a ways to go."
In Brazil, most airlines provide domestic content to GDSs,
Ferreira said. Even so, travelers often must book directly through airline
websites to find the lowest fares. "Anyone who relies solely on the GDS
will get most information on domestic travel in Brazil, but you will not be
getting the best rates," he said.
Payment is another challenging area, with only 43 percent of
companies in the ACTE/AirPlus study indicating that they have a sanctioned
corporate payment tool across their Latin America operations. Those that do
usually rely on centrally billed structures and ghost cards, as companies in
the region are reluctant to distribute many individual corporate cards,
Ferreira said.
"DuPont has a very aggressive program, with a few
thousand cards, but as a rule, Brazilian companies and Latin American companies
have restrictions and, culturally, resistance on giving plastic to employees,"
he said. "We do see movement and attempts to change legislation so it will
be easier for Brazilian companies to use cards when it comes to hotels."