Travel Management Priorities for 2013 - Carlson Wagonlit Travel

North AmericaIn North America, travel managers’ top priority is improving traveler compliance, which pushes driving air and groundtransportation savings to 2nd place. Their 3rd, 4th and 5th priorities match the results of the total sample: optimizing hotelspend, online adoption and the travel policy. (See Figure 4 on Page 9.)Compared with other regions, travel managers in North America intend to place more focus on:Negotiating multi-year contracts and implementing flexible, dynamic negotiations with suppliers throughout the year(to drive air savings)Extending the geographical scope of the travel program and standardizing processes (to further consolidate the travelprogram)Leveraging technology (to tackle meetings and events)And less focus on:Finding the right balance between negotiated and restricted fare usage (to optimize air and ground savings)Implementing advance booking rules (to optimize hotel spend)Defining criteria for using travel alternatives (to optimize the travel policy)Figure 11North America key indicators (air)Average ticket price in economy classDomesticContinentalIntercontinentalAverage ticket price in business classContinentalIntercontinentalUS$562US$761US$1,567US$2,410US$6,055Intercontinental flights booked in business class 37%Flights booked at least 14 days in advanceDomesticContinentalIntercontinental47%56%66%Source: CWT Travel Management InstituteBased on tickets booked by CWT clients (Q3 2012)16