The Business Travel Magazine December/January 2018/19
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73 <strong>December</strong>/<strong>January</strong> <strong>2018</strong>/<strong>19</strong><br />
RAISING<br />
THEIR GAME<br />
<strong>The</strong> action TMCs are taking to<br />
stand out from the crowd<br />
+<br />
20<strong>19</strong> travel trends<br />
Premium economy<br />
UK hotel sector update<br />
Australia & New Zealand<br />
BUSINESS TRAVEL DESIGN TEAM OF THE YEAR
ARRIVALS<br />
Contents DECEMBER/JANUARY<br />
<strong>2018</strong>/<strong>19</strong><br />
Features<br />
18 20<strong>19</strong> travel trends<br />
32 Premium economy<br />
38 UK hotels update<br />
93<br />
79<br />
16<br />
6<br />
Extended feature<br />
<strong>Travel</strong><br />
management<br />
companies<br />
(p63-91)<br />
46<br />
32 15<br />
27<br />
48<br />
94<br />
10<br />
63 Extended feature:<br />
<strong>Travel</strong> management companies<br />
Arrivals<br />
6 Opening Shots<br />
9 Everyone's Talking About...<br />
Crossrail delays<br />
10 Six of the Best:<br />
Luxury hotels in Shanghai<br />
12 Event report: Advantage<br />
<strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> Symposium<br />
15 <strong>The</strong> Knowledge: making the<br />
most of corporate cards<br />
16 Speaking Out: why basic<br />
economy is a false economy<br />
Regulars<br />
20 <strong>The</strong> Conversation:<br />
Lord Andrew Adonis<br />
22 <strong>The</strong> Big Picture<br />
24 Meet the Buyer: Ana Gibson<br />
26 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> People<br />
Awards: winner's interview<br />
27 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> People<br />
Awards: <strong>2018</strong> winners' trip<br />
28 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> People<br />
Awards 20<strong>19</strong>: the details<br />
46 Technology: Data consolidation<br />
48 Talking <strong>Travel</strong>: Zoe Lyons<br />
92 Event gallery: Autumn Sparkle<br />
22<br />
<strong>The</strong> Review<br />
51 Ten pages of news, views<br />
and the latest developments<br />
Departures<br />
93 New Kid on the Block<br />
18<br />
38<br />
92<br />
100<br />
94 Gadgets & Gear<br />
96 On the Road<br />
97 Meeting in... Milton Keynes<br />
99 On <strong>Business</strong> in... Berlin<br />
100 Focus on... Australia and<br />
New Zealand<br />
104 Reality Check<br />
106 <strong>The</strong> Final Word<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM<br />
3
JAPAN’S LARGEST 5-STAR AIRLINE *<br />
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5-Star rating from Skytrax for six consecutive years.<br />
ANA flies direct daily from London Heathrow’s<br />
Terminal 2 to Haneda, Tokyo’s most central airport.<br />
Haneda is home to 40 of our domestic routes and<br />
23 international routes. ANA also connects you to<br />
Sydney with a daily non-stop flight from Haneda.<br />
We Are Japan.<br />
anaskyweb.com<br />
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WINNER<br />
Best Corporate Social<br />
Responsibility Programme<br />
WINNER<br />
<strong>Business</strong> Airline of the Year<br />
*By passenger numbers across all Japanese carriers
ARRIVALS<br />
Welcome<br />
<strong>The</strong> guessing game<br />
Forecasting the rise or fall of business<br />
travel volumes, airfares and nightly<br />
rates for the next year is always<br />
fraught with difficulties, but never<br />
more so than in 20<strong>19</strong>, when any<br />
figures floated should be marked with<br />
a large caveat called Brexit. Of course the unpredictable circumstances<br />
have not prevented the usual round of forecasts being issued, most of<br />
which anticipate marginal increases in business travel costs for the<br />
year ahead. Find out more about what's in store for the next 12 months<br />
in our 20<strong>19</strong> travel trends feature on pages 18-<strong>19</strong> and in our UK hotels<br />
update on pages 38-44.<br />
One thing we can say with confidence is that travel management<br />
companies will continue to be the crutch that props up the complex<br />
travel programmes of so many UK businesses. But it's not just a<br />
supporting role they are playing. In a sector that is slowly consolidating,<br />
good TMCs are diversifying their products and services and proving<br />
increasingly innovative. We take a look at the evolution of modern<br />
TMCs in our extended feature on pages 63-91.<br />
Elsewhere in this issue you'll find interviews with Labour Peer and<br />
former Transport Secretary Lord Andrew Adonis, travel buyer Ana<br />
Gibson, globe-trotting comedian Zoe Lyons, and Natalie Payne, winner<br />
of the Operations Manager of the Year award at <strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong><br />
People Awards <strong>2018</strong>. Nominations for the 20<strong>19</strong> awards open on<br />
<strong>January</strong> 1 (see pages 28-29 for details). Good luck to everyone entering<br />
the awards and, on behalf of the team, we wish all readers a happy,<br />
healthy and successful 20<strong>19</strong>.<br />
the<br />
<strong>Business</strong>travel<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
EDITORIAL<br />
EDITOR<br />
Andy Hoskins<br />
andy.hoskins@thebusinesstravelmag.com<br />
CONTRIBUTORS<br />
Catherine Chetwynd, Linda Fox, Rob Gill,<br />
Jools Stone, Gillian Upton,<br />
Kerry Reals & Angela Sara West<br />
STAFF JOURNALIST<br />
Benjamin Coren<br />
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR<br />
Steve Hartridge<br />
SALES<br />
PUBLISHER<br />
David Clare<br />
david.clare@thebusinesstravelmag.com<br />
DESIGN & PRODUCTION<br />
CREATIVE DIRECTOR<br />
Matt Bonner<br />
LEAD DESIGNERS<br />
Louisa Horton & Monica Notarnicola<br />
DESIGNERS<br />
Ross Clifford & Zoe Tarrant<br />
PRODUCTION & STUDIO MANAGER<br />
Clare Hunter<br />
PRODUCTION CONTROLLER<br />
Steve Hunter<br />
BMI PUBLISHING<br />
MANAGING DIRECTOR<br />
Martin Steady<br />
Andy Hoskins, Editor<br />
(Print) ISSN 1754-8543. THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY<br />
BMI PUBLISHING LTD: SUFFOLK HOUSE, GEORGE STREET, CROYDON,<br />
SURREY, CR9 1SR, UK. T: 020 8649 7233<br />
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THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM<br />
5
ARRIVALS<br />
oPeNiNg shots<br />
Eye-catching images of the latest news and developments<br />
Kimpton Hotels<br />
fitZ is a hit<br />
IHG's boutique<br />
Kimpton Hotels brand<br />
has arrived in the UK<br />
with the launch of<br />
<strong>The</strong> Kimpton Fitzroy<br />
London. <strong>The</strong> Grade II<br />
listed building is set<br />
on Russell Square and<br />
has 334 guestrooms,<br />
ballroom and several<br />
bars and restaurants.<br />
It is one of several<br />
Principal hotels in<br />
the UK that will be<br />
relaunched under the<br />
Kimpton brand.<br />
A true homage to<br />
British history and<br />
design, the hotel is named<br />
after the original architect<br />
of the building, Charles<br />
Fitzroy Doll, a titan of British<br />
architecture in the Victorian<br />
and Edwardian eras”<br />
6 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM
Hilton London Bankside<br />
fresh ideas<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hilton London<br />
Bankside has teamed<br />
up with multi-sensory<br />
design specialists<br />
Bompas & Parr to<br />
launch <strong>The</strong> Angora<br />
meeting room,<br />
featuring interactive<br />
screen technology,<br />
mood-improving<br />
lighting and a<br />
'creativity tea station'.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Impeccable Pig<br />
the whole hog<br />
An historic County<br />
Durham coach house<br />
has been converted into<br />
a ten-room, porcinethemed<br />
hotel, <strong>The</strong><br />
Impeccable Pig. Its luxury<br />
rooms include <strong>The</strong> Pigsty,<br />
<strong>The</strong> Whole Hog, Oinkers<br />
and Globe Trotter. It is<br />
part of the Ramside<br />
Estates portfolio.<br />
One Broad Street<br />
by the sea<br />
<strong>The</strong> One Broad Street<br />
hotel has opened in<br />
Brighton. <strong>The</strong> 'smart<br />
boutique hotel for the<br />
tech-savvy traveller'<br />
takes its design inspiration<br />
from 'New York<br />
City industrial loft<br />
minimalism' and the<br />
concept of biophilic<br />
design by incorporating<br />
greenery and natural<br />
materials.<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
7
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ARRIVALS<br />
EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT...<br />
Crossrail delays<br />
“THE ELIZABETH<br />
LINE IS ONE OF THE MOST<br />
“TECHNOLOGY COMPLEX AND CHALLENGING DOESN’T<br />
RESCUE INFRASTRUCTURE YOU BUT PROJECTS IT PROVIDES EVER<br />
CONFIDENCE UNDERTAKEN IN AND THE VISIBILITY. UK AND NOW YOUR IN<br />
TMC ITS FINAL SHOULD STAGES. HAVE WE HAVE THE MADE PROCESS HUGE<br />
AND PROGRESS PROCEDURES WITH THE TO DELIVERY RUN REPORTS<br />
OF THIS<br />
AND INCREDIBLE HELP YOU PROJECT REACH BUT WE THOSE NEED<br />
AFFECTED FURTHER TIME BY TO AN COMPLETE INCIDENT” THE<br />
TESTING OF THE NEW RAILWAY”<br />
Ewan Kassir, Head of Sales, Clarity<br />
Simon Wright, Former Crossrail<br />
Chief Executive<br />
“This project is already delivering benefits for<br />
the whole of the UK through its cross-country<br />
supply chain. Crossrail will be transformative<br />
and carry up to 200 million passengers a year”<br />
Jo Johnson MP, Former Minister of Transport<br />
“I AM DEEPLY ANGERED AND DISAPPOINTED AT<br />
THE DELAY TO THE OPENING OF THE ELIZABETH<br />
LINE, WHICH IS MADE WORSE BY THE LENGTH OF<br />
THE DELAY AND HOW LATE IN THE PROJECT IT<br />
WAS ANNOUNCED”<br />
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan<br />
Our investigation will examine<br />
the causes of the cost increases<br />
and schedule delays,<br />
the terms of the<br />
additional funding<br />
and the governance<br />
of the programme”<br />
Spokesperson for the National Audit Office<br />
“WE ARE DETERMINED THAT THE FAILURES IN<br />
GOVERNANCE AND TRANSPARENCY AT CROSSRAIL<br />
MUST END IMMEDIATELY, AND CANNOT BE REPLICATED<br />
Caroline Pidgeon MBE AM,<br />
Chair of the Transport Committee<br />
IN FUTURE INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS”<br />
“<strong>The</strong> public will be dismayed that yet again mismanagement<br />
of this project has meant an extra injection of taxpayers’<br />
money, which TfL will have to pay back. While we welcome<br />
the decision to enable the project to go forward as soon as<br />
possible, Transport for London and the Mayor have serious<br />
questions to answer about the shambles that is unfolding”<br />
Gareth Bacon AM, Chairman of the London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM<br />
9
ARRIVALS<br />
SIX OF THE BEST<br />
Six of the best...<br />
Luxury hotels in Shanghai<br />
1<br />
Shanghai Wonderland<br />
A hotel whose location lives up<br />
to its name, this recently opened<br />
property from Intercontinental is<br />
set in a former quarry to the<br />
southwest of Shanghai. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
are two floors above ground<br />
level, 16 that descend to the<br />
bottom of the quarry and two<br />
beneath water level.<br />
2<br />
3<br />
Bulgari Hotel Shanghai<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bulgari Hotel Shanghai<br />
opened last summer and is set<br />
across a section of a 48-storey<br />
tower and the restored Chamber<br />
of Commerce building that dates<br />
from <strong>19</strong>16. A rooftop restaurant<br />
has views across the city.<br />
Bellagio Shanghai<br />
Shanghai welcomed only the<br />
second Bellagio hotel worldwide<br />
when this property opened in<br />
June <strong>2018</strong>. Located close to<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bund, the hotel has 184<br />
guestrooms, four restaurants,<br />
spa and a grand ballroom.<br />
4<br />
W Shanghai<br />
<strong>The</strong> upscale Marriott brand made<br />
its debut in Shanghai in 2017<br />
with the opening of the W<br />
Shanghai – <strong>The</strong> Bund. Nearly all<br />
of the 374 stylish guestrooms<br />
have views of the Huangpu River<br />
and Pudong skyline. <strong>The</strong>re are<br />
five dining options and nearly<br />
6,000m 2 of events space.<br />
6<br />
amanyangyun<br />
Another <strong>2018</strong> addition to the<br />
city's high-end hotel stock, this<br />
peaceful resort just outside of<br />
downtown Shanghai has a series<br />
of suites and villas set in restored<br />
historic buildings. <strong>The</strong>re are five<br />
dining options, a spa and<br />
meetings and event spaces.<br />
5<br />
the Middle House<br />
Swire Hotels' latest addition<br />
to its House Collective, the<br />
Middle House is located in<br />
Shanghai’s historic Dazhongli<br />
neighbourhood and continues<br />
the company’s philosophy of<br />
‘intimate luxury delivered with<br />
highly personalised service’.<br />
10 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
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Untitled-15 1 23/11/<strong>2018</strong> 09:55
ARRIVALS<br />
EVENT REPORT<br />
<strong>The</strong> Advantage <strong>Business</strong><br />
<strong>Travel</strong> Symposium <strong>2018</strong><br />
Delegates heard keynote speeches from<br />
Lord Andrew Adonis and the University<br />
of Liverpool’s Paul Redmond at <strong>The</strong><br />
Advantage <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> Symposium in<br />
November, while also being given the<br />
opportunity to ask a panel of travel<br />
buyers their burning questions.<br />
Benjamin Coren reports<br />
<strong>The</strong> day’s agenda tackled major issues<br />
affecting business travel including Brexit,<br />
traveller wellbeing, NDC and attracting new<br />
talent into the industry, with the event<br />
designed to provide delegates with<br />
actionable takeaways. <strong>The</strong> agenda had been<br />
devised based on feedback from the<br />
consortium's members.<br />
Neil Armorgie, Advantage Global Product<br />
Director and CEO of WIN, kicked off<br />
proceedings by revealing impressive<br />
growth: “In <strong>2018</strong> we added nearly<br />
£100million to our group turnover and<br />
there has also been significant investment<br />
into our meetings and events offering.”<br />
Armorgie talked about the consortium’s<br />
dedicated technology resource. “Fraser<br />
Nichol has taken on NDC to create a bigger<br />
picture for our members, and a summary<br />
booklet has been produced for members,<br />
shared just this week”, he added. Armorgie<br />
said the document is a line in the sand from<br />
when it was published following Lufthansa’s<br />
recent announcement that it would restrict<br />
its lowest fares to NDC channels.<br />
Former Transport Secretary Lord Andrew<br />
Adonis delivered a keynote on Brexit and<br />
the greater economic outlook, discussing<br />
what it may mean for the business travel<br />
industry and UK infrastructure. His<br />
takeaway message was: "In the short term<br />
nothing is going to change, so my message<br />
is to keep calm and carry on." He did<br />
however highlight potential long-term risks<br />
that businesses may face.<br />
Interactive 'Buyer Bootcamp' sessions<br />
gave delegates the chance to ask 'killer'<br />
questions via guided exercises. <strong>The</strong> session<br />
put the challenges that TMCs face centre<br />
stage with topics including attracting buyer<br />
attention and opening a dialogue with<br />
them, engaging with them, how to win<br />
business, approaching client reviews and<br />
preparing for them.<br />
MEMBERSHIP BOOST<br />
"We've seen an increase in<br />
our membership of 6.9%<br />
which is ahead of the<br />
market. We've had a<br />
great year. Our<br />
mantra continues<br />
to be how we<br />
will benefit<br />
member<br />
shareholders"<br />
12 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM<br />
Neil Armorgie, Advantage<br />
Global Product Director<br />
COLD CALLING<br />
"IT'S ALL DOWN TO PERSONAL<br />
PREFERENCE – I PREFER<br />
HUMAN CONTACT. COLD<br />
CALLING IS A LITTLE HIT AND<br />
MISS AND COLD EMAILS ARE<br />
NOT READ AT ALL. IT'S<br />
ALWAYS GOOD TO GET SOME<br />
FACE-TO-FACE TIME IN AT<br />
INDUSTRY EVENTS"<br />
Imelda Aspinall, UK <strong>Travel</strong> Manager, ITV<br />
POST-BREXIT VISAS<br />
"I think we will try to do it<br />
without visas and very rapidly<br />
we will end up having to<br />
introduce them. And the EU<br />
will reciprocate and do<br />
the same for British<br />
citizens travelling to<br />
those countries. We may<br />
eventually end up with<br />
an ESTA-type visa<br />
system"<br />
Lord Andrew<br />
Adonis
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ARRIVALS<br />
THE KNOWLEDGE<br />
How to...<br />
Make the most of corporate cards<br />
<strong>The</strong> Scout Association is a long-time user<br />
of corporate cards, but the ways in<br />
which it deploys them has changed<br />
THE BACKGROUND<br />
<strong>The</strong> Scout Association<br />
provides youth work support to<br />
638,000 young people and adult<br />
volunteers across the UK. A longterm<br />
Barclaycard customer, its<br />
staff have typically used<br />
corporate cards for a<br />
range of travel and<br />
subsistence costs.<br />
STREAMLINING<br />
“While the kinds of things<br />
we purchase with our<br />
cards have stayed<br />
consistent over the years,<br />
we have taken advantage<br />
of technological developments<br />
to speed up our reconciliation<br />
process with Barclaycard,” says <strong>The</strong> Scout<br />
Association’s Simon Carter.<br />
As a result, it now reconciles its corporate<br />
card expenses digitally every month. Carter<br />
explains: “We try to do everything<br />
electronically. We used to reconcile expenses<br />
by hand, but we conducted a study that<br />
showed it would save time – and therefore<br />
money – to move to digital reconciliation.”<br />
He continues: “As a charity, you want to<br />
put as much money as possible into your<br />
cause rather than the back office.”<br />
GO PRE-PAID<br />
Every four years, the<br />
organisation sends 4,000<br />
young people from the UK<br />
to <strong>The</strong> World Scout<br />
Jamboree, which takes<br />
place in destinations all<br />
over the world – mostly<br />
recently in Japan in 2015.<br />
At the event, in addition to those who<br />
already had company credit cards, <strong>The</strong> Scout<br />
Association provided 40 staff with a pre-paid<br />
Barclaycard corporate card, which they used<br />
for car hire, food and other travel expenses.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> cards mean we can control costs<br />
really easily,” says Carter. “We can see what<br />
our teams are spending on, and we don’t<br />
have to provide them with lots of cash.”<br />
NEW LIMITS<br />
At times, corporate<br />
cards have also helped<br />
the team resolve<br />
challenging situations.<br />
“After a Jamboree we<br />
hosted in Thailand finished, we<br />
sent 400 young people on a home<br />
hospitality visit to Malaysia,” explains<br />
Carter. “I was woken up at 3am by a phone<br />
call from the head of our contingent in<br />
Malaysia saying that, for various reasons,<br />
the planned accommodation wasn’t<br />
available. I called our director of finance,<br />
who contacted the Barclaycard out-of-hours<br />
service, who in turn raised the credit card<br />
limit of the person on the spot to £25,000.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> leader of the contingent then<br />
sourced safe and secure hotel rooms for<br />
400 young people and their leaders. It<br />
was so simple.”<br />
THE BENEFITS<br />
Corporate cards are key to <strong>The</strong> Scout<br />
Association’s operations, whether it’s<br />
for resolving unexpected situations or<br />
simply paying for<br />
food and drink.<br />
“Cards make it<br />
easy to control<br />
costs and provide<br />
excellent visibility<br />
on spending,” says<br />
Carter. “<strong>The</strong> key<br />
thing for us is the<br />
flexibility they<br />
offer. We use a traditional purchase<br />
order process for most of our regular<br />
costs, but sometimes you simply don’t<br />
have time to wait – you need to pay for<br />
something there and then and a card<br />
makes that possible.”<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM<br />
15
ARRIVALS<br />
SPEAKING OUT<br />
What price loyalty?<br />
Basic economy is a false economy<br />
<strong>The</strong>re’s a trade-off between the cheapest<br />
economy fares and corporate loyalty,<br />
says Peter Gerstle, who argues there’s<br />
more than one way to measure value<br />
Low-cost carriers are here to stay – that's a<br />
fact. According to the latest research from<br />
IATA, these ‘new model airlines’ now<br />
account for 28.3% of all passenger journeys<br />
– with US budget carrier SouthWest and<br />
Irish favourite Ryanair both topping the<br />
charts in terms of passengers carried.<br />
In response, so-called ‘legacy’ airlines have<br />
also begun to introduce stripped down<br />
economy fares for ‘price-sensitive’<br />
customers in their efforts to stay<br />
competitive. Emirates, once considered the<br />
bastion of luxury airlines, is the latest to<br />
consider basic economy fares that exclude<br />
‘perks’ like food and baggage allowance.<br />
But as more airlines embrace ‘basic<br />
economy’, what are the implications for<br />
business travellers and loyalty?<br />
Increasingly, many companies have a<br />
lowest available fare policy, or even a fare<br />
cap, and encourage their employees to<br />
consider the basic economy option.<br />
However, for businesses these policies are<br />
not without its risks.<br />
<strong>Business</strong> travellers holding these barebones<br />
tickets will have no choice in seat<br />
assignment, may not be permitted to stow a<br />
carry-on-bag in the overhead bins and will<br />
not be able to accrue as many – or any –<br />
frequent flier miles.<br />
If they desire what in the past<br />
have been considered the<br />
fundamentals of<br />
It’s a mistake to<br />
assume that someone<br />
travelling on a basic economy<br />
fare is not a potentially<br />
valuable customer”<br />
business travel, they will have to pay for<br />
them as add-ons. This is hardly a recipe for<br />
a productive, happy employee, especially if<br />
they are travelling for an important<br />
meeting, and may even end up costing a<br />
business more than a standard fare.<br />
In addition, what happens if a meeting<br />
overruns and an employee misses their<br />
flight? If the employee has a non-refundable<br />
ticket there may be may be no option but<br />
coughing up for a last-minute, walk-up fare.<br />
As savvy travel managers are now<br />
realising, insisting on basic economy tickets<br />
can cost you dearly. Short-term savings<br />
associated with the cheapest fares can<br />
easily be dwarfed through hidden costs and<br />
productivity losses.<br />
<strong>Business</strong> travel policies should be centred<br />
on value not just the lowest fare prices.<br />
Recognising customer loyalty and making<br />
considerations to accommodate an<br />
employee’s frequent flyer membership is<br />
particularly important.<br />
It not only has a positive contribution to<br />
the employee’s happiness and status, but it<br />
also plays an important role in getting fees<br />
waived for extras like checked bags or makes<br />
travellers eligible for upgrades. <strong>The</strong>se perks<br />
could make all the difference in how an<br />
employee performs in that big meeting.<br />
Airlines too must not assume that price is<br />
the only driver for a purchase – value is<br />
measured through an overall experience<br />
and has a significant impact on loyalty. It’s a<br />
mistake to assume that someone travelling<br />
on a basic economy fare is not a potentially<br />
valuable customer.<br />
<strong>The</strong> key is to really understand each<br />
customer and know why they are flying,<br />
every time they fly. Enabling customers to<br />
collect frequent flyer points on all flights,<br />
including basic economy fares, is an<br />
important part<br />
of this.<br />
With this<br />
deeper<br />
understanding,<br />
airlines can start to see<br />
the bigger picture. <strong>The</strong>y can<br />
recognise a frequent flyer even<br />
if their booking is made by a<br />
corporate travel manager and identify<br />
which customers present the best<br />
opportunity to create ongoing relationships<br />
that deliver additional revenue.<br />
PETER GERSTLE<br />
Peter is Group Head of <strong>Travel</strong><br />
Products at <strong>The</strong> Collinson<br />
Group, a leading global<br />
consultancy in loyalty and<br />
benefits. <strong>The</strong> company has<br />
worked with major brands<br />
including Avios, Radisson<br />
Hotels, Visa and<br />
Mastercard.<br />
16 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM
20<strong>19</strong> TRAVEL TRENDS<br />
back to the future<br />
It’s difficult to look beyond Brexit when scouting ahead for the big developments coming up in 20<strong>19</strong>,<br />
but there are of course plenty of other openings, launches and trends on the horizon too...<br />
High five<br />
Watch out for these five hotels<br />
coming to London in 20<strong>19</strong><br />
Taking off<br />
Notable new route launches<br />
British Airways<br />
• Heathrow-Osaka<br />
four times a week from March 31<br />
• London City-Munich<br />
daily from Feb 16<br />
• Heathrow-Pittsburgh<br />
four times a week from April<br />
• Heathrow-Charleston<br />
twice a week from April 4<br />
(summer only)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Stratford<br />
1 This hotel will open as part of<br />
the highly anticipated Manhattan<br />
Loft Gardens skyscraper (below) in<br />
Stratford in April 20<strong>19</strong>. It promises<br />
to “seamlessly merge short-term<br />
stays with long-term hotel living”.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Standard<br />
2 This trendy US brand will open<br />
its first international hotel in King’s<br />
Cross in 20<strong>19</strong> set in the Camden<br />
Town Annex building.<br />
Hard Rock Hotel<br />
3 Hard Rock will open its first UK<br />
hotel in London in the spring (above<br />
right) by converting the Cumberland<br />
Hotel into a 1,000-room property.<br />
Belmond Cadogan<br />
4 <strong>The</strong> luxury hotel group is due<br />
to open its second UK hotel in the<br />
spring, a 54-room hotel between<br />
Kensington and Chelsea.<br />
5<br />
Ruby Hotels<br />
<strong>The</strong> ‘lean luxury’ hotel brand<br />
(below) is due to open the London<br />
Southbank Outpost in summer<br />
20<strong>19</strong>. <strong>The</strong> fledgling group currently<br />
has six hotels across Germany and<br />
one in Austria.<br />
Virgin Atlantic<br />
• Manchester-Los Angeles<br />
three times weekly from May 26<br />
Delta Air Lines<br />
• Edinburgh-Boston<br />
daily from May 24<br />
Rooms for growth<br />
Hotel room supply is set to grow 8% in London in 20<strong>19</strong> and by<br />
5% across the rest of the UK<br />
With such a strong pipeline of hotels due to come on<br />
stream, we will need healthy demand growth to avoid<br />
a drop in occupancy percentages” says HVS Chairman, Russell Kett<br />
18 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
20<strong>19</strong> TRAVEL TRENDS<br />
Brexit: March 29<br />
iN? out? good deal? No deal?<br />
cliff edge? secoNd refereNdum?<br />
Uncertainty around<br />
the Brexit deal has<br />
not affected bookings and<br />
our business is up year on<br />
year. People will still need to<br />
do business whatever happens<br />
concerning the Brexit trade<br />
deal – if a company needs to<br />
travel in order to conduct<br />
business then they are still<br />
going to<br />
travel, even<br />
if airfares<br />
go up”<br />
Mel Phaure,<br />
Director, Blue<br />
Cube <strong>Travel</strong><br />
European airfares<br />
2% - the predicted rise in average<br />
ticket prices on regional routes<br />
1% - the predicted rise in average<br />
ticket prices for intercontinental travel<br />
“Negotiating a good deal<br />
with European airlines is<br />
becoming harder as they<br />
reduce discounts for all but<br />
their best-performing clients:<br />
those who either spend heavily<br />
on premium cabins of fullfare<br />
economy to long-haul<br />
destinations, or fly economy<br />
to markets where the airline<br />
wants to gain or defend<br />
market share”<br />
BCD 20<strong>19</strong> Industry Forecast<br />
Trend-setting<br />
technology<br />
dataart predicts 20<strong>19</strong> will see five<br />
maJor tech treNds takiNg travel aNd<br />
hospitality to the NeXt level<br />
Ai is set to reAch<br />
new heights<br />
Progression will ‘skyrocket’,<br />
helping improve customer service<br />
and save human resources<br />
oPen APis<br />
Proliferation of open APIs will<br />
enable better synchronisation<br />
between technology systems<br />
AugmenteD reAlity<br />
<strong>Travel</strong> and hospitality players have<br />
been slow to adopt AR but it will<br />
be at the forefront of marketing<br />
and personalisation in 20<strong>19</strong><br />
self-serVice<br />
Expect more tech that eliminates<br />
the need for customers to<br />
interact with a human to<br />
complete a transaction<br />
Voice Assist<br />
Use is already growing at an<br />
impressive rate and will be a vital<br />
component of the industry’s<br />
demand for efficiency<br />
ONE Order is<br />
the new NDC?<br />
Those tired of hearing about<br />
IATA’s NDC standard can look<br />
forward to hearing plenty about<br />
the organisation’s ONE Order<br />
programme in 20<strong>19</strong> – which in fact<br />
is made possible by NDC advances.<br />
“Today, an air booking creates both<br />
a passenger name record (PNR) and<br />
an electronic ticket, plus an<br />
electronic miscellaneous document<br />
for any ancillary purchases like<br />
checked bag fees. Under ONE Order,<br />
all these documents will be replaced<br />
with a single, retail-type digital order<br />
management process,”<br />
explains travel management<br />
company BCD.<br />
For passengers and their<br />
employers, the potential<br />
benefits include more<br />
coordinated disruption<br />
management when flights are<br />
delayed, better customer<br />
recognition, improved MI<br />
and better understanding of<br />
total trip cost<br />
THEbusinesstraVeLMag.COM<br />
<strong>19</strong>
THE CONVERSATION<br />
Labour Peer & Former Transport Secretary<br />
LORD ANDREW ADONIS<br />
<strong>The</strong> staunch Remainer speaks to Andy Hoskins ahead of his<br />
keynote address at the Advantage <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> Symposium<br />
Keep calm and carry on," are Lord<br />
Andrew Adonis's words of advice<br />
for the travel industry as the UK<br />
moves towards its scheduled March 29<br />
departure from the European Union.<br />
"<strong>The</strong>re’s a lot of alarmism around at the<br />
moment and people are right to be<br />
concerned about the long-term future for<br />
the country if we Brexit, but people shouldn’t<br />
worry about going off a cliff edge next year.<br />
Parliament isn’t that stupid," he says.<br />
"In the long-term, however, Brexit will<br />
make us much less attractive to inward<br />
investment and it will start imposing<br />
impediments to trade and travel."<br />
Speaking before EU leaders had agreed<br />
the Brexit deal that will be voted on by<br />
parliament in <strong>December</strong>, Adonis says: "Any<br />
form of Brexit is bad for the country and we<br />
should have a referendum so people can<br />
give their view on what they really want."<br />
He believes there is "a serious chance" of<br />
the so-called People's Vote taking place in<br />
20<strong>19</strong> and claims: "Even Brexiters are coming<br />
round to this view as well – that this half-in,<br />
half-out deal that <strong>The</strong>resa May is proposing<br />
may actually be worse than staying fully in.<br />
Both sides regard it as a sell-out."<br />
He continues: "It's increasingly clear that<br />
the deal is going to hit the buffers and the<br />
question is what happens when it does."<br />
Adonis believes there are three possible<br />
scenarios the country could find itself in on<br />
March 29. Firstly, a continuation of Article<br />
50 – potentially under a new Prime Minister<br />
– in order to "get a credible deal over a<br />
longer period". Secondly, that the country<br />
will leave the EU but "with everything<br />
essentially still to be negotiated"; and lastly,<br />
the referendum he desires.<br />
So there's no chance of planes being<br />
grounded overnight and gridlocked ports?<br />
"That's a straight scare. It’s deplorable that<br />
the government has allowed the public to<br />
think this could happen. <strong>The</strong>re’s simply no<br />
way you're going to get 325 MPs – half the<br />
House – that are going to agree to us<br />
leaving the European Union with no deal<br />
and the country grinding to a halt."<br />
Having served as Transport Secretary<br />
under Gordon Brown's Labour government,<br />
the UK's air, road and rail networks are a<br />
subject close to his heart. He pioneered<br />
plans for High Speed 2 – the high-speed<br />
railway that will connect London with the<br />
Midlands and potentially cities further north<br />
– and offers unwavering support to the<br />
expansion of London Heathrow Airport.<br />
"I can't take credit for being a genius," he<br />
says of HS2. "All I was doing was copying<br />
With a third runway at<br />
Heathrow from 2028,<br />
soon after the opening of HS2,<br />
Adonis heralds a transport<br />
infrastructure revolution for<br />
England in the mid-2020s”<br />
what pretty much every developed country<br />
in the world has done over the last 50 years<br />
which is to build high-speed rail lines<br />
between the major cities."<br />
<strong>The</strong> London to Birmingham line is currently<br />
under construction – and is due to open in<br />
2026 – and he believes plans to extend it to<br />
Leeds and Manchester will happen "with or<br />
without Brexit".<br />
"Once the high speed lines get to Leeds<br />
and Manchester the journey times from<br />
London to Scotland will come down a lot.<br />
You’ll be able to do both of those trips<br />
[to Glasgow and Edinburgh] in 3.5 hours<br />
or less, which will make trains highly<br />
competitive with planes for the first time,"<br />
Adonis explains.<br />
And he says expansion at Heathrow is<br />
"vitally important for bringing inward<br />
investment into the country and for<br />
promoting business travel internationally<br />
including to new and emerging markets."<br />
He is also confident that, with parliament<br />
voting almost 10-1 in favour of expansion –<br />
and with a majority in all the political parties<br />
– it is a "done deal". He adds: "My view is<br />
that this is irreversible".<br />
With a third runway at Heathrow<br />
potentially operational from 2028, not long<br />
after the scheduled opening of HS2, Adonis<br />
heralds a "transport infrastructure<br />
revolution for England in the mid-2020s".<br />
Brexit or no Brexit, the UK's connectivity<br />
both at home and with foreign nations is set<br />
for a welcome shot in the arm.<br />
20 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM
THE CONVERSATION<br />
in brief...<br />
Expansion at Heathrow is<br />
set to go ahead and HS2<br />
is underway, but where is<br />
the country's transport<br />
network falling short?<br />
<strong>The</strong> northern cities are very<br />
badly connected and what I<br />
call HS3 – which is the eastwest<br />
line linking Liverpool,<br />
Manchester, Leeds,<br />
Newcastle and Hull – that’s<br />
hugely important and<br />
there’s still no proper plan<br />
for that. We’ve got big<br />
North-South improvements<br />
with HS2 underway but<br />
there’s no equivalent<br />
improvement taking place<br />
east to west in the North.<br />
LORD ANDREW ADONIS<br />
Rt Hon Lord (Andrew) Adonis is a Labour peer, former<br />
Transport Secretary and former Chairman of the<br />
National Infrastructure Commission. Both as advisor<br />
and then minister, Andrew Adonis was a key architect<br />
of Tony Blair's public service reforms in education,<br />
health, local government, policing and transport. He is<br />
the author of books on parliamentary reform, the class<br />
system and the poll tax.<br />
According to your Twitter<br />
bio, you've been called a<br />
'twisted weasel' by Nigel<br />
Farage and a 'cave man'<br />
by Jacob Rees-Mogg – you<br />
seem to revel in being<br />
something of a villain...<br />
I do because I’m deliberately<br />
taking on Nigel Farage and<br />
Boris Johnson and Jacob<br />
Rees-Mogg because they're<br />
the chief Brexiters. So I<br />
relish an argument and a<br />
battle with them because<br />
the issues are so big for the<br />
country. Over the medium<br />
to long-term I think Brexit<br />
will be extremely damaging<br />
which is the reason I’m<br />
doing battle ferociously<br />
with the leading Brexiters.<br />
However much Boris<br />
Johnson, Nigel Farage, Kate<br />
Hoey and co dislike me,<br />
they dislike <strong>The</strong>resa May<br />
even more. <strong>The</strong>y are falling<br />
apart. <strong>The</strong> question is<br />
whether it falls apart in<br />
such a way that we can get<br />
a referendum and put a<br />
stop to Brexit.<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM<br />
21
THE BIG PICTURE<br />
Copenhagen<br />
MORE THAN<br />
MERMAIDS<br />
<strong>The</strong> Danish capital city<br />
has been named Lonely<br />
Planet’s number one<br />
city for 20<strong>19</strong>, propelled<br />
to the top by its “worldrenowned<br />
food scene”,<br />
craft beer culture and<br />
its reputation as a<br />
“design powerhouse”.<br />
In second place was<br />
Shenzhen – the ‘Silicon<br />
Valley of China’ – and in<br />
third was up-and-coming<br />
Serbian city Novi Sad.<br />
22 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM
ADRIA AIRWAYS • AEGEAN AIRLINES • AIR CANADA • AIR CHINA • AIR INDIA • AIR NEW ZEALAND • ANA • ASIANA AIRLINES • AUSTRIAN • AVIANCA • AVIANCA BRASIL<br />
BRUSSELS AIRLINES • COPA AIRLINES • CROATIA AIRLINES • EGYPTAIR • ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES • EVA AIR • LOT POLISH AIRLINES • LUFTHANSA • SCANDINAVIAN AIRLINES<br />
SHENZHEN AIRLINES • SINGAPORE AIRLINES • SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS • SWISS • TAP AIR PORTUGAL • THAI • TURKISH AIRLINES • UNITED
MEET THE BUYER<br />
meet<br />
ANA GIBSON<br />
Ana Gibson is Supply Manager, <strong>Travel</strong>, at Hilti, having recently<br />
moved from the supplier side of the travel industry<br />
Hilti is a global company operating in<br />
120 countries with more than 27,000<br />
employees. We design and manufacture<br />
leading-edge technology, software and<br />
services which power the construction<br />
industry. I have been here since the end of<br />
July <strong>2018</strong> and am discovering every day<br />
what a great company it is to work for;<br />
people are at the forefront of everything<br />
Hilti does. <strong>The</strong> headcount is growing by 10%<br />
year on year and currently we have around<br />
950 staff in the UK. Around half of these<br />
have regular business trips and many more<br />
travel on an ad hoc basis.<br />
My career in travel started as soon as<br />
I graduated from university 15 years<br />
ago when I joined Emirates. I saw it as a<br />
temporary role, but once the “travel bug”<br />
gets hold of you, not many tend to leave the<br />
industry. Soon after joining, I moved into<br />
sales support and eventually corporate<br />
sales. After seven years, I swapped the hot<br />
climate of Dubai for Santa’s official airline,<br />
Finnair, as client manager.<br />
My main responsibilities are to help<br />
drive productivity, through sourcing and<br />
negotiating with suppliers. I also<br />
look at the spend patterns and<br />
look at how behaviour can<br />
be influenced to achieve<br />
cost savings. My role is<br />
based in the UK but<br />
I work closely with<br />
my counterparts in<br />
Northern Europe<br />
and the global<br />
procurement<br />
managers to benchmark<br />
our policy and activity<br />
against our peers.<br />
Employees are empowered to<br />
make their own travel bookings through<br />
our TMC and its online booking tool. Apart<br />
from the PAs to the Directors and MD, we<br />
do not have dedicated travel bookers<br />
except for when it comes to our Training<br />
School. This has a significant need for<br />
hotel accommodation, and once I have<br />
negotiated the contracts with the preferred<br />
suppliers, our HR Shared Services team are<br />
tasked with managing the booking process.<br />
We work closely with countries in<br />
Northern Europe so there is a lot<br />
of travel to key destinations<br />
such as Copenhagen, and<br />
Helsinki, as well as<br />
OUT OF THE OFFICE<br />
Dublin. Our global<br />
"I am originally from<br />
headquarters are<br />
Romania. My dad was born in a based in Schaan so we<br />
castle in Transylvania so I am a travel there via Zurich<br />
distant relative to Dracula! But – or via Munich is also<br />
unlike most vampires, I tend to common. We also try<br />
favour bright sunshine for to use digital solutions<br />
my holiday destinations" such as Skype and<br />
Microsoft Hubs to reduce<br />
the amount of corporate<br />
travel needed.<br />
We only use two TMCs globally, with the<br />
UK and US using one, and the rest another.<br />
We actively encourage employees to use<br />
the online booking tools provided. In the<br />
UK, our OBT adoption is around 87%.<br />
We have a strong travel policy in place<br />
which considers all aspects. As adherence<br />
to policy is high, I would say that it is very<br />
effective, but we are always looking for<br />
improvements. We want employees to have<br />
a positive and safe experience when they<br />
travel on business as employee wellbeing is<br />
very important to us as a company.<br />
My biggest challenge is to ensure the<br />
varied stakeholders’ needs are met. <strong>The</strong><br />
standards required are high and it can<br />
sometimes be a challenge to meet the<br />
expectations while adhering to the policy<br />
and the need to manage costs.<br />
We want employees<br />
to have a positive<br />
and safe experience when<br />
they travel on business as<br />
wellbeing is very important<br />
to us as a company”<br />
24 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM
THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE<br />
<strong>2018</strong> CHRISTMAS PARTY<br />
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11<br />
THE GRANGE ST PAUL'S, LONDON<br />
To book your place, or for further information, see thebusinesstravelmag.com
awards<br />
meet the winner<br />
Natalie Payne<br />
Fello’s Natalie Payne was named Operations Manager of the Year<br />
at <strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> People Awards <strong>2018</strong><br />
How did it feel to win<br />
the Operations Manager<br />
of the Year award?<br />
I was very surprised and<br />
obviously delighted! I<br />
knew it was a popular<br />
category as there is a lot<br />
of talent in our industry, so it was a huge<br />
honour to be recognised.<br />
Why did you decide to enter the awards<br />
or how did you come to be nominated?<br />
Fello Group CEO Simone Buckley did it –<br />
unbeknown to me! Simone recognised that<br />
while I had the job title of Team Leader, I<br />
had been performing the role of Operations<br />
Manager for over a year following the<br />
departure of the Head of Operations. It was<br />
particularly challenging during this time as<br />
Sandy Row <strong>Travel</strong> and World Club <strong>Travel</strong><br />
were merging, and we were preparing to<br />
launch our new brand, Fello.<br />
We were also without a managing director<br />
or CEO and had just won a large account to<br />
be serviced in the UK, US and Singapore. I<br />
found myself in charge of a global<br />
online and offline implementation,<br />
a team of<br />
consultants who were<br />
nervous about the<br />
merger, a GDS contract<br />
up for renewal, and a<br />
booking tool that was<br />
being phased out.<br />
Tell us about your<br />
role and the work<br />
you’ve done that<br />
clinched the award?<br />
I was responsible for the<br />
implementation of our largest-ever<br />
customer across three countries (two of<br />
which didn’t have offices) while retaining<br />
our customer base through a period of<br />
significant change. I also set up, recruited<br />
and trained our own in-house out-of-hours<br />
department, available 24/7.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong><br />
<strong>Travel</strong> People Awards<br />
recognise outstanding<br />
individuals and teams across<br />
all aspects of the supplier<br />
element of corporate travel.<br />
Nominations for the 20<strong>19</strong><br />
awards open on<br />
<strong>January</strong> 1<br />
What do you particularly enjoy about<br />
your current role?<br />
I love working with a team and the diversity<br />
of the job. No two days are the same. I am<br />
constantly challenged to find<br />
solutions to ensure the team<br />
and I give the absolute<br />
highest level of service to<br />
all our clients.<br />
What do you think<br />
of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong><br />
<strong>Travel</strong> People<br />
Awards, and of the<br />
winners’ event?<br />
It’s really important to<br />
acknowledge talent and<br />
hard work in our industry. It<br />
is motivating for the individuals<br />
concerned, but also for their team<br />
and organisation. When you are in an<br />
operational role you don’t get to attend as<br />
many industry events so it was really<br />
special to be at the awards with my peers.<br />
Being taken on a winners' trip to New York<br />
was also a fantastic privilege.<br />
It’s important to<br />
acknowledge talent<br />
and hard work. It is<br />
motivating for the individuals<br />
concerned, but also for their<br />
team and organisation”<br />
What impact do you think winning an<br />
award will have on your career?<br />
<strong>The</strong> award has really given me the<br />
confidence to progress, to constantly<br />
challenge myself and to aim high. Fello has<br />
big ambitions and I am looking forward to<br />
being part of the journey.<br />
What do you think are the business<br />
travel industry’s biggest challenges<br />
right now?<br />
As consumers we have so much access to<br />
content and so much choice. At Fello, our<br />
job is to ensure we get the best value for<br />
our clients based on their specific needs<br />
and preferences.<br />
26 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
GALLERY<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong><br />
People Awards <strong>2018</strong><br />
Winners trip<br />
to New York<br />
A bridge too far in<br />
Central Park<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> People Awards Winners Trip ▼<br />
<strong>The</strong> winners of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong><br />
People Awards <strong>2018</strong> jetted off to New<br />
York for a short break in November,<br />
with flights courtesy of Virgin Atlantic<br />
and Delta Air Lines<br />
▲ 08.11.<strong>2018</strong><br />
Exclusive transport for<br />
our group of winners<br />
With thanks to our generous<br />
event partners<br />
Taking in the Manhattan skyline<br />
NOMINATIONS OPEN JANUARY 1, 20<strong>19</strong><br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELPEOPLEAWARDS.COM
RECOGNISING EXCELLENCE<br />
IN BUSINESS TRAVEL<br />
<strong>The</strong> annual awards recognising outstanding<br />
individuals & teams in business travel<br />
Now in its<br />
8th Year!<br />
NOMINATIONS OPEN JANUARY 1, 1, 20<strong>19</strong><br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELPEOPLEAWARDS.COM
THE 20<strong>19</strong> CATEGORIES<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> People Awards<br />
categories cover a range of roles for both<br />
suppliers and agency entrants. <strong>The</strong> judges<br />
are aware that companies have many<br />
different job titles to illustrate core business<br />
responsibilities such as sales, account<br />
management and business development.<br />
It is important that nominations are<br />
entered in the category with the description<br />
that is the most appropriate.<br />
TRAVEL MANAGEMENT COMPANIES<br />
AND HOTEL BOOKING AGENCIES<br />
• Reservations Consultant of the year<br />
Recognising the individual who has<br />
demonstrated excellent customer<br />
service, a can-do attitude and the ability<br />
to go the extra mile for both colleagues<br />
and customers.<br />
• Reservations Team of the year<br />
Recognising the team that has<br />
demonstrated excellent customer<br />
service, a can-do attitude and the ability<br />
to go the extra mile for their customers.<br />
• Operations Manager of the year<br />
Recognising the individual who has<br />
demonstrated the ability to provide<br />
excellent customer service using an<br />
innovative and strategic approach across<br />
operational management.<br />
• Operations Team of the year<br />
Recognising the team that has<br />
demonstrated the ability to provide<br />
excellent customer service using an<br />
innovative and strategic approach across<br />
operational management.<br />
• Account Manager of the year<br />
Recognising the individual who takes<br />
a proactive and consultative approach<br />
to their role in order to provide<br />
unrivalled customer service, care and<br />
value to their clients.<br />
• Account Management Team<br />
of the year<br />
Recognising the team that takes a<br />
proactive and consultative approach to<br />
providing unrivalled customer service,<br />
care and value to their clients.<br />
• Sales/<strong>Business</strong> Development Manager<br />
of the year<br />
Recognising the individual who has driven<br />
growth through outstanding sales results<br />
by the development and use of a creative<br />
and successful business strategy.<br />
• Sales/<strong>Business</strong> Development Team of<br />
the year<br />
Recognising the team that has driven<br />
growth through outstanding sales results<br />
by the development and use of a creative<br />
and successful business strategy.<br />
MICE CATEGORIES<br />
• Meetings & Events Manager of the year<br />
Recognising the individual who has<br />
demonstrated the ability to provide<br />
excellent customer service or<br />
event management and project<br />
management using an innovative,<br />
practical, strategic approach across<br />
the operational delivery of meetings<br />
and/or events.<br />
• Meetings & Events Team of the year<br />
Recognising the team or department<br />
that has demonstrated the ability to<br />
provide excellent customer service or<br />
event management and project<br />
management using innovative,<br />
practical, strategic approach across<br />
the operational delivery of meetings<br />
and/or events.<br />
SUPPLIER CATEGORIES<br />
(Air, accommodation, ground transport<br />
(car hire and rail), online booking tools,<br />
GDS, data management services)<br />
• Account Manager of the year<br />
Recognising the individual who<br />
demonstrates impeccable product<br />
knowledge and takes a proactive and<br />
consultative approach to their role in<br />
order to provide unrivalled customer<br />
service, care and value to a TMC, HBA<br />
and/or corporate customer.<br />
• Account Management Team of the year<br />
Recognising the team that demonstrates<br />
impeccable product knowledge and takes<br />
a proactive and consultative approach<br />
to their role in order to provide unrivalled<br />
customer service, care and value to a<br />
TMC, HBA and/or corporate customer.<br />
• Sales/<strong>Business</strong> Development Manager<br />
of the year<br />
Recognising the individual who has<br />
driven outstanding sales growth through<br />
the development and use of a creative<br />
and successful business strategy.<br />
• Sales/<strong>Business</strong> Development Team of<br />
the year<br />
Recognising the team that has driven<br />
outstanding sales growth through the<br />
development and use of a creative and<br />
successful business strategy.<br />
INDUSTRY CATEGORIES<br />
• Rising Star award<br />
Recognising an outstanding individual<br />
from any sector of the business travel<br />
industry who is under 35 years of age.<br />
Entrants should have demonstrated a<br />
desire to develop into a business<br />
leader of the future.<br />
• Best Newcomer<br />
Recognising an individual from any<br />
sector of business travel who has been<br />
involved in the industry for less than<br />
two years. This person will have shown<br />
an aptitude and appetite to develop<br />
their role in the sector.<br />
NOMINATIONS OPEN JANUARY 1, 20<strong>19</strong><br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELPEOPLEAWARDS.COM
A smarter<br />
partnership<br />
Whether you’re heading to New York,<br />
LA or somewhere amazing in between,<br />
we’ll fly you there in style<br />
It’s the little things...<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>ling with us is about so much more than simply stepping<br />
on a plane. It’s about the entire experience from airport<br />
arrival to destination.<br />
We make flying for business as fuss-free as possible, with<br />
luxurious lounges, easy airport transfer options,<br />
combined, convenient schedules and bags checked<br />
through from start to finish for a seamless travel<br />
experience. Our mutual loyalty programmes and<br />
reciprocal lounge access* are a nice little touch<br />
too, as is our approach to customers, who we<br />
look after as individuals. Onboard Virgin<br />
Atlantic Upper Class and Delta One® we<br />
boast fully flat beds, perfect for refreshing,<br />
undisturbed sleep, and we’re the only<br />
fully WiFi ** connected transatlantic<br />
joint venture, keeping customers in<br />
touch with the outside world.
It all starts at London<br />
Heathrow, Terminal 3<br />
Upper Class and Delta One customers<br />
enjoy loads of brilliant benefits at<br />
Terminal 3, London Heathrow, where<br />
we’re co-located.<br />
Arrive in style<br />
Virgin Atlantic customers can arrive<br />
in style at the Upper Class Wing with<br />
our chauffeur driven car service^, while<br />
travellers on both airlines can take<br />
advantage of the Upper Class Wing<br />
by arriving in their own car or taxi.<br />
Breeze through<br />
the airport<br />
Navigating a busy airport has<br />
never been easier with Drive Thru<br />
Check In and our Private Security<br />
Channel, enabling travellers to focus<br />
on work, not their travel itinerary. <strong>The</strong><br />
Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse provides the<br />
perfect stop off to continue working<br />
or simply wind down before a flight,<br />
while priority boarding gets customers<br />
settled in their seats quicker.<br />
Relaxation starts at<br />
ground level<br />
At London Heathrow, Delta SkyMiles®<br />
Diamond and Platinum Medallion®<br />
Members are invited to use the<br />
Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, while Gold<br />
Medallion® Members can indulge in the<br />
No.1 <strong>Travel</strong>ler Lounge. Diamond and<br />
Platinum Medallion Members can also<br />
use the Private Security Channel and<br />
the Virgin Atlantic Revivals Lounge.<br />
Back in Blighty<br />
Get straight back to business in<br />
London Heathrow at the Virgin Atlantic<br />
Revivals Lounge with a hot shower,<br />
delicious breakfast and clothes<br />
pressing/mending service, and whisked<br />
off to onward destinations with a<br />
pre-booked chauffeur car*.<br />
Start spreading<br />
the news<br />
As well as our shared Heathrow hub we<br />
share a convenient flight schedule,<br />
providing eight flights to New York JFK<br />
daily and one flight to Newark. Flights<br />
are scheduled from London Heathrow<br />
throughout the day, and even depart<br />
every 30 minutes from New York JFK<br />
to London Heathrow during the early<br />
evening. We’re expanding services at<br />
a regional level too, with daily flights<br />
from Manchester, Edinburgh and<br />
Glasgow^^ to New York JFK, and we’re<br />
keeping customers connected to over<br />
200 North American destinations via<br />
Delta’s extensive network.<br />
Frequent flyer perks<br />
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and Delta<br />
SkyMiles Members benefit from<br />
generous perks, brilliant news for<br />
frequent flyers. Naturally, members<br />
earn miles every time they fly, but<br />
they also scoop miles on each other’s<br />
services and across our partner<br />
airlines’ services too. So, Flying Club<br />
members earn miles on Delta flights,<br />
while SkyMiles Members earn<br />
Medallion Qualification Miles (MQMs)<br />
on eligible Virgin Atlantic flights and<br />
can use their miles on eligible Virgin<br />
Atlantic flights too.<br />
That’s not all. Flying Club Gold<br />
members will earn 60% more of<br />
the base flown Flying Club miles<br />
when they travel on any Delta flight<br />
(Silver members receive 30% more)<br />
and enjoy Sky Priority® benefits when<br />
flying Delta, as well as gaining access<br />
to Delta Sky Club® on any Delta<br />
transatlantic ticket.<br />
Please contact your TMC for more information or to book<br />
* At certain membership levels. ** From £4.99. ^ Chauffeur driven car service available at most destinations with selected Upper Class fares.<br />
Also available to book at a preferential rate. Mileage restrictions apply. ^^ Seasonal daily service from Glasgow to New York JFK.
premium economy<br />
rise<br />
of the middle class<br />
An increasing focus on employee welfare coupled with<br />
a more creative approach to cost-saving is breathing<br />
new life into premium economy, writes Kerry Reals<br />
Premium economy cabins have<br />
come of age. After a slow and<br />
steady rise in popularity since<br />
taking to the skies with Virgin Atlantic<br />
and EVA Air in the early <strong>19</strong>90s, the area<br />
between the highest- and lowest-yielding<br />
seats on the aircraft is now the centre of<br />
attention as airlines – and passengers –<br />
increasingly realise its potential.<br />
This previously slow-burning trend is<br />
rapidly becoming hotter as a growing list of<br />
airlines find the temptation of introducing a<br />
failsafe product, capable of performing well<br />
in both good and bad economic times, too<br />
difficult to resist.<br />
Sandwiched between business class and<br />
economy, the premium economy cabin<br />
provides a quieter, less cramped alternative<br />
to the back of the bus at a fraction of the<br />
cost of the pointier end, but with some of<br />
the elevated perks.<br />
For travel management companies this<br />
product, the 'compromise cabin', offers a<br />
sweet spot for cost-conscious corporations<br />
looking to keep employees happy and<br />
productive while simultaneously appeasing<br />
their finance divisions.<br />
However, TMCs “have to be able to adapt<br />
their business to these new dynamics” to<br />
ensure they can meet the evolving needs<br />
and expectations of their customers,<br />
according to Richard Johnson, Director<br />
Solutions Group EMEA and APAC at Carlson<br />
Wagonlit <strong>Travel</strong>.<br />
“Premium economy has an important role<br />
to play in the corporate travel market as<br />
companies seek to balance the need for<br />
strong cost management with a growing<br />
appreciation of the importance of traveller<br />
wellbeing and ensuring productivity when<br />
travelling for business, ” says Johnson.<br />
“This is likely to become even more<br />
important when we consider the rise of<br />
ultra-long-haul flights, where premium<br />
economy can be compelling for companies<br />
with tightly managed budgets.”<br />
Indeed, Singapore Airlines has eliminated<br />
the economy cabin entirely on its new ultralong-haul<br />
Newark-Singapore route. Having<br />
apparently decided that nobody in their<br />
right mind would want to fly in economy<br />
class non-stop for 18hr 45mins, the airline<br />
has configured the Airbus A350-900ULR<br />
aircraft deployed on this route in a twoclass<br />
layout, featuring 67 business class<br />
seats and 94 premium economy seats.<br />
Johnson believes premium economy<br />
“offers more comfort for a better price”<br />
on medium- to long-haul flights when<br />
compared to business or first class.<br />
However, investments in technology are<br />
key to enabling TMCs to provide their<br />
customers with a detailed comparisonshopping<br />
experience in a world of<br />
expanding premium economy options.<br />
“It’s becoming increasingly imperative for<br />
businesses to work with TMCs with strong<br />
technology partners, who are able to <br />
32 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
premium economy<br />
<strong>The</strong> number of<br />
airlines offering<br />
premium economy has grown<br />
from a small handful in the<br />
<strong>19</strong>90s to in excess of 25 today”<br />
Cathay Pacific<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
33
premium economy<br />
ANA<br />
provide accurate and comprehensive<br />
content choices for their travellers,” he says.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> right technology can provide access<br />
to rich images of airline seat options and<br />
other airline products. This gives companies<br />
better value and coverage of available<br />
airline content,” Johnson adds.<br />
<strong>The</strong> number of airlines offering premium<br />
economy has grown from a small handful of<br />
trailblazers in the <strong>19</strong>90s to in excess of 25<br />
today, with new carriers jumping on board<br />
all the time. A trend that initially started in<br />
Europe and Asia with Virgin Atlantic and EVA<br />
Air has spread across the globe, with the<br />
latest converts being in North America and<br />
the Middle East.<br />
Virgin Atlantic’s popular premium<br />
economy cabin entered service in <strong>19</strong>92 and<br />
was branded Mid Class. <strong>The</strong> airline says it<br />
was aimed at “the cost-conscious business<br />
traveller, or leisure travellers looking to<br />
treat themselves”.<br />
<strong>The</strong> product was rebranded in <strong>19</strong>94 as<br />
Premium Economy and again in <strong>2018</strong> as<br />
Premium. It is available on all routes and all<br />
aircraft types across the carrier’s fleet.<br />
Premium upgrades<br />
Wise to the fact that its competitors are<br />
jumping on the bandwagon, Virgin Atlantic<br />
says it is “continually updating” its premium<br />
economy product. In addition to 21-inchwide<br />
leather seats with a 38-inch pitch,<br />
dedicated check-in and bag drop, a meal<br />
served on china crockery with real cutlery, a<br />
Norwegian<br />
glass of bubbly on boarding, an amenity kit<br />
and an extra checked baggage allowance,<br />
the airline has added more features designed<br />
to make its Premium cabin stand out.<br />
“When we introduced our Boeing 787<br />
aircraft in 2014 we introduced a Wander<br />
Wall at the front of the Premium cabin. We<br />
know customers like to stretch their legs<br />
and help themselves to snacks throughout<br />
the flight and the Wander Wall is a social<br />
space where they can socialise with their<br />
fellow travellers and chat to crew while<br />
helping themselves to complimentary<br />
snacks and refreshments,” says the airline.<br />
Virgin Atlantic has also spent the last 12<br />
months working with celebrity chef Donal<br />
Skehan to “reinvent” its in-flight dining<br />
experience. <strong>The</strong> new Dine with Donal dishes<br />
debuted in the airline’s Upper Class cabins<br />
in October and will be available in the<br />
Premium and Economy cabins next year.<br />
When the airline adds the Airbus A350 to<br />
its fleet in 20<strong>19</strong>, it will provide “a great<br />
opportunity to look at all our cabins and<br />
what they offer customers”. Details on what<br />
the premium economy cabin on the A350s<br />
will look like, however, remain strictly under<br />
wraps until the New Year.<br />
Fellow premium economy pioneer EVA Air<br />
is also attempting to differentiate its<br />
product as more airlines seek to emulate<br />
what it started in <strong>19</strong>92. <strong>The</strong> Taiwan-based<br />
carrier announced earlier this year that it<br />
has decided to “call it what it is” and rebrand<br />
the ’in-between cabin’ as Premium Economy.<br />
US carriers arrived<br />
very late to the<br />
premium economy party.<br />
First to turn up was<br />
American Airlines in 2016”<br />
It was previously known as Elite Class.<br />
Alongside the name change came two new<br />
amenity kits from skincare specialists Erno<br />
Laszlo and THANN, and new bedding too.<br />
Cathay Pacific, which introduced a<br />
premium economy product in March 2012,<br />
is also in the process of upgrading its<br />
offering. When the Hong Kong-based carrier<br />
added the Airbus A350-900 to its fleet in<br />
May 2016, it installed its second generation<br />
of premium economy seats. <strong>The</strong> new seats<br />
are also being rolled out across select<br />
routes served by its A350-1000 aircraft.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> A350 premium economy seat sets a<br />
new standard for Cathay Pacific,” says the<br />
carrier’s Marketing and Digital Sales<br />
Manager for the UK and Ireland, Paul<br />
Cruttenden. “It offers additional features<br />
including dedicated tablet holders that<br />
make it easy for passengers to enjoy<br />
entertainment content on their own devices,<br />
power outlets and USB power ports.<br />
“Each premium economy class seat has a<br />
full-length leg rest which, together with the<br />
ergonomically designed seat, allows more<br />
flexibility to adjust for optimal comfort.”<br />
Late arrivals<br />
While premium economy cabins have been<br />
springing up throughout Europe and Asia<br />
over the last quarter of a century, US<br />
airlines arrived late to the party. First to<br />
turn up was American Airlines, which began<br />
selling the new class towards the end of<br />
2016 across its international widebody fleet.<br />
Next was Delta Air Lines, which began<br />
rolling out its Premium Select product on<br />
certain international flights in late 2017.<br />
Delta’s Airbus A350s feature 48 Premium<br />
Select seats, sandwiched between 32 Delta<br />
One business class seats and 226 Main<br />
Cabin seats. United Airlines was the last US<br />
major to throw its hat into the ring when it<br />
34 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
premium economy<br />
Singapore Airlines<br />
announced earlier this year that it will<br />
launch a premium economy product,<br />
branded Premium Plus, in early 20<strong>19</strong>.<br />
<strong>The</strong> premium economy trend will head<br />
next to the Middle East, where Emirates<br />
will begin introducing the cabin on its new<br />
Airbus A380s in 2020. <strong>The</strong> Dubai-based<br />
carrier has been quiet on the details, but<br />
Emirates President Tim Clark said earlier<br />
this year that “it will be an Emirates<br />
premium economy, and it will be special”.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is no indication yet that Gulf rival<br />
Qatar Airways plans to follow suit. Chief<br />
Executive Akbar Al Baker has previously<br />
ruled out the possibility of introducing<br />
premium economy. However, Abu Dhabibased<br />
Etihad Airways hinted earlier this<br />
year that it might enter the fray. If the trend<br />
does catch on in this region, Qatar Airways<br />
could find that it has no choice but to follow<br />
its regional competitors.<br />
Back in Europe, Finnair recently<br />
announced it will introduce premium<br />
economy on long-haul flights from 2020,<br />
but stopped short of releasing any details.<br />
Cost benefits<br />
For some, it is puzzling that it has taken so<br />
long for premium economy to catch on. But<br />
despite a slow start, a number of factors<br />
suggest it is the product’s time to shine.<br />
”In some ways it is surprising that it’s taken<br />
this long for the cabin to spread through<br />
the industry,” says Institute of <strong>Travel</strong><br />
Management Chief Executive Scott Davies.<br />
With premium economy seats selling for<br />
roughly double the amount charged in the<br />
economy class cabin, versus quadruple the<br />
amount for a business class seat,<br />
businesses ”can do double the number of<br />
trips with premium economy”, making it a<br />
very attractive product.<br />
Despite launching in the early <strong>19</strong>90s,<br />
premium economy did not really start to<br />
take off until 2009 when the global<br />
recession started to bite.<br />
“Airlines saw that many companies were<br />
cutting costs by reducing their business<br />
class policy. Consequently, instead of having<br />
corporate travellers fall down to economy,<br />
the airlines began to push premium<br />
economy,” says Eric Olson, Senior Consultant<br />
at American Express Global <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong>.<br />
Carriers also began to “entice companies<br />
who strictly bought economy seats with<br />
premium economy, in the hope that they<br />
would eventually upgrade,” adds Olson.<br />
However, online travel agencies and GDSs<br />
were initially “reluctant to incorporate it..<br />
due to an un-streamlined process which<br />
often required manual search”, meaning<br />
that adoption was slow.<br />
“We advise organisations that are<br />
interested in premium economy to climb on<br />
board sooner rather than later, as they are<br />
currently in a good position to negotiate a<br />
‘first-mover’ advantage with the airlines<br />
before premium economy takes off<br />
entirely,” says Olson, adding that premium<br />
economy could soon “become a prevalent<br />
option for corporates”.<br />
According to Raj Sachdave, Managing<br />
Partner at business travel consultancy Black<br />
Box Partnerships, travel policy in corporate<br />
markets is shifting when it comes to<br />
managing budgets. Premium economy<br />
products fit in well because they enable<br />
companies to “give an experience that ticks<br />
five out of eight boxes” normally associated<br />
with business class, but without the skyhigh<br />
price tag.<br />
“Another important point is that as<br />
millennials start rising through the corporate<br />
ranks they bring with them different<br />
expectations to their predecessors because<br />
they’ve been through the [economic] pain of<br />
the last ten years,” says Sachdave.<br />
”Airlines are getting ready for a<br />
refactoring of the classes,” he notes. While<br />
there will always be a level of demand from<br />
high net worth individuals for the highyielding<br />
business class seats, there is an<br />
increasing ”value and benefit of enjoying a<br />
comfortable experience without the bells<br />
and whistles”.<br />
<br />
Air Canada<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
35
premium economy<br />
Carlson Wagonlit’s Johnson points to a<br />
market that is still very much in its infancy<br />
but with significant potential for growth.<br />
“Currently, we only see around a quarter of<br />
our clients with policies that allow their<br />
travellers to book the premium economy<br />
cabin class, which suggests that there’s still<br />
a lot of room for growth for premium<br />
economy in corporate travel,” he says.<br />
“Premium economy as an offer theoretically<br />
gives travel buyers a few more options in<br />
how they manage their policies on premium<br />
travel,” says Johnson.<br />
This includes the possibility of adopting<br />
a mix-and-match approach of flying<br />
employees in business class for overnight<br />
flights and premium economy for daytime<br />
flights, Johnson adds.<br />
Virgin Atlantic has seen evidence of this,<br />
noting that “we do see business travellers<br />
choosing to fly Premium on day flights and<br />
then investing in our Upper Class flat beds<br />
on night flights”.<br />
Johnson believes that premium economy<br />
is coming to the fore as employee welfare<br />
becomes more of an issue, with companies<br />
moving staff up from economy, rather than<br />
seeing it as a way of downgrading people<br />
from business class, a point backed up by<br />
Cathay Pacific.<br />
“We have seen little or no trading down<br />
on our London to Hong Kong route and find<br />
that with larger companies, business class is<br />
still permitted within their policies for flights<br />
of more than an eight-hour duration,” says<br />
Cathay's Cruttenden.<br />
“Where we find strong and growing<br />
demand for premium economy is from the<br />
SME market, which traditionally has a<br />
tighter travel budget. It is worth noting that<br />
some SMEs who were travelling in economy<br />
are now trading up to premium economy.”<br />
Looking to the future, premium economy<br />
cabins could follow the trend seen in<br />
business class and become even more<br />
luxurious, as airlines seek to outdo one<br />
another in the search for incremental<br />
business. ITM’s Davies certainly hopes so:<br />
“It might be a pipe dream but it’s possible to<br />
imagine bunk beds in premium economy as<br />
well as flat beds in business class,” he says.<br />
[ premium picks – how the airlines compare ]<br />
Aeroflot (Comfort Class) – Meals from<br />
business class menu; personal travel kit;<br />
reclining seats<br />
Air Canada (Premium Economy) – Ambient<br />
mood lighting; seat has 38-inch pitch and<br />
7-inch recline; in-seat power<br />
Air France (Premium Economy) – Seat<br />
reclines up to 130 degrees within fixed<br />
shell; noise-reducing headset<br />
Air New Zealand (Premium Economy) –<br />
41-inch pitch leather seat; winner of<br />
Skytrax Best Premium Economy <strong>2018</strong><br />
All Nippon Airways (Premium Economy)<br />
– Lounge access; business class dessert;<br />
38-inch seat pitch<br />
Alitalia (Premium Economy) – Dedicated<br />
check-in; 17 or 24 ergonomic seats with<br />
120-degree recline<br />
American Airlines (Premium Economy)<br />
– Complimentary beer, wine and<br />
spirits; bedding designed by sleep technology<br />
company Casper<br />
Austrian Airlines (Premium Economy) –<br />
Welcome drink; separate central armrest<br />
with fold-out table; 12-inch IFE screen<br />
British Airways (World <strong>Travel</strong>ler Plus) –<br />
Ongoing interiors upgrade to include<br />
greater seat recline and 60% larger seatback<br />
screen<br />
Cathay Pacific (Premium Economy) –<br />
Dedicated tablet holders; full-length leg rest;<br />
amenity kit; meals served on china plates<br />
China Airlines (Premium Economy) –<br />
39-inch pitch with fixed-back recline;<br />
12-inch HD monitor<br />
China Southern Airlines (Premium<br />
Economy) – 38-inch pitch reclining seats<br />
Delta Air Lines (Premium Select) –<br />
Dedicated in-cabin flight attendant;<br />
Tumi amenity kit<br />
El Al (Premium Class) – Meals served in<br />
porcelain dishes; 13-inch monitor<br />
EVA Air (Premium Economy) – Dedicated<br />
check-in; Haagen Dazs ice cream; Erno<br />
Laszlo and THANN amenity kits<br />
Japan Airlines (Premium Economy) –<br />
42-inch seat pitch with fixed-back<br />
recline; amenity kits include slippers<br />
LOT Polish Airlines (Premium Economy)<br />
– Dedicated check-in; meals from<br />
business class menu<br />
Lufthansa (Premium Economy) – Fruity<br />
welcome drink; lounge access (for<br />
additional charge); meals served on china plates<br />
Norwegian (Premium) – 43-inch pitch;<br />
lounge access; three-course meal<br />
SAS (SAS Plus) – Lounge access; free WiFi;<br />
three-course meal<br />
Singapore Airlines (Premium Economy) –<br />
Seat reclines up to 8 inches; option to<br />
reserve 'Book the Cook' dishes 24 hours in<br />
advance<br />
Qantas (Premium Economy) – Cabins<br />
have 32 to 40 seats and dedicated flight<br />
attendant; noise-cancelling headsets<br />
Thomas Cook Airlines (Premium Class)<br />
– 35-inch pitch with 6-inch recline; menu<br />
designed by celebrity chef James Martin<br />
TUI (Premium Club) – Lounge access;<br />
fast-track through security<br />
United Airlines (Premium Plus) –<br />
21-24 Premium Plus seats, depending on<br />
aircraft, being rolled out<br />
Vietnam Airlines (Premium Economy) –<br />
7/8-inch seat recline; 38-inch pitch on<br />
A350s, 42-inch pitch on B787s<br />
Virgin Atlantic (Premium) – Dedicated<br />
check-in and bag drop; welcome drink<br />
and newspaper; meals served on china plates<br />
36 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
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lowest fares on point to point routes* from<br />
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direct distribution channels (Lufthansa<br />
Group airlines’ NDC API including SPRK,<br />
austrian.com, lufthansa.com and swiss.com).<br />
As from this date, the Economy Light (LGT)<br />
of Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa and SWISS<br />
will no longer be available in the GDS. <strong>The</strong><br />
current NDC Best Fare will remain in place<br />
for the London gateways, London Heathrow<br />
and London City, where a saving of almost<br />
GBP30 on a round trip can be made.<br />
Lufthansa Group airlines is an industry leader<br />
in the distribution topic and will continue to<br />
invest in this field. Currently engaged in more<br />
than 70 Lufthansa Group airlines NDC API<br />
projects in the UK, Lufthansa Group airlines<br />
also support the free of charge NDC webbased<br />
booking platform SPRK. In order to<br />
motivate trade partners who have invested in<br />
NDC technology or are in the process of doing<br />
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To find out about Lufthansa Group’s NDC Partner Program visit<br />
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UK hotels update<br />
Rooms<br />
boom<br />
Brexit is coming but so are thousands of new UK<br />
hotel rooms – but will this extra capacity benefit<br />
travel buyers in 20<strong>19</strong> and beyond, asks Rob Gill<br />
Premier Inn<br />
Forecasts about the likely movement<br />
in UK hotel prices during 20<strong>19</strong><br />
have arrived with a very big<br />
asterisk marked Brexit, particularly<br />
when it comes to the prospect of there<br />
being no deal between the UK and EU<br />
from March 29 onwards.<br />
But if we ignore that ominous cloud (as<br />
difficult as that may be), most predictions<br />
suggest that hotel rates in the UK will rise<br />
during 20<strong>19</strong>, although perhaps not as much<br />
as in other parts of Europe.<br />
BCD <strong>Travel</strong> is estimating an overall rise in<br />
UK rates of between 3% and 5%, while rival<br />
travel management company Carlson<br />
Wagonlit <strong>Travel</strong> (CWT) forecasts a 3.5% yearon-year<br />
increase, including a 4% hike for<br />
rates at “upscale” properties. This compares<br />
with CWT’s overall forecast for a 5.6% rise in<br />
rates across western Europe for 20<strong>19</strong>.<br />
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) thinks that<br />
the increase in UK rates will be even more<br />
restrained with average daily rates (ADR) up<br />
by just £1 to £150 for London next year, and<br />
a similarly slow rise in the rest of the UK<br />
from an average rate of £72 to £73.<br />
More the merrier<br />
Whatever happens with Brexit, it is unlikely<br />
to derail – at least in the short term – the<br />
development and opening of an impressive<br />
array of new hotels around the UK.<br />
London is expected to see the addition of<br />
11,600 hotel rooms by 2020 on top of the<br />
existing 140,000 rooms in the capital,<br />
according to a report by promotional<br />
agency London & Partners and property<br />
manager JLL. Major projects include <strong>The</strong><br />
Londoner in Leicester Square, the former<br />
US embassy in Grosvenor Square being<br />
converted into a Rosewood property,<br />
Hard Rock Hotel London (taking over<br />
<strong>The</strong> Cumberland) and Art’otel London<br />
Battersea Power Station.<br />
But this extra capacity may not lead to<br />
lower rates for travel buyers, especially if<br />
the hurdle of a so-called “hard Brexit” is<br />
successfully avoided in the coming months.<br />
David Chappell, Technology Director at<br />
TMC Fello, says: “I doubt that the projected<br />
additional capacity will result in a lower<br />
price for the end user, as even with the<br />
uncertainty of Brexit, demand remains high<br />
and the combination of London being both<br />
a strong leisure and business destination<br />
will likely not see prices fall in the near to<br />
medium term.”<br />
38 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
UK HoTELS UPDATE<br />
Consolidation of<br />
the global hotel<br />
industry has not resulted in<br />
a reduction in the number<br />
of brands being operated by<br />
these growing giants. In fact,<br />
the opposite is true”<br />
However, hotel booking portal HRS says<br />
it has seen rates in London fall by 5% in<br />
<strong>2018</strong> following a “reduction in business<br />
investment due to uncertainty as Brexit<br />
nears” and adds that a period of “greater<br />
currency volatility would be unhelpful”.<br />
Outside London, PwC says there will be an<br />
estimated 21,760 new rooms introduced<br />
across the rest of the UK during 20<strong>19</strong>. Major<br />
growth is expected in Manchester with<br />
another 1,200 hotel rooms scheduled to be<br />
added in 20<strong>19</strong>, while there will also be<br />
significant new developments in other key<br />
cities such as Edinburgh, Glasgow,<br />
Aberdeen and Liverpool.<br />
UK-orientated budget brands, such as<br />
Premier Inn and <strong>Travel</strong>odge, continue to<br />
lead the way in terms of openings.<br />
Whitbread-owned Premier Inn currently has<br />
13,000 UK rooms in the “pipeline”, while<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>odge opened its 395-room flagship<br />
London City hotel earlier this year, which<br />
will be among 20 new openings for the<br />
brand during <strong>2018</strong>.<br />
But it’s not just these low-cost brands<br />
opening new properties, CWT has estimated<br />
there will be more than 70 independent<br />
boutique-style hotels opening across the UK<br />
by the end of 20<strong>19</strong> adding 6,100 rooms.<br />
Budget-boutique brand Point A Hotels is<br />
typical, adding Edinburgh and London<br />
Kensington to its existing portfolio of seven<br />
properties in June and July respectively.<br />
Despite more rooms coming on to the<br />
market, Alwyn Burrage, Supplier Relations<br />
Manager at ATPI UK, agrees there is<br />
“upward pricing pressure” with higher<br />
labour costs helping to push up rates.<br />
“London is doing extremely well – tourism<br />
is always a factor,” he says. “We see<br />
Manchester levelling off as more capacity<br />
comes into market but with some hotels<br />
moving upmarket on rates and product.<br />
“Bristol is the fastest-growing city for<br />
mid-week rates with Hinkley Point C<br />
[construction of a new nuclear power<br />
station] being a factor. Birmingham rates<br />
are rising with HS2 and more corporate<br />
relocations into the area – such as HSBC –<br />
are also pushing up rates.”<br />
Penny Munn, Head of Supplier Relations<br />
for Corporate <strong>Travel</strong> Management (CTM),<br />
adds: “<strong>The</strong> feeling from our hotel partners is<br />
that they are absolutely maximising their<br />
revenues where business is strong, but<br />
there are deals to be done where business<br />
is softer, especially in the regions.”<br />
What's in a name?<br />
<strong>The</strong> consolidation of the global hotel<br />
industry – as illustrated by Marriott’s<br />
acquisition of Starwood and Accor’s buying<br />
spree of smaller hotel groups such as<br />
Movenpick – has not resulted in a reduction<br />
in the number of brands being operated by<br />
these growing hotel giants. In fact, the<br />
opposite is true.<br />
Indeed, Marriott shows no desire to<br />
reduce its current portfolio of 30 brands,<br />
and the name of the game seems to be in<br />
driving product differentiation through<br />
myriad brands as a way of capturing more<br />
business and maintaining higher hotel<br />
rates. For example, InterContinental Hotels<br />
Group (IHG) has launched a new upscale<br />
“conversion” brand called voco, which<br />
includes the former Principal St David’s<br />
Hotel in Cardiff.<br />
This trend is also evident in the UK budget<br />
sector where both Premier Inn and<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>odge have launched new sub-brands.<br />
Premier Inn has already established its Hub<br />
by Premier Inn brand which offers rooms<br />
around 45% smaller than in its standard<br />
properties at around 11.4m 2 . While the new<br />
ZIP by Premier Inn brand will offer even<br />
smaller rooms (8.5m 2 ) when it launches in<br />
Cardiff next year.<br />
Brands focused on offering smaller rooms<br />
(often without windows) are nothing new in<br />
the UK, with the likes of easyHotels,<br />
Malmaison<br />
Macdonald Hotels<br />
Zip by Premier Inn<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
39
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UK HoTELS UPDATE<br />
Some brands<br />
offer dynamic rate<br />
programmes to accommodate<br />
a broad range of audiences.<br />
But multiple studies prove<br />
they are not the best avenue to<br />
the lowest corporate rate”<br />
YotelAir and Z Hotels already well<br />
established in this market. A report by<br />
property consultant Lambert Smith Hampton<br />
found that 18% of new UK hotel rooms in<br />
<strong>2018</strong> were of “compact size”, which was an<br />
annual record for the industry.<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>odge, meanwhile, has gone the<br />
other way with the launch of its enhanced<br />
SuperRooms, which are billed as being a<br />
“premium economy” product featuring<br />
in-room coffee machines, mood lighting and<br />
pillow choices. <strong>The</strong>se upgraded rooms form<br />
a major part of the new <strong>Travel</strong>odge Plus<br />
properties, which also feature bar cafes.<br />
Consultant Raj Sachdave, Managing<br />
Partner at Black Box Partnerships, also cites<br />
Marriott’s Moxy brand as offering a<br />
“differentiated product and service” from<br />
the company’s more mainstream brands.<br />
“Moxy’s a really interesting brand because<br />
they are almost in B locations,” he adds.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y may not be in the centre of a city but<br />
Art'otel Battersea Power Station<br />
the pitch to the traveller is that they will get<br />
a much smarter experience than a property<br />
in that A location.”<br />
Dual-branded properties continue to be<br />
a leading trend for the big players in the<br />
market such as Accor, Marriott and IHG – a<br />
recent example is IHG’s new Crowne Plaza/<br />
Holiday Inn Express at Heathrow’s Terminal<br />
4, which has a combined 761 rooms.<br />
<strong>The</strong> price to pay<br />
One of the biggest debates around hotel<br />
sourcing is whether traditional corporate<br />
rates are still the best avenue for travel<br />
buyers – particularly in a world where hotels<br />
are using increasingly sophisticated dynamic<br />
pricing strategies and have been pushing<br />
for more direct bookings from both<br />
business and leisure travellers.<br />
Rachel Newns, Hotel Programme Manager<br />
at FCM <strong>Travel</strong> Solutions, says: “A fixed rate<br />
programme still forms the core for many UK<br />
organisations. In high-volume locations they<br />
offer better value to companies than<br />
dynamic pricing and offer companies the<br />
opportunity to better predict their future<br />
travel spend.<br />
Jurys Inn<br />
“However, many customers are focusing<br />
effort into their top travel destinations and<br />
then using dynamic pricing to provide<br />
greater coverage in the form of chain-wide<br />
or regional dynamic discounts.”<br />
A lot of organisations are opting for this<br />
two-tier strategy by looking for negotiated<br />
rates on their highest volume hotels or<br />
chains, and then using dynamic pricing for<br />
the rest of their programme. But it’s not<br />
always a simple choice as different rates<br />
may have different inclusions and conditions.<br />
Chris Crowley, HRS’s Vice President EMEA,<br />
says: “Some brands offer dynamic rate<br />
programmes to accommodate a broad<br />
range of audiences. But our multiple studies<br />
on a variety of corporate programmes have<br />
proven that dynamic rates are not the best<br />
avenue to the lowest corporate rate.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> quest for the lowest rate can often<br />
impact the flexibility and ancillary items<br />
attached to a rate – these are items that are<br />
often important to business travellers.”<br />
Hotel companies’ enthusiasm for dynamic<br />
pricing and direct bookings may also seem<br />
to be a challenge to the traditional RFP<br />
procurement process.<br />
<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
41
UK HoTELS UPDATE<br />
<strong>The</strong> RFP process helps<br />
and supports hotels by<br />
underpinning their revenue<br />
strategy because they are<br />
getting guaranteed business”<br />
Steve Fitz-Costa, AccorHotels’ Director of<br />
Sales – <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong>, states the case for<br />
the hotels: “Shifting to a high percentage of<br />
dynamic pricing has huge benefits. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
are significant costs associated with<br />
applying a detailed RFP across many<br />
destinations – both monetary and time.<br />
“Corporates need availability in all of their<br />
destinations and dynamic pricing offers a<br />
high level of availability while at the same<br />
time delivering a guaranteed discount<br />
based on their total global spend.”<br />
While Accor operates a “blended model”<br />
featuring both negotiated and dynamic<br />
prices, Fitz-Costa adds: “While RFPs secure<br />
a rate year-round, regardless of spikes in<br />
prices, this could mean that in the event<br />
of a drop, travel buyers could be seeing<br />
their contracted rates higher on certain<br />
days of the week.”<br />
But Black Box’s Raj Sachdave doesn’t think<br />
the days of the RFP are numbered because<br />
they can still be advantageous for hotels. He<br />
says: “<strong>The</strong> RFP process helps and supports<br />
hotels by underpinning their revenue<br />
strategy because they are essentially getting<br />
guaranteed business. Hotels are still hungry<br />
for RFPs. If you don’t participate, then you’re<br />
throwing away that guaranteed business.”<br />
Integration game<br />
Another growing issue has been in how to<br />
incorporate the likes of Premier Inn and<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>odge, whose businesses are essentially<br />
built around direct bookings, into corporate<br />
booking platforms.<br />
Technology is the obvious answer, with<br />
content from these budget brands now fed<br />
into online booking tools through API links.<br />
“<strong>Travel</strong>odge content is readily available<br />
through booking channels depending on<br />
the tool chosen and the price plan – GDS or<br />
booking fee – that the client wishes to pay,”<br />
Rosewood Grosvenor Square<br />
says ATPI’s Alwyn Burrage. “<strong>The</strong> same<br />
can be said of Premier Inn, whose entire<br />
inventory is accessible through API-linked<br />
tools. We see this increasing as major hotel<br />
chains look to reduce distribution costs<br />
through web and API connectivity.”<br />
David Chappell, Fello’s Technology<br />
Director, adds: “From a buyer’s perspective,<br />
it’s about ease of access and then return of<br />
data. If it fulfils your business need and you<br />
can book it easily – either direct or via<br />
intermediaries – then so long as you can<br />
see what’s being booked in the<br />
management information, the choice of<br />
supplier or access point to booking<br />
becomes less about the actual content and<br />
more about duty of care and policy control.”<br />
If hotels with direct booking strategies<br />
weren’t enough, the market has become<br />
further complicated by major online travel<br />
agencies such as Expedia and Booking.com<br />
moving their tanks on to the turf of the<br />
traditional managed travel sector.<br />
“OTAs are increasing the amount and<br />
choice of content available to corporate<br />
travellers,” says FCM’s Rachel Newns.<br />
“This doesn’t necessarily change what <br />
[ TIPS & TRICKS ]<br />
BCD <strong>Travel</strong> advises travel buyers to adopt a<br />
flexible hotel programme, including both<br />
dynamic pricing and negotiated rates. <strong>The</strong><br />
TMC also says organisations should only<br />
agree to a deal with minimum room night<br />
requirements if the hotel guarantees last<br />
room availability. Booking cheaper nonrefundable<br />
rates can also make sense for<br />
travellers who are “unlikely” to cancel.<br />
RoomIt by CWT says buyers can shave<br />
1%-2% off their hotel programme costs by<br />
using price tracking tools to monitor rates.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y should also encourage travellers to<br />
stay within the managed programme by<br />
allowing them to earn points and bonus<br />
incentives on their bookings.<br />
HRS advises using a data-driven sourcing<br />
programme comparing rates from<br />
preferred suppliers, chains and<br />
independent hotel groups. Rates should<br />
also be audited to ensure negotiated rates<br />
are being delivered by hotel companies.<br />
42 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
UK HoTELS UPDATE<br />
[ LEADING UK HOTEL BRANDS ]<br />
APEX HOTELS<br />
UK hotels: 10<br />
Apex Hotels is a family-owned collection of ten<br />
upscale hotels in London, Bath, Edinburgh,<br />
Glasgow and Dundee.<br />
rural properties. Most hotels have facilities for<br />
meetings, incentives and conferences, while<br />
Macdonald runs <strong>The</strong> Club loyalty scheme for<br />
guests and Club Corporate to reward PAs,<br />
event organisers and corporate bookers.<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>odge<br />
corporates actually choose to book,<br />
but meets the desire for more choice.<br />
Content is a key request from corporate<br />
customers at the moment.”<br />
Newns continues: “Direct advertising and<br />
inducements to book direct are impacting<br />
many companies’ adherence to their travel<br />
programme. This means that tracked<br />
volume may drop even if actual travel<br />
spend has increased or stayed the same.<br />
This makes it harder to negotiate ongoing<br />
rates and benefits.”<br />
HRS’s Chris Crowley acknowledges the<br />
“consumerisation” of business travel but<br />
adds that the move by the OTAs into the<br />
market has forced the managed travel<br />
industry to “up its game”.<br />
“While leisure sites still facilitate plenty of<br />
business travel bookings, the change we see<br />
today is that the travel managers and<br />
procurement leaders overseeing managed<br />
programmes have a better understanding<br />
of the ramifications when travellers book<br />
outside of appropriate channels,” he says.<br />
Whatever Brexit brings in the coming<br />
months, these distribution debates and<br />
strategies will carry on regardless.<br />
Meanwhile the trend for smaller hotel<br />
rooms at UK properties looks set to<br />
continue, although this shrinking process<br />
may not necessarily help to bring overall<br />
room rates down – at least, not if you<br />
believe the predictions of the various 20<strong>19</strong><br />
hotel industry forecasts.<br />
DE VERE<br />
UK hotels: 17<br />
De Vere Hotels (formerly De Vere Venues) runs<br />
a series of country house hotels around the<br />
UK, as well as conference and event centres<br />
such as De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms<br />
in London and De Vere East Midlands<br />
Conference Centre.<br />
GLH HOTELS<br />
UK hotels: 17<br />
Operates five brands – Amba, Guoman, Thistle,<br />
Thistle Express and Hard Rock London –<br />
primarily in London where it has more than<br />
5,000 rooms. <strong>The</strong> big move in 20<strong>19</strong> will see<br />
giant Marble Arch property <strong>The</strong> Cumberland<br />
being converted into London’s first Hard Rock<br />
Hotel with 1,000 rooms – it is scheduled to<br />
open in spring 20<strong>19</strong>.<br />
GRANGE HOTELS<br />
UK hotels: 17<br />
London-based independent hotel group with<br />
all of its upmarket properties in the UK capital<br />
except for one hotel in Bracknell, Berkshire.<br />
Grange offers Club Service upgrades for<br />
business travellers to access its business<br />
lounges, as well as an Executive Club<br />
loyalty scheme.<br />
JURYS INN<br />
UK hotels: 38<br />
<strong>The</strong> mid-range chain with around 8,000 rooms<br />
in its portfolio was purchased by Swedish firm<br />
Pandox and Israel’s Fattal Group in <strong>December</strong><br />
2017. Jurys’ UK operations now include seven<br />
properties under the Leonardo brand. Jurys<br />
<strong>Business</strong> Booker is an online booking service<br />
offering negotiated rates for companies<br />
booking direct.<br />
MACDONALD HOTELS & RESORTS<br />
UK hotels: 45<br />
This upscale group has hotels across England<br />
and Scotland, including both city centre and<br />
MALMAISON/HOTEL DU VIN<br />
UK hotels: 34<br />
Frasers Hospitality Group acquired these sister<br />
boutique-style brands in 2015 with plans for<br />
further expansion in the UK. Currently there<br />
are 15 Malmaison and <strong>19</strong> Hotel du Vin<br />
properties. Malmaison plans to open new<br />
properties in Edinburgh, York and<br />
Bournemouth in the next couple of years.<br />
PREMIER INN<br />
UK hotels: 795<br />
Premier Inn continues its rapid expansion with<br />
another 13,000 rooms in its UK pipeline on top<br />
of its current stock of 74,000 rooms. <strong>The</strong><br />
budget brand also operates ten Hub by<br />
Premier Inn hotels in London and Edinburgh<br />
with smaller bedrooms and is trialling even<br />
smaller rooms at its new ZIP brand, which is<br />
due to make its debut in Cardiff in March<br />
20<strong>19</strong>. <strong>The</strong> brand also operates its <strong>Business</strong><br />
Booker online tool for the corporate market.<br />
TRAVELODGE<br />
UK hotels: 550<br />
Fellow budget brand <strong>Travel</strong>odge currently has<br />
around 42,000 rooms. Aggressive expansion<br />
has seen 20 properties opening in <strong>2018</strong><br />
including its new flagship 395-room <strong>Travel</strong>odge<br />
London City which debuted in July.<br />
With an eye on the corporate market, the<br />
company is offering an enhanced product<br />
through “premium economy” SuperRooms and<br />
its <strong>Travel</strong>odge Plus “budget chic” format<br />
which has been rolled out at six<br />
hotels so far.<br />
VILLAGE HOTELS<br />
UK hotels: 29<br />
This group of contemporary UK hotels has a<br />
strong presence in UK cities outside London<br />
including four properties in Manchester and<br />
two in both Birmingham and Leeds. Village<br />
<strong>Business</strong> Club offers meeting spaces, hotdesks,<br />
wifi, food and refreshments, and is available<br />
at eight hotels.<br />
44 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
TECHNOLOGY<br />
[ TRAVELLER EXPERIENCE ]<br />
DATA FROM ALL DIRECTIONS<br />
Corporates would be wise to tackle their data sources head on and put<br />
traveller experience at the heart of their programmes, says Linda Fox<br />
An interesting<br />
report<br />
emerged<br />
from ACTE and BCD<br />
<strong>Travel</strong> recently<br />
saying that<br />
despite the tons<br />
of data that the<br />
corporate travel<br />
community has<br />
access to, the metrics<br />
used to determine the<br />
success of a trip are not<br />
necessarily effective.<br />
According to the report, travel managers<br />
continue to use decade-old factors such<br />
as spend and savings data and booking<br />
statistics to measure the return-oninvestment<br />
of trips. And this is despite how<br />
much technology and booking channels<br />
have advanced in recent years as well as<br />
the fact that there are newer and more<br />
effective ways to help measure ROI.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Quality Management in Corporate<br />
<strong>Travel</strong> study, which surveyed about 300<br />
travel managers, reveals that while 87%<br />
of them felt it’s important to measure<br />
traveller wellbeing, only 21% are actually<br />
using it as a metric.<br />
Measuring the traveller engagement with<br />
a TMC or travel department is also<br />
highlighted as important by 90% of travel<br />
managers, but only 37% use it.<br />
Many an airline, travel<br />
management company or hotel<br />
boss has talked of the power<br />
of data at any number of<br />
conferences in recent<br />
months, but what's the<br />
point if you can’t<br />
harness it?<br />
Thankfully, the chat<br />
isn't all lip service.<br />
A number of<br />
travel technology<br />
companies and TMCs have launched data<br />
tools in recent months. Some such as<br />
Egencia’s Analytics Studio are about helping<br />
corporates understand and analyse their<br />
data to uncover patterns and correlations<br />
– all with a view to making savings.<br />
Similarly, CWT <strong>Travel</strong> Consolidator aims<br />
to capture every part of company’s travel<br />
and expense spend to help travel<br />
managers make more informed decisions.<br />
<strong>The</strong> TMC says that algorithms within the<br />
tool consolidate and clean-up the data –<br />
for accuracy purposes – which is gathered<br />
from air, hotel and transport spend as well<br />
as expense and HR data.<br />
Also flexing its data muscles is <strong>Travel</strong>port.<br />
<strong>The</strong> company has joined forces with IBM<br />
on a data platform called <strong>Travel</strong> Manager.<br />
<strong>The</strong> platform uses artificial intelligence to<br />
help corporate travel managers and their<br />
agency partners increase spend visibility<br />
and improve efficiency.<br />
It uses <strong>Travel</strong>port and IBM data as well<br />
as data from other sources such as social<br />
media. <strong>The</strong> company says the technology<br />
will enable the corporate travel community<br />
to analyse the impact on spend of booking<br />
travel a week in advance.<br />
With annual corporate travel spend set<br />
to rise from $1.3trillion annually now to<br />
$1.6trillion by 2020, travel managers and<br />
TMCs need to get a grip on their data.<br />
As the ACTE/BCD report highlights, the<br />
industry could benefit from following other<br />
industries such as online retail and put<br />
the customer experience – or traveller<br />
experience – at the heart of everything.<br />
While 87% of travel<br />
managers feel it’s<br />
important to measure traveller<br />
wellbeing, only 21% are actually<br />
using it as a metric”<br />
46<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM
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Book via melia.com or call +44 (0)20 7391 3000
TALKING TRAVEL<br />
Gigging the globe<br />
ZOE LYONS<br />
Angela Sara West talks to multi-award-winning comedian, Zoe Lyons, about cracking up<br />
as a castaway on Survivor and her laughable life on the world’s comedy circuit<br />
On the comedy circuit, she’s shared<br />
the bill with Robin Williams, and<br />
when not Live At <strong>The</strong> Apollo,<br />
she’s on our screens or airwaves alongside<br />
Alan Davies, Frank Skinner, Dara O’Briain,<br />
John Bishop or Jason Manford.<br />
We’ve also watched the Mock <strong>The</strong> Week<br />
regular win Celebrity Mastermind and learn<br />
useful life lessons during her castaway<br />
experience for the first series of Survivor.<br />
“I loved the sea and got quite good at spear<br />
fishing. I learned that, with practice, I was able<br />
to hold my breath for ages… and that ‘hell’ is<br />
other people,” says Lyons.<br />
Time on the remote Malaysian island of<br />
Pulau Tiga pushed this quick-witted comic to<br />
her physical and mental limits, leaving her<br />
most unamused. “<strong>The</strong> low points were hunger,<br />
bugs and rats… lots and lots of rats. So much<br />
of anything like that is mind over matter. I<br />
absolutely started to unravel by the end. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
was one night when I started to hear voices –<br />
that’s when I knew I’d probably had enough.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> side-splitting stand-up survived to take<br />
the world’s stages by storm. International<br />
tours have seen her exporting laughter around<br />
the globe. “I have gigged all over Australia and<br />
New Zealand, the Middle East, the Far East and<br />
lots of places in Europe,” she says.<br />
Her time Down Under, where she has gigged<br />
in nearly every state, particularly stood out for<br />
her. “I loved touring Australia. It’s just the<br />
vastness of the place and the variety of<br />
landscapes.” Her tour took in a few remote<br />
outback towns. “We were basically the only<br />
people there who weren’t working the mines.”<br />
Currently chortling her way around Britain<br />
on her UK tour, it’s a different hotel three or<br />
four nights a week, and she is particularly<br />
looking forward to a good laugh up north:<br />
“I’m especially excited about Cumbria. I haven’t<br />
spent much time in that part of the country.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Irish funny girl recently revisited her<br />
roots for her Radio 4 series Zoe Lyons: Passport<br />
Paddy. “We went from Cork through County<br />
Tipperary and Waterford to Dunmore East,<br />
where I grew up. We finished in Dublin, where<br />
we recorded a little gig. It was a lot of fun and<br />
bizarre to go back to my old school. <strong>The</strong><br />
memories came flooding back,” says Lyons.<br />
My travels these days<br />
entirely focus on<br />
scuba diving. I’m planning<br />
next year’s trip to Baja, to dive<br />
in the sea of Cortez”<br />
Lyons also enjoyed a trip to Jamaica this year,<br />
to film a TUI advert and share stories with<br />
fellow comedian Mark Watson. “<strong>The</strong> whole<br />
experience was so much fun. Working with<br />
Mark was hilarious. It was a dream job.”<br />
Recently she has been cooking up a storm as<br />
a contestant on this year’s Celebrity Masterchef,<br />
making the semi-finals. And she favours local<br />
cuisine on her travels. “I love food so much<br />
and always try to seek out something<br />
authentic wherever I am. Markets are always<br />
good, particularly if they also serve hot food.<br />
I ate myself stupid in Madrid,” she laughs.<br />
As for restaurants, she says a certain Swiss<br />
eatery – <strong>The</strong> Kronenhalle in Zürich, with its<br />
legendary bar – offers the real feel-good<br />
factor. She also knows the best bar for a spot<br />
of stand-up… and singing. “<strong>The</strong> Tug Bar in<br />
Wasilla, Alaska. I spent the funniest night of my<br />
life there singing karaoke with my wife and<br />
brother.” As for culture and a warm welcome,<br />
she recommends Amsterdam. “I love the art<br />
and adore the people.”<br />
A big fan of British Airways, she never flies<br />
without her noise-cancelling headphones. Her<br />
top travel tip? “Pack light; you won’t wear half<br />
the stuff you take anyway,” she says.<br />
When back in Blighty, culture vulture Lyons<br />
heads to London for a break, theatre visit and<br />
restaurant exploration. Back in her home town<br />
of Brighton, she lives a mere stone’s throw<br />
away from her favourite place to chill. “I love<br />
walking my dog on the beach every day. I<br />
never tire of looking at the sea.”<br />
Overseas, you’ll find her mainly underwater,<br />
putting her new-found breath-holding skills to<br />
good use. “My travels abroad these days<br />
almost entirely focus on scuba diving. I’m now<br />
planning next year’s trip to Baja, to dive in the<br />
sea of Cortez.” You’ll sometimes also spot her<br />
up a snowy peak too. “I love being outside and<br />
am mad about skiing. <strong>The</strong> last few trips have<br />
been to Austria. France is great, but some<br />
places are so expensive these days you need<br />
to take out a mortgage for lunch!”<br />
Brexit is no laughing matter, so she’s taking it<br />
seriously. How will it impact on travel? “We just<br />
don’t know, but I have taken the precaution<br />
of getting an Irish passport. <strong>Travel</strong>ling for<br />
business might become more complicated if<br />
you need a visa for every trip to Europe.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> best thing about her business travels? “It<br />
opens your eyes to nature, to politics, and to<br />
other human beings. It’s no lie to say that my<br />
passport is my most precious possession.”<br />
48 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
TALKING TRAVEL<br />
ZOE LYONS<br />
Lyons is currently on tour with her new show, Entry<br />
Level Human. Gigs nationwide until March 20<strong>19</strong>. For<br />
further information, visit: zoelyons.co.uk<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM<br />
49
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THE REVIEW<br />
the<br />
Review<br />
THE NEWS & VIEWS<br />
THAT REALLY MATTER<br />
[ the lowdown ]<br />
<strong>Business</strong>es shun sharing<br />
economy travel policies<br />
p52<br />
[ the room report ]<br />
Whitbread introduces no-frills<br />
brand ZIP by Premier Inn<br />
p56<br />
[ on the ground ]<br />
All-electric airport shuttle<br />
service hits the road<br />
p58<br />
[ meeting place ]<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>odge targets UK's major<br />
event venues in new expansion<br />
p59<br />
[ in the air ]<br />
British Airways dances on<br />
down to Charleston<br />
p54<br />
O N T H E M O V E I<br />
<strong>The</strong> latest industry appointments p60<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
51
THE REVIEW<br />
T H E L O W D O W N<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>lers<br />
confess to<br />
card abuse<br />
Nearly 40% of business<br />
travellers admit to using<br />
corporate cards for personal<br />
purchases, according to a Carlson Wagonlit <strong>Travel</strong> study.<br />
<strong>The</strong> figure is highest among European and US travellers,<br />
where 46% of business travellers surveyed confessed to<br />
using company-issued cards for buying personal items<br />
despite it being widely banned. While six in ten travellers<br />
said their employer issues them with a corporate credit card,<br />
nearly half always use their personal card when on business.<br />
“If companies don’t want to issue credit cards – which is<br />
understandable – virtual credit cards are a useful<br />
compromise,” says Christophe Renard, Vice President of<br />
CWT Solutions Group.<br />
lure of hotel loyalty points<br />
causes compliance issue<br />
over two-thirds of travel managers say enforcing travel<br />
policy compliance is among the most challenging<br />
aspects of their job, with the pulling power of hotel<br />
loyalty programmes remaining problematic.<br />
<strong>The</strong> new research from GBTA and RoomIt by CWT<br />
reveals that compliance, reducing costs and boosting<br />
traveller satisfaction are the top tasks for buyers.<br />
Although 78% of travellers say they are satisfied with<br />
their rate allowances for booking hotels, there is still<br />
evidence of employees booking out of policy to stay at<br />
preferred properties or collect loyalty points.<br />
Nearly three-quarters (71%) of travellers say that if<br />
they should have the ability to earn loyalty points, while<br />
51% would risk being reprimanded if it meant they<br />
could book a hotel where they could earn points.<br />
St. Ermin’s Hotel, 2 Caxton Street,<br />
London SW1H OQW +44 (0) 207 222 7888<br />
www.sterminshotel.co.uk<br />
sterminshotel<br />
<strong>Business</strong> & leisure<br />
in equal measure<br />
<strong>Business</strong> stays like<br />
Untitled-5 1 16/11/<strong>2018</strong> 08:26
THE REVIEW<br />
T H E L O W D O W N<br />
M&As<br />
Gray Dawes adds Giles<br />
<strong>The</strong> Gray Dawes Group<br />
has acquired fellow TMC<br />
Giles <strong>Travel</strong> – and a<br />
second acquisition is<br />
expected to be announced<br />
before the year’s end.<br />
<strong>The</strong> addition of Giles<br />
<strong>Travel</strong> and its specialist<br />
MICE, leisure and brand<br />
marketing divisions will<br />
take Gray Dawes’ annual<br />
turnover to in excess of<br />
£150million and employee<br />
numbers to over 200.<br />
Raptim has the Key<br />
London-based Key <strong>Travel</strong><br />
and Holland’s Raptim<br />
Humanitarian <strong>Travel</strong> are<br />
merging their operations<br />
to form the world’s largest<br />
‘third sector’ travel<br />
management company.<br />
Focusing exclusively on<br />
the humanitarian,<br />
faith-based and academic<br />
sectors, the combined<br />
business will have annual<br />
sales in the region of<br />
£350million.<br />
EFR moves for WD<br />
<strong>The</strong> EFR <strong>Travel</strong> Group has<br />
acquired Glasgow’s WD<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>, accelerating EFR’s<br />
annual turnover to around<br />
£50million, of which<br />
approximately £38m<br />
derives from corporate<br />
travel. Established in <strong>19</strong>95,<br />
WD <strong>Travel</strong> serves clients<br />
across a range of sectors<br />
including shipping,<br />
oil and gas, advertising,<br />
bioscience and IT.<br />
Sabre eyes Farelogix<br />
<strong>Travel</strong> technology provider<br />
Sabre is poised to acquire<br />
airline technology<br />
specialist Farelogix.<br />
Sabre says the deal will<br />
accelerate delivery of its<br />
NDC-enabled retailing,<br />
distribution and fulfilment<br />
solutions.<br />
Hammond Budget is<br />
mixed bag for sector<br />
Chancellor Philip Hammond’s last Budget before Brexit<br />
elicited both praise and criticism from travel industry players.<br />
Hammond announced 30% growth in infrastructure<br />
spending and a £30billion package to improve England’s<br />
roads, while extending the use of e-passport gates at<br />
airports to citizens of the US, Canada, Australia, New<br />
Zealand and Japan – a move that won widespread support<br />
from the TMC community and airlines.<br />
GTMC Chief Executive Adrian Parkes said further increases<br />
in the long-haul APD rate should “be reconsidered with<br />
Brexit fast approaching”, while Louise Goalen, HBAA<br />
Chairwoman, said: “<strong>The</strong>re is not enough to address the<br />
major talent gap we are facing”. UKinbound’s Chairman,<br />
Mark McVay, added that cuts to APD and VAT would raise<br />
more revenue for the government in the long term.<br />
only 21% of businesses address<br />
sharing economy services in their<br />
travel and expense policies, according<br />
to research by chrome river.<br />
25% plan to incorporate it in the<br />
future and 54% have no plans to<br />
cover it in their travel policy<br />
© AIrBNB<br />
dynamic<br />
travel policy<br />
is the future<br />
new technology will transform<br />
traditional travel policies,<br />
according to BCD <strong>Travel</strong>'s second<br />
of six Inform research papers.<br />
Today’s travellers don’t look at<br />
policy documents, can easily book<br />
outside of company guidelines<br />
and see no motive for following<br />
the rules, notes the report, yet<br />
companies rely on travel policies<br />
to achieve the greatest return on<br />
travel investment and to keep<br />
employees safe on the road.<br />
Companies must therefore<br />
implement new technology to<br />
replace today's static, predefined<br />
policies with dynamic, intuitive and<br />
personalised behaviour management<br />
engines, the report advises.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> days of using travel policy<br />
as a blunt instrument are<br />
numbered. Technology is already<br />
changing travel policy by giving<br />
travel managers the ability to<br />
nudge travellers toward compliant<br />
choices via more dynamic, sensitive<br />
and personalised methods,” says<br />
BCD <strong>Travel</strong>'s Mike Eggleton.<br />
travelperk<br />
WIns funding<br />
for groWTH<br />
<strong>Business</strong> travel platform<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>Perk has secured a<br />
£39million investment from top<br />
tech investors and is adding bases<br />
in Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris<br />
following the opening of a London<br />
office. <strong>The</strong> new funding for the<br />
Barcelona-based company<br />
includes investments from<br />
Kinnevik, Yuri Milner and Tom<br />
Stafford, and will enable Europe's<br />
fastest-growing Software as a<br />
Service company to expand into<br />
new markets and accelerate<br />
growth as it aims to become the<br />
world’s largest corporate travel<br />
management platform.<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
53
THE REVIEW<br />
I N T H E A I R<br />
SHENZHEN AIRLINES INTRODUCES<br />
TECH HUB WITH LONG-HAUL FIRST<br />
New summer routes<br />
from BA and Delta<br />
BRITISH Airways and Delta Air Lines have both announced<br />
additional transatlantic services for summer 20<strong>19</strong>.<br />
BA will launch a twice-weekly route from London Heathrow<br />
to Charleston for the summer from April 4 – the first direct<br />
service between Europe and the South Carolina city.<br />
BA recently announced the introduction of a four-per-week<br />
service from Heathrow to Pittsburgh, also commencing in<br />
April. Charleston flights will be operated by a Boeing 787-8<br />
Dreamliner with return fares in World <strong>Travel</strong>ler starting from<br />
£600, £928 in World <strong>Travel</strong>ler Plus and £1,920 in Club World.<br />
Delta, meanwhile, will double its flights from Edinburgh<br />
next summer by adding a new service to Boston from May<br />
24. It already operates a daily flight to New York.<br />
LONDON'S Heathrow Airport has<br />
extended its network to China to<br />
11 destinations as services<br />
commenced to Shenzhen.<br />
Shenzhen Airlines has launched<br />
a three-times-weekly service to<br />
the city, an emerging economic<br />
powerhouse dubbed China’s<br />
Silicon Valley. <strong>The</strong> destination was<br />
also recently ranked second on<br />
Lonely Planet’s list of top ten cities<br />
to visit in 20<strong>19</strong>.<br />
Since the start of <strong>2018</strong> Heathrow<br />
has more than doubled its services<br />
to China, growing the network<br />
from five destinations – Hong<br />
Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou<br />
and Qingdao – to 11, having<br />
also welcomed services to<br />
Chongqing, Wuhan, Sanya,<br />
Changsa, Xi’an and now Shenzhen.<br />
<strong>The</strong> service is Shenzhen Airlines’<br />
first long-haul route, and offers<br />
connections to its network of 210<br />
domestic routes. Part-owned by<br />
Air China and a member of Star<br />
Alliance, the airline is operating<br />
from Heathrow’s Terminal 2.<br />
Located across the border from<br />
Hong Kong, Shenzhen is one of<br />
China's richest cities and has a<br />
population of over 12 million.<br />
ICELANDAIR SNAPS UP LOW-COST<br />
RIVAL FOR TRANSATLANTIC PUSH<br />
ICELANDAIR Group is poised to purchase rival Wow<br />
air and says the deal will allow both carriers to<br />
“strengthen their international competitiveness”.<br />
<strong>The</strong> airlines will continue to operate under separate<br />
brands but will have a combined share of the<br />
transatlantic market of around 3.8%. <strong>The</strong> deal is<br />
subject to approval by Icelandair Group’s shareholders<br />
and competition authorities.<br />
[ TAKING OFF ]<br />
ROYAL BRUNEI AIRLINES' services between London Heathrow<br />
and Brunei are now non-stop between the destinations, with the<br />
airline having dropped the previous stop in Dubai. Services<br />
continue on to Melbourne >> EL AL ISRAEL AIRLINES will launch<br />
a three-times-weekly services between Manchester and Tel Aviv on<br />
May 26, 20<strong>19</strong> >> SAS will begin operating a twice-weekly service<br />
from Cornwall Airport Newquay to Copenhagen from June 28,<br />
20<strong>19</strong>. Passengers will be able to connect to a network of over 20<br />
onward destinations in Europe, Asia and North America >><br />
FLYBMI has increased capacity on its routes from Newcastle to<br />
Brussels and Stavanger by 30% to meet a year-round rise in demand.<br />
29.6%<br />
Airline revenues derived<br />
from premium passengers<br />
Premium class<br />
passengers accounted<br />
for 5.1% of total<br />
international air traffic<br />
for the first eight months<br />
of the year but generated<br />
29.6% of total passenger<br />
revenues, according<br />
to IATA. Premium<br />
passenger demand has<br />
grown faster than its<br />
economy counterpart<br />
54 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM
THE REVIEW<br />
I N T H E A I R<br />
IN BRIEF<br />
GTMC UPDATE<br />
FlyArystan plans<br />
Kazakhstan’s national<br />
carrier Air Astana has<br />
unveiled plans to launch a<br />
low-cost airline in 20<strong>19</strong>.<br />
Called FlyArystan, it will<br />
take off in the first half of<br />
the year and use Airbus<br />
A320 aircraft on largely<br />
domestic routes. It expects<br />
to add regional and<br />
international routes ‘in the<br />
mid-term’. Fares will be<br />
around half of what Air<br />
Astana offers today.<br />
Finnair revamp pledge<br />
Finnair is promising a new<br />
premium economy cabin<br />
on long-haul flights. <strong>The</strong><br />
product will not take to the<br />
skies until the end of 2020,<br />
with details released in<br />
due course.<br />
Etihad lounge tie-up<br />
Etihad Airways has<br />
partnered with No1<br />
Lounges to launch a<br />
contemporary airport<br />
lounge brand called ‘<strong>The</strong><br />
House’. <strong>The</strong> project will<br />
begin at London Heathrow<br />
where the current Etihad<br />
Airways lounge will be<br />
rebranded.<br />
Emirates takes AI path<br />
Emirates is close to<br />
launching the world’s first<br />
“biometric path” which<br />
will deliver a “truly<br />
seamless airport journey”<br />
at its hub in Dubai<br />
International Airport.<br />
Utilising the latest<br />
biometric technology<br />
– including facial and iris<br />
recognition – Emirates<br />
passengers will soon be<br />
able to check-in for<br />
their flight, complete<br />
immigration formalities,<br />
enter the Emirates lounge<br />
and board their flights<br />
“simply by strolling<br />
through the airport”.<br />
BRITISH AIRWAYS HAS OPENED THE<br />
DOORS TO ITS NEW-LOOK FIRST LOUNGE AT<br />
NEW YORK JFK'S TERMINAL 7. IT IS THE<br />
AIRLINE’S FIRST LONG-HAUL LOUNGE TO<br />
SHOWCASE THE NEW DESIGN DIRECTION<br />
Gatwick adds capacity<br />
with ‘standby’ option<br />
GATWICK Airport has unveiled plans to increase capacity by<br />
utilising its existing standby runway. Under the airport’s<br />
planning agreements it can only be used when the main<br />
runway is closed for maintenance or emergencies. However,<br />
the 40-year deal will come to an end in 20<strong>19</strong> meaning the<br />
runway could be used for departing flights alongside the<br />
main runway by 2020.<br />
Local campaign group Communities Against Gatwick Noise<br />
and Emissions (CAGNE) has opposed the move, although the<br />
airport says its will not result in more noise.<br />
Gatwick also intends to use technology to increase the<br />
capacity of the main runway, as well as safeguarding land<br />
earmarked for a new runway, claiming it is "in the national<br />
interest", despite not having any current plans to build.<br />
Adrian Parkes<br />
Chief Executive, GTMC<br />
As I write my last column of<br />
<strong>2018</strong>, I can reflect positively<br />
on our achievements this<br />
year, but also recognise<br />
ongoing challenges for our<br />
industry on the horizon.<br />
<strong>The</strong> most obvious one is<br />
Brexit. However, despite the<br />
uncertainty across so many<br />
industries, we are confident<br />
our members are ready to<br />
advise, manage and deliver<br />
the travel requirements of UK<br />
Plc, whatever the outcome.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Autumn Budget<br />
revealed measures we<br />
welcome, with the announcement<br />
to extend the use of<br />
E-gates to visitors from the<br />
US, Canada, Australia, New<br />
Zealand and Japan, and the<br />
APD short-haul rate freeze.<br />
We share the wider<br />
disappointment with the<br />
increase of long-haul APD<br />
rates and feel the government<br />
is overlooking the<br />
importance of air travel as a<br />
driving force of economic<br />
growth at a time when we<br />
should be trading globally<br />
and encouraging airlines to<br />
add new routes and capacity.<br />
We will continue to campaign<br />
hard. Our parliamentary<br />
dinner brought together 11<br />
MPs and over 40 TMC<br />
representatives for a lively<br />
debate, not only around<br />
Brexit, APD and Heathrow,<br />
but also infrastructure and<br />
regional connectivity dev-<br />
elopments for the sector.<br />
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THE REVIEW<br />
R O O M R E P O R T<br />
COMPACT ROOMS CONTINUE TO<br />
MAKE BIG IMPACT, SAYS REPORT<br />
ZIP by Premier Inn<br />
targets fleeting guests<br />
WHITBREAD has unveiled details of its new no-frills hotel<br />
concept called ZIP by Premier Inn. <strong>The</strong> first property, located<br />
in the Roath district of Cardiff, is due to open in early 20<strong>19</strong><br />
and will feature 138 scaled-back rooms.<br />
Promising “Basics done brilliantly”, rooms will be around<br />
half the size of a standard Premier Inn room at 8.5m 2<br />
and include ensuite bathrooms, twin beds with Hypnos<br />
mattresses that can be pushed together, free wifi, TVs and<br />
air conditioning. Prices start at £<strong>19</strong> per night.<br />
Whitbread plans to locate the properties on the outskirts<br />
of major towns and cities around the UK and is targeting<br />
short-stay, value-conscious guests who are looking to “zip in<br />
and zip out”. Rooms are now available to book online.<br />
HOTEL rooms in the UK are getting<br />
smaller and compact rooms<br />
accounted for nearly one-fifth of all<br />
room openings in <strong>2018</strong>, according<br />
to commercial property consultancy<br />
Lambert Smith Hampton.<br />
Its report, Do Disturb: Disruption<br />
& Innovation in the Hotel Market,<br />
finds that the compact hotel room<br />
concept, which typically prioritises<br />
location, design quality and hi-tech<br />
features over room size, is gaining<br />
traction in major UK cities.<br />
More than 4,000 rooms were<br />
delivered in new compact hotels<br />
during 2017-18 and there are a<br />
further 5,000 compact rooms in<br />
the development pipeline. Overall,<br />
there has been a 95% increase in<br />
the number of compact hotel<br />
rooms delivered since 2016.<br />
<strong>The</strong> report cites the growth of<br />
brands such as Hub by Premier<br />
Inn, Motel One, Z Hotels, Moxy,<br />
easyHotels and Point A.<br />
“Not only do these cleverly<br />
designed rooms appeal to the<br />
younger end of the hotel customer<br />
base but they have enabled<br />
hoteliers to provide affordable<br />
bedrooms in high value locations,”<br />
says LSH's Nick Boyd.<br />
IHG BRINGS AVID BRAND TO EUROPE<br />
WITH AMBITIOUS GERMAN PLANS<br />
INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels Group (IHG) will launch its<br />
Avid brand in Europe with the opening of 15 hotels in<br />
Germany. “Avid hotels has seen strong signings in the<br />
US, Canada and Mexico, making it IHG’s most successful<br />
new brand launch since Holiday Inn Express back in<br />
<strong>19</strong>90,” says Kenneth Macpherson, Chief Executive<br />
Officer, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa. <strong>The</strong> brand<br />
promises the "essentials done exceptionally well".<br />
[ OPEN FOR BUSINESS ]<br />
<strong>The</strong> opening of the 366-room ATHENS MARRIOTT HOTEL marks<br />
the brand's return to the Greek capital >> Aparthotel operator<br />
ADAGIO has opened a new location in Brentford, West London, as<br />
part of the Kew Eye Tower GWQ Development >> ACCORHOTELS<br />
has opened the Mercure Leeds Centre Hotel, bringing the number<br />
of UK Mercure properties to 80 >> <strong>The</strong> MANDARIN ORIENTAL<br />
WANGFUJING will open early in 20<strong>19</strong> – the group's first hotel in<br />
the Chinese capital >> <strong>The</strong> ABU DHABI EDITION opened in<br />
November, marking the Marriott brand's arrival in the Middle East<br />
>> THE DUPONT CIRCLE HOTEL, Washington DC, will relaunch this<br />
spring following a refurbishment by <strong>The</strong> Doyle Collection.<br />
£73<br />
<strong>The</strong> average hotel rate<br />
outside of London in 20<strong>19</strong><br />
Average daily rates at<br />
hotels across the UK -<br />
excluding London - are<br />
predicted to rise 1.2%<br />
to £73, according to<br />
PwC's 20<strong>19</strong> UK Hotels<br />
Forecast. London rates<br />
are set to rise just 0.8%,<br />
to £150 per night, with<br />
'uncertainty not helping<br />
business demand'.<br />
Occupancy levels will<br />
remain unchanged<br />
56 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM
THE REVIEW<br />
R O O M R E P O R T<br />
IN BRIEF<br />
SACO cottons on<br />
Serviced apartment<br />
operator SACO has opened<br />
its third Locke aparthotel<br />
– a 160-studio property in<br />
the heart of Manchester.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Whitworth Locke<br />
location – a former cotton<br />
mill – is set around a<br />
central atrium and<br />
features a crossfit gym,<br />
coffee house, cocktail bar<br />
and co-working spaces.<br />
SACO has also opened a<br />
27-studio aparthotel, <strong>The</strong><br />
Moorgate, in London.<br />
NH Hotels FastPass<br />
NH Hotels is rolling out<br />
FastPass, a programme<br />
enabling guests to<br />
check-in, select their room<br />
and check-out online. <strong>The</strong><br />
group claims it is the first<br />
urban hotel group in<br />
Europe to offer the<br />
combination of functionality.<br />
<strong>The</strong> implementation<br />
process will be delivered<br />
in two phases and by<br />
20<strong>19</strong> FastPass will be<br />
available in some 330 of<br />
the group’s hotels.<br />
Staybridge goes Dutch<br />
IHG has opened its first<br />
Staybridge Suites in the<br />
Netherlands, Staybridge<br />
Suites <strong>The</strong> Hague –<br />
Parliament. <strong>The</strong> 101-suite<br />
aparthotel is situated<br />
opposite the world’s oldest<br />
parliament building still in<br />
use, the Binnenhof.<br />
Dual-brand landmark<br />
<strong>The</strong> Arora Group's<br />
dual-branded Crowne<br />
Plaza and Holiday Inn<br />
property at London<br />
Heathrow's Terminal 4<br />
opened at the end of<br />
October. It is the largest<br />
hotel opening in the UK in<br />
<strong>2018</strong> and the largest hotel<br />
directly connected to a<br />
British airport terminal.<br />
Openings put London<br />
rates under pressure<br />
LONDONʼS average room rates dipped in <strong>2018</strong> and a spate<br />
of new openings in the next year will add further competition.<br />
According to the London Hotel Development Monitor <strong>2018</strong>,<br />
the average rate for the first half of the year fell 1% to £141.<br />
<strong>The</strong> report from JLL and London & Partners says over<br />
11,000 new hotel rooms are expected to open in the capital<br />
city by 2020 – an increase of 8%. It also notes that a third of<br />
new hotel stock falls into the upscale segment, while upper<br />
upscale openings will account for 22% and economy hotels<br />
will make up 26% of growth.<br />
"<strong>The</strong>re has been a slight decline in hotel performance since<br />
late 2017 as London absorbed additional supply," says the<br />
report, which anticipates rising visitor numbers will help<br />
prop up average rates as the city's hotel supply grows.<br />
HILTON HOPES LIFESTYLE LAUNCH<br />
WILL BE A MOTTO TO REMEMBER<br />
HILTON has announced the<br />
launch of an affordable lifestyle<br />
brand named Motto by Hilton.<br />
It will open Motto properties in<br />
popular neighbourhoods and<br />
prime locations within cities across<br />
Europe, the Americas, the Middle<br />
East and Asia Pacific.<br />
Properties will have competitive<br />
rates and various multi-purpose<br />
spaces. Rooms will average around<br />
163 square feet and feature<br />
space-saving elements such as<br />
wall-beds, segmented shower<br />
and toilet stalls and stowable<br />
multifunctional furniture.<br />
Temperature, lighting and TVs will<br />
all be controlled via the Hilton<br />
Honors mobile app.<br />
In the UK, the first 100-bed Motto<br />
by Hilton will be located in<br />
Marylebone, London. Construction<br />
is due to start in <strong>January</strong> 20<strong>19</strong>, with<br />
a scheduled opening date of 2020.<br />
ITM UPDATE<br />
Scott Davies<br />
Chief Executive, ITM<br />
At a recent ITM event a group<br />
of buyers evaluated a number<br />
of TMCsʼ pitch presentations<br />
from senior figures within<br />
these organisations – and the<br />
feedback was interesting.<br />
While the presentations<br />
were polished and the<br />
presenters showed how<br />
passionate they were, two<br />
things stood out.<br />
Firstly, Powerpoint. As an<br />
industry, we’ve got to find<br />
other ways to communicate<br />
– try anything to stand out.<br />
Secondly, the travel buyers<br />
expressed frustration that<br />
many of the USPs presented<br />
weren’t unique at all.<br />
Aside from client-specific<br />
criteria and the obvious<br />
boxes to be ticked, a TMC<br />
sales pitch to a buyer needs<br />
to achieve the following:<br />
1) Culture matching is<br />
essential, but don’t just<br />
describe your company<br />
culture – demonstrate it so<br />
the client knows what it will<br />
feel like to work with you.<br />
2) Know the maximum of<br />
three things you want the<br />
client to take away, and<br />
prove them convincingly.<br />
3) Be energetic & memorable!<br />
Note I didn’t mention service<br />
models, shareholders, NDC,<br />
chatbots, content, pricing,<br />
etc. You can get to this stuff<br />
but, if you don’t do the<br />
above, prepare to be very<br />
quickly forgotten!<br />
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THE REVIEW<br />
O N T H E G R O U N D<br />
EUROPCAR URGES COMPANIES<br />
TO SIGN UP TO NEW ACCOUNTS<br />
All-electric shuttle<br />
service hits the road<br />
AIRPORT shuttle operator, Driven, is taking to the roads this<br />
month, claiming to be the only all-electric rideshare service<br />
in Europe. <strong>The</strong> new company operates a fleet of Tesla<br />
Model X vehicles to appeal to companies implementing<br />
more sustainable travel programmes.<br />
It is targeting both the leisure and corporate market and,<br />
for the latter, has developed a travel management<br />
application that enables companies to book trips and track<br />
activity and costs. <strong>The</strong> tool also provides detailed reporting<br />
and highlights potential savings. Pre-booked door-to-door<br />
trips cost from £9 per person for a 40-minute trip. All drivers<br />
are employed by Driven and the 24/7 operation serves all<br />
locations within three hours of major UK airports.<br />
COMPANIES from multinationals<br />
to SMEs can sign up to Europcar’s<br />
new online account service.<br />
<strong>The</strong> tool is designed to streamline<br />
the process for opening and<br />
managing an account and has<br />
been developed in direct response<br />
to business customers’ needs for<br />
seamlessness and speed.<br />
Europcar says companies can<br />
open an account in as little as<br />
three minutes. Once registered,<br />
users can instantly access<br />
applicable rates to corporate<br />
accounts with a discount of up to<br />
20% applied to bookings without<br />
any annual fees. <strong>The</strong> service<br />
is currently available in ten<br />
countries, including the UK,<br />
France, Spain, Portugal, Italy,<br />
Ireland, Australia, New Zealand,<br />
Switzerland and Belgium.<br />
Europcar hopes the service<br />
will strengthen its position with<br />
corporates. <strong>The</strong> vehicle hire<br />
company operates multiple<br />
brands including Europcar,<br />
Goldcar, which focuses on<br />
low-cost hire, and Ubeeqo, which<br />
specialises in fleet and mobility<br />
solutions for the business and<br />
end-customers market.<br />
ENTERPRISE TRIPLES ITS PRESENCE<br />
AT MANCHESTER AIRPORT<br />
ENTERPRISE Holdings has more than tripled its car<br />
hire capacity at Manchester Airport following a move<br />
to a new, larger location at the airport’s car rental<br />
village. <strong>The</strong> expansion follows several years of<br />
double-digit growth in demand from renters through<br />
the Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and<br />
Alamo Rent A Car brands. It will also enable<br />
customers to access a wider range of vehicles.<br />
[ ON THE ROAD ]<br />
>> ADDISON LEE GROUP has been selected to lead a £15million<br />
UK government-backed consortium to launch autonomous vehicle<br />
(AV) services in London by 2021. Designed to complement existing<br />
public transport, the service will be app-based, on demand and<br />
based on ride-sharing. Vehicles will be low-emission and rides will<br />
be priced at a level to generate demand without impacting other<br />
public transport >> Train operator GRAND CENTRAL has teamed<br />
up with CrossCountry, Transpennine Express and Northern to<br />
offer reduced fares for passengers connecting between the<br />
operators' services. <strong>The</strong> new through-ticketing deals are issued as<br />
a single ticket and are available up to 12 weeks in advance.<br />
21%<br />
Eurostar's business<br />
travel boom<br />
<strong>The</strong> number of business<br />
passengers travelling on<br />
Eurostar services rose<br />
21% in the third quarter<br />
of <strong>2018</strong>, helping propel<br />
overall passenger<br />
numbers up 12% and<br />
sales revenue by 17%.<br />
Meanwhile, leisure<br />
traffic has been boosted<br />
by the operator's new<br />
services between the UK<br />
and the Netherlands<br />
58 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM
THE REVIEW<br />
M E E T I N G P L A C E<br />
IN BRIEF<br />
New Hyatt M&E tool<br />
Hyatt Hotels has launched<br />
Hyatt Planner Portal, a tool<br />
for meeting and events<br />
bookers to manage the<br />
entire planning process,<br />
from enquiries, booking<br />
and contracts to attendee<br />
information and costings.<br />
<strong>The</strong> portal also contains<br />
information on upcoming<br />
and past events, giving<br />
users the ability to review<br />
details, access event history<br />
and generate reports. <strong>The</strong><br />
portal is invitation-only<br />
and will be available across<br />
Hyatt’s global portfolio<br />
in early 20<strong>19</strong>.<br />
Inntel shakes it up<br />
Meetings and travel<br />
management company<br />
Inntel has 'broken the<br />
mould' by establishing<br />
specialist teams, distinguishing<br />
between Simple<br />
Meetings, Strategic<br />
Meetings and Events for<br />
the first time. “Our<br />
bespoke approach puts our<br />
clients’ business objectives<br />
centre stage and improves<br />
attendee experience,” says<br />
Inntel's Douglas O’Neill.<br />
IHG gets Social<br />
InterContinental Hotels<br />
Group (IHG) has partnered<br />
with meetings platform<br />
Social Tables to launch a<br />
groups and meetings shop<br />
and digital RFP experience.<br />
<strong>The</strong> tool incorporates<br />
meetings and events<br />
spaces across the Intercontinental,<br />
Crowne Plaza,<br />
Kimpton and Holiday Inn<br />
brands, with information<br />
on the venues including<br />
room capacities, floor<br />
plans and interactive maps,<br />
along with image galleries<br />
and nearby attractions. <strong>The</strong><br />
partnership has already<br />
seen users submit over<br />
15,000 RFPs to IHG.<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>odge sets sights<br />
on key M&E venues<br />
TRAVELODGE is set to invest £100million in targeting the<br />
UK’s largest conference and events centre locations. With<br />
the recent opening of a new property at Telford International<br />
Centre, the budget hotel chain now operates hotels close to<br />
20 of the UK’s largest conference centres, and it is now<br />
searching for a further ten sites.<br />
<strong>The</strong> UK events sector is a growing market, contributing<br />
£42billion to the economy in terms of direct spend by event<br />
delegates, attendees and organisers. “Due to the growing<br />
volume of events taking place across the country, there is a<br />
shortage of good quality and low-cost accommodation close<br />
to event venues,” says <strong>Travel</strong>odge's Paul Harvey.<br />
<strong>The</strong> group has experienced strong growth from business<br />
customers over the last three years and they now account<br />
for more than half of all sales.<br />
[ NEW & IMPROVED ]<br />
>> A new multi-million-pound event space, MAGAZINE LONDON,<br />
will open on the Greenwich Peninsula in summer 20<strong>19</strong>. <strong>The</strong><br />
riverbank venue will offer 5,393m 2 of flexible space >> London's<br />
RSA HOUSE has completed a nine-month overhaul of its Vaults<br />
events space, now with capacity for up to 200 delegates >><br />
VINE HOTELS has added vegan delegate menus across its<br />
portfolio of seven UK venues >> A new purpose-built venue,<br />
EVENTS @ NO6, opens for business in London this <strong>January</strong>, close<br />
to Aldgate and Aldgate East tube stations.<br />
ACTE UPDATE<br />
Greeley Koch<br />
Executive Director, ACTE<br />
We end the year – and begin<br />
another – facing a challenge:<br />
how to truly measure the<br />
success of a business trip.<br />
Not by the old yardsticks of<br />
savings and compliance, but<br />
by, well, we’re not sure what.<br />
Or how. But we do know it<br />
must happen soon.<br />
According to an ACTE Global<br />
survey of travel managers,<br />
most respondents want a<br />
better way to evaluate their<br />
travel programmes. While 87%<br />
of respondents said traveller<br />
wellness and productivity<br />
should be considered, only<br />
21% actually do so.<br />
Rules and money are still<br />
the go-to criteria for 80% of<br />
managers, despite their<br />
wanting new methodology.<br />
Despite knowing that good<br />
travel programmes help<br />
retention and recruitment.<br />
Despite knowing that<br />
changes will make their<br />
travellers more profitable.<br />
Figuring out what and how<br />
to calibrate will be a<br />
monumental endeavour.<br />
<strong>The</strong> only, and best, way<br />
forward is by working<br />
together – discussing<br />
research, talking to peers and<br />
attending conferences.<br />
Just because something is<br />
easily quantifiable doesn’t<br />
mean it’s worth quantifying.<br />
Make your metrics work for<br />
your travellers, not just your<br />
company’s financial analyst.<br />
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THE REVIEW<br />
O N T H E M O V E<br />
EVENTS<br />
DECEMBER 6<br />
ASAP CONVENTION<br />
ETC Venues Bishopsgate, London<br />
asapconvention.org.uk<br />
DECEMBER 11<br />
JAMES STEVENSON LIAM BROWN JUSTIN BULLOCK<br />
JOINS: Amex GBT<br />
AS: Vice President & General Manager UK<br />
FROM: Hogg Robinson Group<br />
PROMOTED AT: Marriott International<br />
TO: President & MD, Europe<br />
FROM: President, Franchise Service<br />
JOINS: Inntel<br />
AS: Head of Account Management<br />
FROM: Click <strong>Travel</strong><br />
TBTM CHRISTMAS PARTY<br />
Grange St Paul's Hotel, London<br />
thebusinesstravelmag.com<br />
James Stevenson has switched<br />
from his previous role as HRG<br />
Global Sales Director as part of<br />
Liam Brown will step in to<br />
oversee European business in<br />
20<strong>19</strong>, taking over from the<br />
Justin Bullock has joined Inntel<br />
and is tasked with delivering<br />
exceptional levels of manage-<br />
JANUARY 1<br />
on-going moves to integrate<br />
retiring Amy McPherson.<br />
ment for high value, long-term<br />
THE BUSINESS TRAVEL PEOPLE AWARDS<br />
Nominations open!<br />
the business with Amex GBT<br />
and strengthen UK operations.<br />
Dubliner Brown has worked in<br />
the US for the last 30 years.<br />
partnerships with clients. He<br />
has worked for several TMCs.<br />
thepeopleawards.co.uk<br />
FEBRUARY 20-21<br />
BUSINESS TRAVEL SHOW<br />
Olympia London<br />
businesstravelshow.com<br />
MARCH 21<br />
ITM TRAVEL RISK SUMMIT<br />
Hard Rock Hotel, London<br />
itm.org.uk<br />
MARCH 25<br />
ITM BUSINESS TRAVEL SHOWCASE<br />
Hotel Cafe Royal<br />
itm.org.uk<br />
APRIL 7-9<br />
ACTE GLOBAL SUMMIT<br />
Chicago<br />
acte.org<br />
DAVID CHAPPELL SALLY CASSIDY IAN DAVIES<br />
JOINS: Fello<br />
AS: Technology Director<br />
FROM: Gray Dawes<br />
Industry specialist David<br />
Chappell will focus on tech<br />
innovation at Fello as the<br />
recently launched brand seeks<br />
to develop its reputation for<br />
'traveller-first' service.<br />
PROMOTED AT: <strong>Travel</strong>eads<br />
TO: Head of Sales<br />
FROM: Sales Director West of Scotland<br />
Independent TMC <strong>Travel</strong>eads<br />
has promoted Sally Cassidy to<br />
Head of Sales after seeing<br />
growth of 20% in the last year.<br />
She will oversee the building of<br />
a larger sales team.<br />
JOINS: ATPI Group<br />
AS: UK <strong>Business</strong> Development Manager<br />
BACKGROUND: Various TMC positions<br />
Ian Davies joins the ATPI Group<br />
to strengthen the long-term<br />
strategy for the sales team<br />
and increase new business. He<br />
has over 20 years' experience<br />
in the travel industry.<br />
APRIL 30 - MAY 1<br />
ITM CONFERENCE<br />
Hilton Metropole, Brighton<br />
itm.org.uk<br />
MAY 17-20<br />
ADVANTAGE CONFERENCE<br />
Cadiz, Spain<br />
advantageconference.co.uk<br />
ALSO ON THE MOVE... Jon Colley has joined IHG as Head of Development, UK and Ireland, responsible for<br />
accelerating growth in the key market >> Heathrow Express has announced two new senior appointments<br />
with Les Freer becoming Director and Sophie Chapman appointed Head of Operations >> Derek Sharp<br />
is Carlson Wagonlit <strong>Travel</strong>'s new Managing Director of meetings and events business >> <strong>The</strong> New Forest<br />
Hotels group has hired Garry Baldwin as Head of Group Operations >> Tracy Gehlan has joined Hertz<br />
International as Chief Operations Officer based in London >> Air Charter Service has hired George Rolls as<br />
Director, Private Jets >> Stan Berteloot has joined US-based consultancy Dots & Lines<br />
MAY 24<br />
THE BUSINESS TRAVEL PEOPLE AWARDS<br />
London<br />
thebusinesstravelpeopleawards.com<br />
AUGUST 3-7<br />
GBTA CONVENTION<br />
Chicago<br />
gbta.org<br />
60 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM
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consolidation among TMCs is not<br />
breeding complacency –– instead,<br />
renewed competition is bringing<br />
out the best in innovation and<br />
diversification. Find out more in<br />
our annual guide to<br />
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Introduction, 64-67 / Technology, 69-73<br />
Trending: M&As, 74-77 / Diversification, 79-82<br />
Beginner's Guide, 84 / <strong>The</strong> Directory, 85-88 / Data, 91<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
63
TMCs / Introduction<br />
natural<br />
selection<br />
Demand for travel continues to rise, yet businesses<br />
are increasingly choosing their TMC on factors<br />
other than cost. Gillian Upton looks at how the<br />
market is adapting to changing conditions<br />
Various sets of data from the GTMC<br />
show bullish figures for air, rail<br />
and hotel bookings over the last<br />
year – of roughly 6%, 9% and 5% increases<br />
respectively. Combine that with a 5-8%<br />
growth in travel and it adds up to a<br />
healthy picture for the business travel<br />
supply chain.<br />
It’s no wonder that the TMC sector is<br />
witnessing so much activity in terms of<br />
consolidation and M&A activity, as players<br />
jostle for position, a bigger slice of the action,<br />
an improved bottom line and bid to stay<br />
ahead of the curve.<br />
However, with that growth comes a greater<br />
need for a clear offering to the corporate<br />
client; rather than being all things to all men,<br />
a TMC must now differentiate itself from its<br />
fierce competitors.<br />
Fulfilment, traveller tracking, duty of care,<br />
personalisation, data privacy though GDPR,<br />
data analysis, out of hours provision and<br />
consistent service are all givens; a TMC today<br />
must identify its target audience and become<br />
a trusted partner, marrying capabilities to<br />
the client company culture.<br />
Yvonne Moya, a Principal of Festive Road,<br />
takes the view that TMCs are at something of<br />
a crossroads, not knowing which way to turn.<br />
“Just looking around the industry, TMCs have<br />
an absolute identity crisis,” she says. “Issuing<br />
a ticket is not good enough as a corporate is<br />
not looking for that anymore. I’m hearing<br />
this from my clients and we realise this from<br />
when we run RFPs.<br />
“What makes that TMC different for me? A<br />
lot don’t know where to place themselves.<br />
You can be a high-touch TMC, a transactional<br />
service TMC or one offering full content. Will<br />
TMCs be brave enough to say, ‘Who do I<br />
want to reach out to?’ <strong>The</strong>y have to tailormake<br />
their offering to the corporate, adapt<br />
to their needs. <strong>The</strong>y need to ask themselves,<br />
‘Who are we and who do we want to be’?“<br />
Moya says that clients are certainly tired of<br />
TMCs over-promising during the tender<br />
process, and believes that a new business<br />
model is beginning to emerge involving a<br />
more collaborative approach with the supply<br />
chain, including other TMCs. “<strong>The</strong>y need to<br />
be partners in the value chain,” says Moya.<br />
Subscription-based charging is one new<br />
business model that might have legs, where<br />
clients pay by the number of users rather<br />
than per transaction.<br />
Moya’s views resonate with the move away<br />
from a ‘one size fits all‘ approach to travel<br />
programmes and global solutions. Rather<br />
than one global provider around the world,<br />
corporates are opting to find the right TMC<br />
partner by region.<br />
”If the capability and cultural perspective<br />
is right then the commercials will follow. If<br />
there is really a benefit then why wouldn’t<br />
I pay for it?“, she argues. Meanwhile independent<br />
consultant Chris Pouney agrees that<br />
64 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
Introduction / TMCs<br />
“flexing to buyers’ specific requirements“ is<br />
the way ahead for TMCs, so too “providing a<br />
suite of technology which is best in class<br />
that’s at least as good as in the consumer<br />
world”, he adds.<br />
Technology is key for any good TMC,<br />
particularly if they are to answer the typical<br />
claim that a client can get a rate cheaper on<br />
the internet via an OTA.<br />
Rate auditing tools, benchmarking<br />
software, APIs, apps, AI-enabled chatbots,<br />
blockchain, augmented reality, being NDCcompliant;<br />
these are all part of the armoury<br />
of a forward-thinking, technology-driven<br />
TMC. You could easily add another:<br />
managing business disruption, for new<br />
entrants are adding complexity to the<br />
market by the day.<br />
This increased complexity in the market<br />
has been TMCs’ saviour as they have become<br />
true consultants in finding solutions to the<br />
changes and shouldering the responsibility.<br />
TMCs have an identity<br />
crisis. Just issuing a<br />
ticket is not good enough as<br />
a corporate is not looking for<br />
that anymore”<br />
“Organisations that procure travel of any<br />
size tend to need a trusted partner to<br />
decode, simplify, transact and serve on their<br />
behalf,” says ITM Chief Executive, Scott<br />
Davies. “It’s not possible to describe the array<br />
of services a TMC provides in one sentence,<br />
from omni-channel content aggregation to<br />
AI-enhanced mobile booking and servicing,<br />
to traveller wellbeing products.<br />
“Strong TMCs are highly adaptable and<br />
agile problem-solvers and proactive strategic<br />
business partners. I sound like a PR company<br />
for TMCs but I believe this.”<br />
One of the converted is Richard Childs,<br />
Group Procurement Category Manager at<br />
Biffa, and he is clear of the benefits he<br />
receives. “I couldn’t do without a TMC.<br />
Improving compliance has been a big thing<br />
over the years and generally we have tighter<br />
controls now compared with five to ten years<br />
ago,” he says. <strong>The</strong> company’s online adoption<br />
stands at an impressive 90%, for example.<br />
“All the data we can get out is extremely<br />
useful and post the 9/11 attack and the<br />
bombs in London and Manchester, traveller<br />
tracking is a real safeguard and wellbeing<br />
issue for us. That makes a big difference.”<br />
Biffa’s travel spend is small beer – at<br />
£2.5million a year – compared to say fuel (at<br />
£50million), so doesn’t justify the cost of<br />
employing someone specifically to look after<br />
it. “As far as the time and effort is concerned,<br />
a TMC is more cost effective for me. <strong>The</strong> fee<br />
that I pay is peanuts for the whole service,”<br />
he says. “It’s worth it as it would cost me<br />
more to employ someone.”<br />
<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
65
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Introduction / TMCs<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re is only so much time a corporate<br />
travel manager has,” adds Vanessa Griffiths<br />
of Rok Consulting. “<strong>The</strong>ir role is more of a<br />
trusted advisor and far more strategic. It’s a<br />
360-degree partnership.<br />
“Generally TMCs are ploughing so much<br />
time and energy into newly evolving<br />
technologies so they can truly be a strategic<br />
partner to a corporate. <strong>The</strong> good TMCs are<br />
investing in key areas such as AI, predictive<br />
messaging and blockchain. And we are now<br />
seeing the larger TMCs v the good TMCs.”<br />
Sizing things up<br />
Carol Neil, Global <strong>Travel</strong> Manager at Fidelity<br />
International, believes technology has levelled<br />
the playing field in the TMC marketplace so<br />
that size does not matter as long as firms<br />
have good foresight in terms of what buyers<br />
want and continue to leverage opportunities.<br />
Other aspects also come to the fore.<br />
“Because of technology it’s not about bread<br />
and butter agency services anymore, but<br />
more of a consultancy approach,” she says.<br />
“We want support with apps and to be able<br />
to make the traveller's entire experience in<br />
terms of connectivity, safety and speed of<br />
service more seamless. We also want to<br />
ensure that the TMCs’ global landscape is<br />
integrated, consistent and that buyers feel<br />
they are working with one partner instead of<br />
several. <strong>The</strong>re is also the complexity still<br />
around NDC and how the TMCs will be able<br />
to support the buyers in unravelling and<br />
embracing this within their company.<br />
Neil continues: “It is also about the insights<br />
the TMC can bring, working with the buyers<br />
collaboratively, building systems with our<br />
requirements in mind and addressing travel<br />
challenges together. Ultimately this brings<br />
out the best in both client and TMC and<br />
therefore makes cost one of many deciding<br />
factors and not the predominant one.”<br />
It’s clear that corporates understand the<br />
value message and no longer focus on the<br />
cost of transaction. “If a TMC can prove their<br />
value proposition then every corporate is<br />
willing to pay a service fee,” says Moya.<br />
Less is more<br />
Corporates also have great choice in the<br />
marketplace, be it for a national, regional or<br />
global player. According to the ITM there are<br />
at least 75 TMCs in the UK, of all shapes and<br />
sizes, and arguably consolidation in the<br />
market will result in better TMCs rather than<br />
less choice. Reed & Mackay Group Chief<br />
Executive, Fred Stratford, believes the upshot<br />
will be fewer, stronger TMCs and a more<br />
streamlined RFP process in having fewer<br />
TMCs on a tender list.<br />
Arguably, it is the smaller TMCs who may<br />
not have the reach who will find the going<br />
tough in the future. “Some of them will look<br />
to join up as you need money to stay in the<br />
game. It’s a difficult choice: do they want to<br />
stay independent or not?“ says Stratford.<br />
Entirely new entrants are rare but one new<br />
name is Fello, which was brought together in<br />
February <strong>2018</strong> from the merger of two other<br />
firms, World Club <strong>Travel</strong> and Sandy Row<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>. Clear in its proposition to provide<br />
white glove service, it has hedge funds,<br />
reinsurers and asset management firms on<br />
its books. Group Chief Executive Simone<br />
Buckley says the margin Fello makes leaves<br />
enough to invest in technology. To date it’s<br />
been a mix of in-house developed<br />
technology and third-party providers.<br />
“Content is so difficult to get hold of so we<br />
check everything that comes through,” says<br />
Buckley. “<strong>The</strong> other massive difference for us<br />
is that once the booking is done our job<br />
begins. We check the traveller in, we notify of<br />
any flight changes and don’t send an invoice<br />
until they’ve returned so we can include all<br />
ancillary spend at the hotel, for example. We<br />
add as much value after the booking is made<br />
as before the booking is made.”<br />
Access to content and duty of care are<br />
pushing more unmanaged companies to<br />
TMCs. “It’s also their buying power, cyber<br />
security and to keep an eye on efficiency of<br />
their workforce,” says GTMC Chief Executive<br />
Adrian Parkes. “<strong>The</strong>re is a growing trend of<br />
SMEs placing their trust in TMCs. Outsourcing<br />
for them is much easier.”<br />
And he adds that it’s not all about online<br />
provision. “<strong>The</strong>re’s still a lot of offline out<br />
there. It’s a sector where lots of things go<br />
wrong and bookings get changed a lot so<br />
there is still demand for service.”<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
67
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Technology / TMCs<br />
Let the<br />
TECH<br />
do the talking<br />
<strong>The</strong>re's much hype around chatbots<br />
and AI, but TMCs need to get the basics<br />
right first, writes Catherine Chetwynd<br />
Given the increasing<br />
use of AI and<br />
chatbots, it is not<br />
unreasonable for travel<br />
managers to expect their TMC<br />
to be able to provide technology<br />
that manages bookings and duty<br />
of care, delivers forensically<br />
analysed MI, allows employees to<br />
administer their travel while on the<br />
move and keeps a record of all these<br />
things in one place.<br />
On top of all that, the technology that<br />
TMCs supply has to be consumer grade –<br />
bookers and travellers expect to be able to<br />
run their business lives with the same ease<br />
as their personal lives.<br />
Corporate travel<br />
programmes are<br />
increasingly hungry for tools<br />
that simplify life on the road<br />
for their employees and that<br />
increase both trip and job<br />
satisfaction”<br />
<strong>The</strong>se days, recruiting and retaining talent<br />
also features. “Technology aggregates data to<br />
form a story about travel policy and global<br />
travel,” says Managing Partner at Black Box<br />
Partnership, Raj Sachdave.<br />
“TMCs are putting the unstructured<br />
elements of a travel programme into a<br />
structured format to address a number of<br />
questions, including what impact travel has<br />
on the performance of an organisation –<br />
productivity, absenteeism, fatigue, retention,<br />
wellbeing.” It has got personal.<br />
Yannis Karmis, Senior Vice President of<br />
Product Planning & Development for BCD<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>, agrees: “<strong>Travel</strong> technology is driven by<br />
digital expectations and traveller demands to<br />
reduce trip friction and enable self-service<br />
across multiple devices.<br />
“Corporate travel programmes are hungry<br />
for tools that simplify life on the road for<br />
their employees and increase trip – and job –<br />
satisfaction,” says Karmis.<br />
He continues: “A recent study from Airlines<br />
Reporting Corp. suggests that road warriors<br />
travelling under a cost-focused corporate<br />
programme are twice as likely to consider<br />
leaving a company than those whose<br />
corporate programmes are focused on the<br />
traveller’s needs.”<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM<br />
69
TMCs / Technology<br />
Investing in tech<br />
Achieving all this is challenge enough but to<br />
do it and keep up with the rattling pace at<br />
which technology moves requires a massive<br />
investment of time and money.<br />
Some TMCs employ large teams to do the<br />
R&D themselves; some buy it in, on the basis<br />
that their core expertise is managing travel,<br />
not technology; and some do a combination<br />
of the two. Commercial Director of travel<br />
management company Gray Dawes, David<br />
Bishop, managed to marry up the two by<br />
working at Atriis for four years to launch the<br />
product Gray Dawes has bought.<br />
“If you only have an internal team, you risk<br />
missing out on innovative technology being<br />
developed on the market, and if you only<br />
partner with external developers, teams<br />
may lack the first-hand overview of your<br />
company’s inner workings,” says Director,<br />
Product & Services Marketing, EMEA for<br />
Carlson Wagonlit <strong>Travel</strong>, Dan Kelly.<br />
At the top of the aspiration list is for travel<br />
bookers to be able to see exactly the same<br />
information as their travel agent and at the<br />
same time. This means bringing all data<br />
sources into one platform.<br />
Gray Dawes’ YourTrip does exactly that,<br />
providing a huge hub that aggregates GDS,<br />
NDC, hotels, ground transportation, parking,<br />
rail and more. Not only does this provide<br />
excellent MI, it also brings efficiencies.<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>lers like to<br />
fragment their<br />
purchasing. <strong>The</strong>y might book<br />
a flight with an agent, use a<br />
booking tool to book their<br />
hotel and use a mobile website<br />
to book ground transport”<br />
“<strong>Travel</strong>lers like to fragment their purchasing.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y might book a flight with an agent, go to<br />
an online booking tool to research and book<br />
hotels and use a mobile website to book<br />
ground transportation,” says David Bishop<br />
“And because we have one view of the trip,<br />
we won’t have to ask questions to which we<br />
already know the answer, which really<br />
frustrates clients.” And in the event of a trip<br />
cancellation, agents have a view of the whole<br />
trip and one element lurking on another<br />
booking site does not get forgotten.<br />
<strong>The</strong> app conundrum<br />
Although many TMCs have invested<br />
considerably in providing a versatile mobile<br />
app, “<strong>The</strong> whole idea of having everything<br />
pinned on an app makes me quite nervous,”<br />
says Bishop.<br />
“A lot of people download apps but<br />
adoption by travellers is really low. <strong>The</strong> one<br />
exception to that is Concur. YourTrip’s mobile<br />
enabled website gives a lot more functionality<br />
and we get to market quicker as it is updated.”<br />
Gray Dawes is now testing a<br />
communications platform to work with<br />
YourTrip and give travellers numerous ways<br />
to communicate with agents and book – sms,<br />
Facebook messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat.<br />
Potential launch is Q1 20<strong>19</strong>.<br />
And if, for example, snow disrupts<br />
travel, this technology allows agents<br />
to let travellers know<br />
simultaneously, in their<br />
preferred channel, that they<br />
are on the case. “We can<br />
spend more time managing<br />
travel instead of managing<br />
phone calls,” says Bishop.<br />
An inhouse approach<br />
Reed & Mackay has a booking<br />
tool, R&M mobile, analytics,<br />
schedule reporting, approval and<br />
R&M protect on one platform, which gives<br />
both agent and customer concurrent access<br />
to all information. <strong>The</strong> TMC builds its<br />
technology in house.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> disadvantage of building your own<br />
technology can be complexity and finding<br />
the talent. It isn’t necessarily a travel<br />
company’s core competency and it might<br />
take up a disproportionate amount of your<br />
budget compared to takings,” says Global IT<br />
Director, Antoine Boatwright.<br />
On the upside, “You move at your own<br />
pace to evolve the technology, not at the<br />
pace of your supplier, when you are at their<br />
mercy regarding what functionality you get<br />
and that affects the service you might deliver.”<br />
And when client requirements are exacting,<br />
bespoke is the only way. One Reed & Mackay<br />
client’s employees travel frequently in the<br />
former Soviet Union and the company needs<br />
to know the age of the plane its people are<br />
travelling on, whether it is still under<br />
maintenance and whether the airline has a<br />
monopoly on that route and if that plane is<br />
the only option.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y don’t want employees flying on high<br />
risk planes,” he says. And that kind of<br />
<br />
70 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM
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Blue Cube is celebrating 15 years of exceptional service but there's<br />
no resting on its laurels for this travel management company<br />
As <strong>2018</strong> draws to a close, Blue Cube<br />
<strong>Travel</strong> is reflecting on a landmark<br />
year. Not only did the company<br />
mark its 15th anniversary, but Blue Cube<br />
continued to grow its reputation as a<br />
leading independent travel management<br />
company providing exceptionally<br />
personal business travel services.<br />
Blue Cube was founded by co-directors<br />
Mel Phaure, Neil Fraser and Kenny Stirling in<br />
2003, with just the three of them operating<br />
from a basement in West London. <strong>The</strong>y had<br />
just one client and a turnover of £500,000 in<br />
their first year but, today, the TMC has 35<br />
staff, four offices, an annual turnover of<br />
£35million and a client portfolio ranging<br />
from high net worth individuals to<br />
FTSE 100 companies.<br />
“Our business philosophy is<br />
rooted in giving our clients<br />
extraordinarily high levels of<br />
personal service,” explains<br />
Mel Phaure. “Every TMC will<br />
say that they provide<br />
personal service, but we<br />
believe that our dedication<br />
to ensuring every aspect of<br />
our clients’ travel is as flawless<br />
as possible is what sets us apart.<br />
“We are a company that truly cares<br />
about both our staff and our clients and that<br />
is evidenced by our growth over the last 15<br />
years and our exceptionally high client<br />
retention levels. All of our new business has<br />
come via recommendation – in fact, our very<br />
first client is still a client today.”<br />
Although 80% of Blue Cube’s clients<br />
prefer personalised offline servicing,<br />
the TMC is also committed to offering<br />
best-in-class technology to those looking<br />
for an online solution to complement their<br />
offline requirements.<br />
Over the last year Blue Cube has invested<br />
heavily in enhancing its technology solutions.<br />
This includes BC Online powered by<br />
Atriis, a new NDC IATA level 3-ready<br />
global online booking tool which<br />
gives Blue Cube clients a more<br />
user-friendly experience,<br />
superior functionality and is<br />
fully PCI DSS Compliant.<br />
BC Online allows clients to<br />
roll-out a single online<br />
booking tool worldwide with<br />
local support from Blue Cube’s<br />
global partners.<br />
Last but not least, Blue Cube <strong>Travel</strong><br />
has topped off <strong>2018</strong> by winning the<br />
Advantage <strong>Travel</strong> Partnership’s Most<br />
Engaged TMC of the Year Award, as well as<br />
the Advantage/WIN ‘Hotel Hero’ Award.<br />
“Blue Cube has come a long way since<br />
2003,” says Mel Phaure. “But we still have so<br />
much more to offer and will keep investing<br />
in our people and technology to ensure our<br />
approach to business travel management<br />
continues to flourish.”<br />
bluecubetravel.co.uk / sales@bluecubetravel.co.uk / 020 8948 8188
Technology / TMCs<br />
detail is not available from proprietary tools<br />
– R&M built the wherewithal to provide it.<br />
Boatwright is a protagonist of apps. “A<br />
desktop tends to be optimised for professional<br />
use and a mobile app is generally<br />
for travellers who are en route. <strong>The</strong> use<br />
cases are different and they do not need to<br />
be the same,” he says.<br />
“A mobile responsive website is inevitably<br />
a compromise because a mobile screen is<br />
four inches by five inches. We have<br />
optimised each form factor – website and<br />
app – for how it is used.”<br />
Meeting in the middle<br />
BCD combines in-house design and build<br />
with third party partnerships. <strong>The</strong> company<br />
bought the assets of start-up GetGoing,<br />
which formed the basis of the TripSource<br />
Hotels booking platform. TripSource<br />
simplifies travel for employees while keeping<br />
them on the straight and narrow, all available<br />
through mobile devices and voice-enabled<br />
technology such as Alexa.<br />
Programme intelligence platform<br />
DecisionSource (built inhouse) allows travel<br />
managers to monitor spend and travel live,<br />
using reporting and analytics.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>se optimisations are fed into the<br />
TripSource platform and into the hands of<br />
travellers seamlessly for maximum<br />
efficiency,” says BCD's Karmis.<br />
<strong>The</strong> tool includes a security map that<br />
displays traveller locations and informs travel<br />
managers of potential risks worldwide, who<br />
can then send out hazard alerts via<br />
TripSource and ask travellers potentially at<br />
risk to 'check in'. In addition, BCD works with<br />
start-ups whose technology is available via a<br />
shop, SolutionSource, where clients can<br />
choose tools according to their needs.<br />
Also giving one view for client and agent<br />
is Clarity’s Go2Book platform, providing<br />
tracking, communication with travellers,<br />
booking and more, plus MI from new<br />
Go2Insight+, launched in February.<br />
“Using cutting-edge technology such as IBM<br />
Watson, we have created a data aggregator<br />
which can take in multiple data sources,<br />
mine them and deliver new insights to the<br />
client within a fraction of the time it takes a<br />
traditional management information tool,”<br />
says Head of Sales, Ewan Kassir.<br />
Clarity has integrated rail travel into its app<br />
so that travellers are notified of delays via<br />
the app, “giving a single destination for all<br />
itineraries, travel info and<br />
updates”, Kassir explains.<br />
<strong>The</strong> digital TMC<br />
Elevating technology to art form<br />
and aiming to become the first<br />
digital TMC is CWT.<br />
“It is about making bold<br />
investments in innovation<br />
and our people to enhance<br />
and improve the<br />
traveller/attendee<br />
experience by integrating<br />
our tools and the data we<br />
have access to, to<br />
deliver more<br />
intelligence and<br />
content,” says Kelly.<br />
“This allows clients to<br />
communicate with<br />
travellers more<br />
effectively and pulls more<br />
and more of them into<br />
compliant booking paths.”<br />
Data is everything and facilitates<br />
personalisation, the travel industry’s<br />
Using cutting-edge<br />
technology such as<br />
IBM Watson, we have created<br />
a data aggregator which can<br />
take in multiple data sources,<br />
mine them and deliver new<br />
insights rapidly”<br />
latest fixation, and CWT is constantly<br />
updating its offer. Most recent innovations<br />
include revving up for the next phase of a<br />
chatbot pilot to give instant messaging in<br />
CWT’s mobile app and a travel consolidator,<br />
which enables organisations to aggregate<br />
disparate sources of data – such as travel,<br />
card, expense and HR data – to identify<br />
hidden costs and rogue spend. It allows<br />
travel managers to improve compliance and<br />
identify missed savings opportunities to<br />
increase negotiating power with suppliers.<br />
One outstanding example of CWT’s digital<br />
dexterity is RoomIt, a home-built hotel<br />
distribution business, giving travellers rooms,<br />
tariffs, amenities and loyalty programmes<br />
sourced from retail sites, negotiated rates<br />
and other large content providers.<br />
“During 2017, year-on-year hotel revenue<br />
growth was up 13%, underlining the<br />
importance of better content and hotel<br />
booking capabilities,” says Kelly.<br />
Start-up sensations<br />
In addition to home-grown efforts, CWT also<br />
partners with tech start-ups via incubator<br />
Plug and Play, as well as buying in third-party<br />
tools. An example is Yapta, which allows<br />
agents to look for lower air and hotel rates<br />
once trips have been booked, allowing<br />
rebooking where appropriate and without<br />
any effect on the traveller.<br />
Even those whose idea of technology is a<br />
Bakelite telephone are benefitting from<br />
TMCs’ labours of digital love and leading a<br />
more informed, efficient and safer business<br />
life; and their travel managers are profiting<br />
both administratively and financially.<br />
<strong>The</strong> drive to have more, better analysed<br />
and fully aggregated data and enhanced<br />
functionality ensures that in every sense,<br />
everyone is on the same page.<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM<br />
73
TMCs / Trending<br />
When two become<br />
one<br />
<strong>The</strong> growth potential of TMCs is underlined by<br />
increasing M&A activity, writes Gillian Upton<br />
It’s an interesting time to be a TMC,<br />
particularly if, as the owner, you are<br />
looking for an exit route. <strong>The</strong>re is<br />
plenty of money sloshing around venture<br />
capitalists and private equity firms as<br />
they have learned healthy profits can be<br />
made from investing in the sector.<br />
<strong>The</strong> activity of late has spread across<br />
generally owner-managed businesses of a<br />
certain size and maturity, with three<br />
transactions announced in November alone.<br />
Giles <strong>Travel</strong> is the latest TMC to be<br />
absorbed by the fast-growing Gray Dawes<br />
<strong>Travel</strong> Group which, for the fourth<br />
consecutive year, has announced an autumn<br />
acquisition. It will take its annual turnover<br />
beyond £150million – and a second deal is<br />
expected to be announced in <strong>December</strong>.<br />
Meanwhile, ‘third sector’ specialist, Key<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>, acquired the Netherlands’ Raptim<br />
Humanitarian <strong>Travel</strong> to give the business a<br />
combined turnover in the region of<br />
£350million. And then there's the EFR <strong>Travel</strong><br />
Group, which snapped up Glasgow's WD<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>, with the deal becoming EFR’s third<br />
takeover in four years.<br />
Also this year, <strong>The</strong> Appointment Group<br />
(TAG) has received investment from Apiary<br />
Capital – a UK lower mid-market private<br />
equity firm. Explains Partner Nicki Boyd: “<strong>The</strong><br />
attraction to TAG for us was a high level of<br />
repeat customers. <strong>The</strong>y’re high-end, hightouch<br />
customers – many of them rock stars –<br />
with complicated travel requirements.<br />
“We liked the fact that once TAG has<br />
provided great travel service and met their<br />
complex demands – certain amenities for a<br />
pet companion, position in a hotel with<br />
empty adjoining rooms, an opening window –<br />
then they will be loyal and come back time<br />
and time again.”<br />
Apiary has already made its mark on TAG. It<br />
has put in place an experienced CEO to take<br />
care of the day-to-day business and made<br />
the first of what it plans to be many smaller<br />
acquisitions – SOS in the US, which specialises<br />
in the touring arms of production crews.<br />
Aligned dancing<br />
<strong>The</strong> TAG investment typifies a trend in the<br />
sector and we are likely to see more of it,<br />
although GTMC Chief Executive Adrian<br />
Parkes, believes it’s not a new trend at all.<br />
“It’s no different to any other period,” he says.<br />
“It’s been happening for a very long time. In<br />
the early 2000s there were some major<br />
acquisitions and mergers.”<br />
One thing the activity does reflect is a<br />
healthy market, particularly as the investments<br />
and acquisitions are not all inter-UK.<br />
This October, <strong>Travel</strong> & Transport of the US<br />
acquired Radius <strong>Travel</strong> in order to expand its<br />
global footprint, for example.<br />
“It’s an interesting time,” says Parkes. “I<br />
judge the health of the industry on the<br />
positive TMC data I’m seeing, the huge<br />
amount of investment that is taking place<br />
and the opportunity that it gives TMCs to<br />
expand and create new business models.”<br />
Apiary’s Boyd flags up two reasons for the<br />
increased M&A activity: “<strong>The</strong>re’s now a<br />
successful track record of private equity<br />
investment in travel and others see there is<br />
money being made,” she says.”<strong>The</strong>re is a lot<br />
of money out there to be deployed.”<br />
Secondly, she believes that the spectre of<br />
Brexit has not deterred investment. ”<strong>Travel</strong><br />
has become a major part of people’s lives,<br />
and it will be after our exit from Europe too.<br />
<strong>The</strong> worst case is that people trade down –<br />
and corporate travel bounces back quickly.”<br />
ITM's Chief Executive Scott Davies agrees<br />
that “leveraging increased scale” has driven<br />
the large recent transactions and they have<br />
been powered by growth-seeking private<br />
equity financing.<br />
Independent European investment firm<br />
Vitruvian Partners saw potential in <strong>Travel</strong><br />
Counsellors. Ten years of successive growth<br />
was attractive, so too the company’s loyal<br />
band of clients thanks to its customer-first<br />
approach. <strong>The</strong> investment from Vitruvian in<br />
<strong>Travel</strong> Counsellors has already translated to a<br />
£6million spend on new technology.<br />
“It will provide tools such as dedicated<br />
account management support and bespokebuilt<br />
technology platforms for our travel<br />
counsellors so that they can concentrate on<br />
the most important job of all – caring for<br />
clients and giving them the best travel<br />
experience possible,” explains General<br />
Manager Mark Wilson.<br />
<br />
74 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
Trending / TMCs<br />
<strong>The</strong>re’s now a<br />
successful track<br />
record of private equity<br />
investment in travel<br />
and others see there is<br />
money being made”<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
75
Untitled-3 1 <strong>19</strong>/11/<strong>2018</strong> 14:44
Trending / TMCs<br />
Last summer mid-market private equity<br />
house Endless acquired a majority stake in<br />
Manchester-based CTI. Partner Mathew<br />
Deering was drawn to the company’s<br />
customer base and people and said at the<br />
time: “We believe that with fresh investment<br />
and hands-on support from Endless, CTI is<br />
capable of delivering strong sales and profit<br />
growth in future. This is an exciting<br />
opportunity in a consolidating sector and we<br />
also intend to pursue bolt-on acquisitions as<br />
part of our investment strategy.” CTI has<br />
since rebranded as Amber Road.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se investments are helping to drive the<br />
sector forward as TMCs require an almost<br />
bottomless pit of capital expenditure in<br />
technology to keep ahead of the game. <strong>The</strong><br />
home page of Endless, for example, boasts of<br />
having access to up to £80million for each<br />
investment and being able to complete the<br />
deal in an average of 28 days. It’s a pretty<br />
persuasive message.<br />
<strong>Travel</strong> buyers are viewing Reed & Mackay’s<br />
acquisition of Hillgate, for example, as a free<br />
technology upgrade and it’s unlikely that<br />
there will be any fall-out from this particular<br />
joining of two “friendly but fierce competitors”,<br />
as the company’s Group Chief Executive,<br />
Fred Stratford, describes them.<br />
Reed & Mackay already has investment<br />
from mid-market private equity firm<br />
Inflexion. Its mission is to ”invest in high<br />
growth, entrepreneurial businesses with<br />
ambitious management teams and to work<br />
with them to deliver growth”.<br />
<strong>The</strong> company plans to support Reed &<br />
Mackay’s team as its drives organic growth,<br />
both in the UK and selected international<br />
markets, and seek targeted acquisitions to<br />
support expansion of the company’s<br />
international footprint.<br />
Now it’s the turn of two successful hightouch,<br />
white glove providers of travel to<br />
merge. Hillgate has brilliant technology and<br />
Reed & Mackay the better global reach,<br />
across 40 countries. Both are known for their<br />
high levels of service.<br />
“We can bring the best of both worlds and a<br />
consistent offering to clients,” says Stratford.<br />
“It’s pretty compelling and clients are excited.”<br />
In this case, “joining forces” as Stratford<br />
prefers to call the acquisition, seems like a<br />
win-win for clients.<br />
<strong>The</strong> market is less positive about another,<br />
much larger acquisition, that of American<br />
Express GBT and HRG. No-one saw this one<br />
coming and all eyes are on the combined<br />
company which aims to cater to both SMEs<br />
and multinational clients.<br />
Investments drive<br />
the sector forward<br />
– TMCs require an almost<br />
bottomless pit of capital for<br />
technology to stay ahead”<br />
<strong>The</strong> rationale for the purchase was<br />
threefold, explains Elyes Mrad, Managing<br />
Director International of American Express<br />
GBT: “We were taking a company with a<br />
footprint complementary to ours, with good<br />
technology, and quality people across<br />
technology, management and consultancy.<br />
Those three gave us a better company to<br />
serve the customer.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> plan is to become local in each of<br />
the countries they serve and not position<br />
themselves as a vast global concern.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> feedback from customers is good,”<br />
says Mrad. “Three months in and so far so<br />
good; customers don’t see the difference.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y’ll have one team instead of two around<br />
the negotiating table.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> companies are fully integrated in terms<br />
of management and all customer-facing staff,<br />
much of which was done beforehand; the<br />
technology will take a little longer with a goal<br />
of Q2 2020 although items such as the<br />
mobile app will integrate by the end of <strong>2018</strong>.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ‘sell’ to the clients, says Mrad, is “better<br />
tools to put in front of customers; it’s the best<br />
of what is out there”.<br />
Other travel management companies are<br />
hoping they might pick up clients not wishing<br />
to stay with the new mega-operation.<br />
“I don’t get the Amex/HRG merger,” says<br />
one buyer, who preferred to stay anonymous.<br />
“It’s a big beast that will take a long time to<br />
unravel and integrate. On the upside, it’s a<br />
massive opportunity to pick up clients who<br />
don’t want to be part of such a large travel<br />
management company.”<br />
Carol Neil, Global <strong>Travel</strong> Manager at Fidelity,<br />
argues that size is no longer an issue –<br />
technology is helping with that: “You don’t<br />
have to automatically go to the big boys<br />
anymore; it’s not about the size but matching<br />
company cultures, aligning requirements<br />
globally with that of the TMC and building<br />
relationships. Don’t shy away from the<br />
smaller TMCs out there as they’re very<br />
hungry and eager to grab business and bend<br />
and flex with you,” she advises.<br />
“Get in with them and understand how you<br />
can continue to grow and/or enhance your<br />
travel programme with them.”<br />
[ GETTING TOGETHER ]<br />
Losing track of who’s buying who in the<br />
TMC market? Below is a rundown of M&A<br />
activity in the last three years.<br />
<strong>2018</strong><br />
• EFR <strong>Travel</strong> Group > WD <strong>Travel</strong><br />
• Gray Dawes > Giles <strong>Travel</strong><br />
• Key <strong>Travel</strong> > Raptim Humanitarian <strong>Travel</strong><br />
• Reed & Mackay > Hillgate <strong>Travel</strong><br />
• American Express GBT > HRG<br />
2017<br />
• Gray Dawes > CTM Chelsea TM<br />
• Capita <strong>Travel</strong> and Events > NYS Corporate<br />
• Meon Valley > Longreach <strong>Travel</strong><br />
• <strong>Travel</strong> & Transport > Statesman <strong>Travel</strong> Group<br />
2016<br />
• Clarity > Portman<br />
• Direct <strong>Travel</strong> > Colpitts World <strong>Travel</strong><br />
• Wings <strong>Travel</strong> > Grosvenor TM<br />
• CTM > Redfern<br />
• Gray Dawes > <strong>Travel</strong> Management Group<br />
• Gray Dawes > Cambridge <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong><br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
77
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Untitled-4 1 16/11/<strong>2018</strong> 08:22
Diversification / TMCs<br />
mixing<br />
it up<br />
TMCs must offer personalised services and<br />
add value to prosper, writes Jools Stone<br />
In theory, booking your own travel<br />
has never been easier, so one might<br />
wonder why there are so many TMCs<br />
not only operating but apparently<br />
thriving today. In the UK alone they<br />
account for 93% of managed business<br />
travel bookings.<br />
Perhaps the answer lies in their ability to<br />
adapt and innovate. Gone are the days<br />
when a TMCʼs role was simply to save<br />
money for clients, manage travel<br />
policies and take the onerous<br />
business of booking trips out<br />
of the hands of travellers.<br />
Increasingly, TMCs are offering added-value<br />
and differentiating themselves with niche<br />
services, new sub-divisions and enhanced<br />
tools and technology.<br />
But just as technology has eased the<br />
burden of booking business travel, the<br />
world has changed to present fresh<br />
challenges. <strong>The</strong> ever-present threat of<br />
terrorism and political instability in certain<br />
countries has heightened the need for<br />
companies to look out for their staff on the<br />
road, placing added emphasis on their legal<br />
duty of care responsibilities.<br />
TMCs have risen to this challenge in a<br />
variety of ways, creating sophisticated tech<br />
that helps clients stay one step ahead.<br />
“Successful travel managers must remain<br />
relevant to their customersʼ needs,” says<br />
Adam Knights, Regional Managing Director<br />
for UK, France and Benelux at ATPI Group.<br />
Its <strong>Travel</strong>ler Tracking system is a useful tool<br />
for handling most duty of care scenarios<br />
which may arise.<br />
“With traditional tracking technology it<br />
can be difficult to determine ownership<br />
over a traveller’s whereabouts; there can be<br />
doubts over who’s on call, for example. Our<br />
system bridges this gap by combining <br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
79
TMCs / Diversification<br />
high quality customer service with traveller<br />
location monitoring and communication.”<br />
When disaster strikes, knowing exactly<br />
where your staff are and establishing clear<br />
lines of communication with them is crucial.<br />
“In the event of a major emergency, travel<br />
managers could struggle to define next<br />
steps. Our tool offers a 24/7 messaging<br />
service where an alert can be quickly<br />
communicated to individual travellers. <strong>The</strong>ir<br />
exact location can be identified using GPS<br />
via our ‘Locate Meʼ app.”<br />
This technology offers peace of mind,<br />
helping clients mitigate risk and maintain an<br />
audit trail of all communications.<br />
Data in droves<br />
As well as keeping travellers safe and clients<br />
in touch, technology can also be harnessed<br />
for more strategic purposes. To this end<br />
<strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> Direct has developed<br />
SMARTInsight, a predictive tool that<br />
promises to take the guess work out of<br />
travel policy changes.<br />
<strong>The</strong> tool lets corporates model the impact<br />
of any changes to their corporate travel<br />
policy, accelerating the decision-making<br />
process, thus helping travel managers<br />
become more proactive.<br />
BTDʼs Managing Director, Julie Oliver,<br />
explains: “We see SMARTInsight as the next<br />
generation of analytics,” she says. “Rather<br />
than overwhelming travel managers with<br />
mountains of reports, we amalgamate the<br />
data into this tool and simplify the analysis.<br />
“We can use the tool to model various<br />
scenarios and get instant answers. In the<br />
past, we would have needed to crunch the<br />
numbers and go back to the client with the<br />
information,” Oliver explains.<br />
Casting the net<br />
<strong>The</strong> needs of travellers have certainly<br />
become more varied and complex in recent<br />
years, making a one-size-fits-all approach<br />
largely redundant. Some TMCs have found<br />
success by catering for growing niche<br />
industries with very specific needs.<br />
<strong>The</strong> needs of travellers<br />
have certainly become<br />
more varied and complex<br />
in recent years, making a<br />
one-size-fits-all approach<br />
largely redundant”<br />
One such example is Corporate <strong>Travel</strong>ler,<br />
which launched a new Production, Sport &<br />
Creative division in May this year. This was<br />
built on its existing client base.<br />
“We already handled corporate travel<br />
requirements for 300 clients in these<br />
industries, but wanted to offer more,” says<br />
UK General Manager, Andy Hegley. “Now<br />
we can provide the specialist ‘high-touchʼ<br />
expertise they need to meet their needs<br />
from start to finish.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> TMC's TV and film production clients<br />
keep them busy, travelling across the<br />
globe to some remote and challenging<br />
destinations. “Weʼve had clients filming<br />
penguins in Antarctica or elephants in<br />
Botswana. It's vital that their production<br />
equipment arrives at their destination on<br />
time and in one piece.<br />
“A film crew of three could be travelling<br />
with 80 bags, so we make sure their<br />
baggage is loaded on to the aircraft, even if<br />
their airline suddenly announces a baggage<br />
embargo at check-in.”<br />
For musicians, meanwhile, it's not<br />
uncommon to book separate airline seats<br />
for a passenger and their cellos or violin<br />
that can't be placed in the hold.<br />
<strong>The</strong> numbers add up<br />
When it comes to procurement, data insight<br />
is what gives certain TMCs the edge. FCM<br />
<strong>Travel</strong> Solutions launched 4th Dimension<br />
(4D) this year. <strong>The</strong>y describe this as a ‘nonbiased<br />
consulting service providing<br />
corporates with outsourced, project-based<br />
analytics to drive programme efficiency and<br />
smarter procurement.ʼ<br />
As Jo Greenfield, UK General Manager of<br />
FCM explains, this was very much driven by<br />
client demand: “<strong>Business</strong> travel is constantly<br />
evolving,” says Greenfield. “To remain<br />
successful in a competitive market we must<br />
constantly innovate. <strong>The</strong> launch of 4D has<br />
taken our capabilities to the next level,<br />
providing clients with deep-dive analytics<br />
and bespoke solutions.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> 4D team helps clients rethink their<br />
hotel programmes, for example, which are<br />
now no longer simply about securing the<br />
best rate. “Five years ago, corporates were<br />
still very much focussed on cost savings, <br />
80 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
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TMCs / Diversification<br />
Five years ago<br />
corporates were<br />
focused on cost savings. Now<br />
other commercial factors are<br />
becoming more important”<br />
especially after the 2008 downturn,”<br />
says Greenfield. “But despite uncertainty<br />
around Brexit and the need to maintain<br />
savings, other commercial factors are<br />
becoming more important.<br />
”Corporates are now using their hotel<br />
programmes to drive staff loyalty, reflect<br />
their CSR strategies and support traveller<br />
wellbeing too.”<br />
Gaining traction<br />
Matters like these, some of which perhaps<br />
once seemed more aspirational, are rapidly<br />
becoming essential in certain sectors, such<br />
as the pharmaceutical industry.<br />
Pharma salaries are generally high, so<br />
loyalty incentives offer useful ways to<br />
attract and retain top talent. That’s precisely<br />
where smart travel policies and hotel<br />
programmes play a key role.<br />
<strong>The</strong> 4D team carried out a major audit of a<br />
pharma client’s hotel programme, taking<br />
account of the range and standard of hotel<br />
properties and the full cost.<br />
This factored in not just average daily<br />
rates, but extras such as premium wifi,<br />
breakfast and transfers – basically anything<br />
which could engender employee loyalty,<br />
while also being mindful of the industry’s<br />
strict bribery guidelines.<br />
Another 4D client in the construction<br />
sector had a business strategy strongly<br />
informed by sustainability and social<br />
enterprise. <strong>The</strong> priority was to employ<br />
local people and support local communities,<br />
so naturally its corporate hotel programme<br />
needed to reflect this.<br />
4D therefore developed an accommodation<br />
programme that incorporated hotels with a<br />
similar ethos of social enterprise, so that<br />
the client’s hotel spend actually benefited<br />
local communities.<br />
It seems that one way to retain loyalty in<br />
20<strong>19</strong>’s crowded TMC marketplace is to truly<br />
engage with clients’ issues and mirror their<br />
values, as if they actually worked there.<br />
Nothing breeds loyalty quite like that depth<br />
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TMCs / Beginner's guide to...<br />
APIs for TMCs<br />
How can TMCs use APIs to power your corporate travel programme?<br />
<strong>The</strong> ATPI Group’s Adam Knights has some of the answers<br />
In a world where everyone is connected<br />
and technology is ubiquitous, ensuring<br />
you are up to speed and making the<br />
most of the latest developments can be a<br />
full-time job. Likewise, with innovation<br />
coming at such a pace, new terminology<br />
seems to surface on a daily basis. For<br />
travel, APIs are now being spoken about<br />
widely across the industry.<br />
Oh no, another acronym!<br />
Don’t panic, APIs – Application<br />
Programme Interfaces – are<br />
designed to make things easier for us all.<br />
And in corporate travel these systems are<br />
helping transform the way companies<br />
operate. APIs are simply gateways linking<br />
different software applications. Think about<br />
how, on your smartphone, apps connect to<br />
the internet and send a request to a server.<br />
That is done via an API.<br />
Metaphorically speaking<br />
<strong>The</strong> simplest way to imagine<br />
them at work is as a waiter in a<br />
restaurant. <strong>The</strong> menu tells you the food you<br />
could choose and the kitchen is ready to<br />
prepare the dishes you want. But it is the<br />
waiter that takes your request, connects<br />
with the chefs and brings the plates back<br />
to your table. Without that link you do not<br />
get served.<br />
Silent partners<br />
Typically APIs are going about their<br />
business without people knowing.<br />
We don’t question the magic that lets us log<br />
on to different websites using our Facebook<br />
password, for example. <strong>The</strong> important thing<br />
for TMCs is ensuring that what we develop,<br />
or choose to partner with, is compatible with<br />
how businesses and travellers operate.<br />
Putting it into practice<br />
APIs open up a wealth of<br />
possibilities. Firstly, businesses –<br />
including travel management companies –<br />
can be nimble and act quickly by using APIs<br />
to create new products and partnerships or<br />
add new tools and services. <strong>The</strong>ir use drives<br />
innovation by cutting development time.<br />
Additionally, APIs can connect different<br />
divisions of a business seamlessly, which<br />
gives access to all sorts of valuable data.<br />
For corporate travel managers, that could<br />
be marrying a traveller’s spend with their<br />
historic performance or sales figures to see<br />
the return-on-investment for each trip.<br />
Connecting the cloud<br />
APIs are becoming increasingly<br />
important in new innovations, too.<br />
As businesses move their operations to the<br />
cloud, it will be APIs that manage the highs<br />
and lows in demand. <strong>The</strong>y also offer valuable<br />
security benefits, since the connections<br />
between parties are limited.<br />
Plugging into potential<br />
In travel, APIs are being used<br />
extensively, especially on consumer<br />
sites such as Skyscanner, where one set of<br />
results are returned from multiple sites.<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>lers in a corporate world will be used<br />
to this type of interface – they will have<br />
used it in their private life or have selfbooking<br />
tools that act in a similar way.<br />
Technology-based services such as Uber<br />
have seen the benefit of this. <strong>Business</strong><br />
travellers may use Uber personally, and<br />
therefore find themselves travelling and<br />
booking out of scope of their travel policy<br />
by using Uber around the world when on<br />
business. If a TMC has an open API policy,<br />
they can add Uber for <strong>Business</strong>. This means<br />
all the data tools a solid corporate travel<br />
reporting function needs can be integrated<br />
very simply.<br />
Offering this rich detail and breadth of<br />
choice is vital for TMCs if they are to prosper.<br />
APIs are definitely here to stay so if you<br />
aren’t familiar with what they are and, more<br />
importantly, what they can do to support<br />
your travel programme, there is no better<br />
time than the present to find out more.<br />
84 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
TMCs 20<strong>19</strong>: Who does what<br />
Your guide to a selection of leading travel management companies in the UK<br />
<strong>The</strong> Directory / TMCs<br />
<strong>Travel</strong> management company Annual turnover Annual transactions Company size Head office (UK) Established<br />
ABT UK £8million 15,000 8 staff / 1 office London 2001<br />
Specialist sectors served: all sizes and sectors served including telecommunications, legal, technology and online gaming<br />
Ace <strong>Travel</strong> Management £8.5million 20,000 11 staff Brentwood, Essex <strong>19</strong>92<br />
Specialist sectors served: corporate travel, meetings, incentives conferences and events, luxury leisure<br />
Advantage <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> £3.2billion Not disclosed 120 independent UK TMCs / <strong>19</strong>0 locations London <strong>19</strong>78<br />
Specialist sectors served: members serve all sectors of the economy<br />
Amber Road £72million Not disclosed 128 staff / 3 offices Manchester <strong>19</strong>83<br />
Specialist sectors served: all sectors including manufacturing, telecoms, professional services, energy, retail, fashion, technology, plus divisions for marine travel and meetings & events<br />
American Express Global <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> $32.7billion globally (2017) Not disclosed 16,000 staff globally London 2014<br />
Specialist sectors served: professional services, finance, insurance, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, media, entertainment, mining, energy, technology, information services<br />
Applehouse <strong>Travel</strong> £29.3million 56,400 40 staff / 1 office London <strong>19</strong>84<br />
Specialist sectors served: finance, information technology, energy, SMEs, retail<br />
Information supplied directly by TMCs to <strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> and verified where possible. Annual figures quoted refer to a TMC’s most recent financial or calendar year<br />
<strong>The</strong> Appointment Group (TAG) £<strong>19</strong>0million 400,000 321 staff / 9 offices worldwide London <strong>19</strong>88<br />
Specialist sectors served: corporate, private clients, sports, film & media, touring and entertainment, events<br />
ArrangeMy £21million 65,500 55 staff plus 1 implant Worcester <strong>19</strong>90<br />
Specialist sectors served: car manufacturing, retail, charity, care<br />
ATPI Group £1.29billion globally 4.68million 1,700 staff / 100+ locations worldwide London 2002<br />
Specialist sectors served: retail, engineering, fashion, financial and legal. ATPI Griffinstone serves shipping, energy and offshore sectors; ATPI Sports Events for events and clubs<br />
BCD <strong>Travel</strong> £636million UK&I / $25.7billion globally Not disclosed 858 staff / 16 offices and c.13,500 staff globally London <strong>19</strong>81<br />
Specialist sectors served: finance, film & TV, entertainment, professional services, advertising, media, pharmaceutical, FMCG, energy, defence, technology, consulting, sports, SMEs<br />
Blue Cube <strong>Travel</strong> £35.3million 38,000 39 staff / 3 offices Kew 2003<br />
Specialist sectors served: technology, finance, law, oil & gas, retail<br />
<strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> Direct £115million 402,000 152 staff Langley, Berkshire <strong>19</strong>70<br />
Specialist sectors served: SMEs, services, security, defence, multinationals, marine, education, medical, retail<br />
Capita <strong>Travel</strong> and Events<br />
£570million+ Not disclosed 750 staff / 6 UK offices Derby <strong>19</strong>72<br />
(including NYS Corporate)<br />
Specialist sectors served: all sectors including construction, education, energy, engineering, finance, legal, logistics, manufacturing, professional services, public sector, retail, telecoms, utilities<br />
Carlson Wagonlit <strong>Travel</strong> $23.2billion (globally) 60million (globally) 1,160 UK&I staff / 18,750 global staff Potters Bar, Hertfordshire <strong>19</strong>80<br />
Specialist sectors served: all sizes and sectors, including finance, media, manufacturing, energy, pharmaceutical, telecoms<br />
Clarity £441million c.2.5million Not disclosed Manchester <strong>19</strong>59<br />
Specialist sectors served: particular experience in retail, infrastructure, professional services, marine, oil & gas, charity, central government, higher education and elite sport industries<br />
Click <strong>Travel</strong> £205million 1.85million 252 staff Birmingham <strong>19</strong>99<br />
Specialist sectors served: legal, retail, public sector, recruitment, utilities, telecoms, charity, education, technology, infrastructure<br />
Clyde <strong>Travel</strong> Management £48million 215,000 90 staff / 6 offices Glasgow <strong>19</strong>89<br />
Specialist sectors served: marine, oil & gas, corporate<br />
Corporate <strong>Travel</strong> Management (CTM) £653million (Europe) 4.7million 457 staff in Europe / 2,700 staff globally London <strong>19</strong>94<br />
Specialist sectors served: legal, finance, insurance, pharmaceutical, media, advertising, retail, technology, architecture, energy, public sector, sport, plus Event <strong>Travel</strong> Management division<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
85
TMCs / <strong>The</strong> Directory<br />
<strong>Travel</strong> management company Annual turnover Annual transactions Company size Head office (UK) Established<br />
CT <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> £27.1million Not disclosed 80 staff / 3 offices Tunbridge Wells, Kent <strong>19</strong>88<br />
Specialist sectors served: include, but not limited to, finance, media, technology, pharmaceutical, recruitment, energy, fashion, retail, education, insurance<br />
DialAFlight Corporate <strong>Travel</strong> £134million 280,000 130 staff / 4 offices London <strong>19</strong>80<br />
Specialist sectors served: SMEs<br />
Diversity <strong>Travel</strong> £68million Not disclosed 154 staff Manchester 2007<br />
Specialist sectors served: charities, academic organisations, not-for-profit<br />
EFR <strong>Travel</strong> £27.6million 34,900 55 staff / 3 offices Bushey, Hertfordshire 2002<br />
Specialist sectors served: legal, property, finance, retail, advertising, sports<br />
Egencia $11.7billion globally Not disclosed 3,200+ employees globally / 65+ countries London 2002<br />
Specialist sectors served: serves companies off all sizes and sectors<br />
Eton <strong>Travel</strong> Group £35.3million 147,000 80 staff / 2 offices Eton, Berkshire <strong>19</strong>69<br />
Specialist sectors served: SMEs, pharmaceutical, IT, retail, finance, legal, music, groups<br />
FCM <strong>Travel</strong> Solutions<br />
£727million 1.8million 843 UK staff / 6,500 staff worldwide New Malden, Surrey 2004<br />
(incorporating Corporate <strong>Travel</strong>ler)<br />
Specialist sectors served: over 50 industries including finance, pharmaceutical, energy, legal, engineering, manufacturing, technology, entertainment, fashion<br />
Fello £23million 21,500 40 UK staff London <strong>2018</strong><br />
Specialist sectors served: humanitarian and charity, hedge funds and asset management, insurance and reinsurance, media, entertainment, retail<br />
Flightline <strong>Travel</strong> Management £6.2million 29,800 9 staff / 1 office Haddenham, Buckinghamshire <strong>19</strong>96<br />
Specialist sectors served: law, automobile, finance, manufacturing, medical, aircraft, public relations<br />
Global <strong>Travel</strong> Management £26million 50,300 32 staff / 2 offices Woking, Surrey <strong>19</strong>97<br />
Specialist sectors served: brewing, medical, media, SMEs<br />
Good <strong>Travel</strong> Management £22million 60,000 48 staff / 3 offices Hull 1833<br />
Specialist sectors served: SMEs, marine, oil & gas, manufacturing, construction<br />
Gray Dawes Group<br />
£170million 521,000 210 staff / 6 offices Colchester, Essex <strong>19</strong>27<br />
(incorporating Giles <strong>Travel</strong>)<br />
Specialist sectors served: finance, fashion, energy, construction, professional sport<br />
Harridge Group £14.5million 47,900 26 staff / 1 office London <strong>19</strong>83<br />
Specialist sectors served: business travel, corporate and private events<br />
Ian Allan <strong>Travel</strong> £49million 187,700 91 staff / 2 offices Shepperton, Surrey <strong>19</strong>64<br />
Specialist sectors served: corporate, academic, charity, humanitarian, not for profit, events<br />
Inntel £73million 355,000 144 staff / 3 offices Feering, Essex <strong>19</strong>84<br />
Specialist sectors served: financial and professional services, transport, construction, utilities, retail, infrastructure, facilities, media, distribution, manufacturing, meetings and events<br />
Kanoo Corporate £30million 36,000 40 staff / 8 offices London 2007<br />
Specialist sectors served: SMEs, corporate, leisure, groups, incentives<br />
Key <strong>Travel</strong> £209million 486,000 385 staff / 8 offices London <strong>19</strong>80<br />
Specialist sectors served: not-for-profit, NGOs, charity, humanitarian, faith, missionary, academic organisations<br />
Information supplied directly by TMCs to <strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> and verified where possible. Annual figures quoted refer to a TMC’s most recent financial or calendar year<br />
86 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
Unwrapping soon!<br />
Early in the New Year, we’re launching something<br />
new in the world of meetings and events.<br />
In the meantime, if you need any assistance with your meetings and events,<br />
speak to a member of our team - they won’t give away the surprise just yet.<br />
0<strong>19</strong>04 420 810<br />
hello@nysgroup.com<br />
nysgroup.com<br />
NYS is a specialist brand of Capita <strong>Travel</strong> and Events Limited. Registered in England: 01094729.<br />
Registered office: 30 Berners Street, London, W1T 3LR. Part of Capita Plc.
TMCs / <strong>The</strong> Directory<br />
<strong>Travel</strong> management company Annual turnover Annual transactions Company size Head office (UK) Established<br />
Meon Valley <strong>Travel</strong> Group £40million 100,000 67 staff Petersfield, Hampshire 2002<br />
Specialist sectors served: emergency medical assistance, manufacturing, retail, schools groups, event management, recruitment, private equity, white label leisure, loyalty fulfilment<br />
Norad <strong>Travel</strong> Management £34.2million 141,000 54 staff / 4 offices Liss, Hampshire <strong>19</strong>81<br />
Specialist sectors served: all sectors with particular specialities including marine, energy, yachting, shipping logistics<br />
Omega World <strong>Travel</strong> £38million (UK) 155,000 (UK) 24 UK staff / 2 UK offices (450 US staff / 50 US offices) London <strong>19</strong>72<br />
Specialist sectors served: medium size UK and global SMEs in industries such as finance, private equity, pharmaceutical, healthcare, engineering, media, marine, government<br />
Reed & Mackay<br />
(incorporating Hillgate <strong>Travel</strong>)<br />
£600million 1million+ 646 UK staff / 5 UK offices (4,000 staff globally / 140 locations) London <strong>19</strong>62<br />
Specialist sectors served: professional services, legal, finance, insurance, technology, marine, offshore<br />
Review <strong>Travel</strong> £15.5million 138,500 29 staff / 4 offices Handforth, Cheshire <strong>19</strong>84<br />
Specialist sectors served: legal, finance, media, credit agencies, sport, education, manufacturing, construction<br />
Selective <strong>Travel</strong> Management £65million <strong>19</strong>8,800 110 staff Belfast <strong>19</strong>72<br />
Specialist sectors served: SMEs, higher education, charity and voluntary, government<br />
Simplexity <strong>Travel</strong> Management £6.9million Not disclosed 12 staff Mayfair, London 2011<br />
Specialist sectors served: all sectors<br />
Statesman <strong>Travel</strong> Group £176.2million Not disclosed 158 staff / 3 offices, 1 implant London <strong>19</strong>75<br />
Specialist sectors: finance, legal, advertising, technology, media, energy, architecture<br />
Sunways <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> £13million 22,500 20 staff / 1 office Dartford, Kent <strong>19</strong>73<br />
Specialist sectors served: finance, accountancy, pharmaceutical, law, IT, insurance, film & TV production, building services, architecture, SMEs<br />
<strong>Travel</strong> Counsellors for <strong>Business</strong> £145million 120,000 200 Corporate <strong>Travel</strong> Counsellors Manchester <strong>19</strong>94<br />
Specialist sectors served: corporate SME, sport organisations, financial, legal/professional services, manufacturing, medical and events<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>eads £38.2million 125,000 70 staff / 2 offices Leeds <strong>19</strong>71<br />
Specialist sectors served: energy, sport, medical, legal, media & broadcast, education, charity, finance, technology, manufacturing<br />
<strong>Travel</strong> Leaders UK (including Altour<br />
£555million Not disclosed 1,000+ employees London 2017<br />
International, Barrhead <strong>Travel</strong>, Colletts<br />
<strong>Travel</strong>, Protravel and Tzell UK)<br />
Specialist sectors served: SME, fashion, media, entertainment, production, finance, music, education, manufacturing, marine, off shore, leisure, events / MICE, medical repatriation<br />
Uniglobe <strong>Travel</strong> £245million 580,000 40 UK locations London <strong>19</strong>81<br />
Specialist sectors served: media, IT, marine, telecoms, finance, legal, fashion, pharmaceutical<br />
Wayte <strong>Travel</strong> Management £38.5million 80,000 50 staff / 4 offices London <strong>19</strong>80<br />
Specialist sectors served: oil & gas, finance, manufacturing, legal<br />
West End <strong>Travel</strong> £12.7million 31,800 <strong>19</strong> staff / 2 offices London <strong>19</strong>72<br />
Specialist sectors served: corporate travel core, plus specialists in sport, groups, conference and incentive travel<br />
Wexas <strong>Travel</strong> Management £26million 52,000 45 staff / 2 offices London <strong>19</strong>70<br />
Specialist sectors served: tech, finance, retail, legal, creative, group travel<br />
Wings <strong>Travel</strong> Management £103million 128,087 75 staff / 4 offices UK (450 staff globally / 16 offices globally) London <strong>19</strong>92<br />
Specialist sectors served: energy, marine, security, engineering, specialist finance, travel-critical companies<br />
Information supplied directly by TMCs to <strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> and verified where possible. Annual figures quoted refer to a TMC’s most recent financial or calendar year<br />
88 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
Connecting the dots<br />
on global travel programmes<br />
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95<br />
94<br />
92<br />
93<br />
33 34<br />
32 35<br />
36<br />
31 37<br />
28<br />
38<br />
29 30<br />
39<br />
40<br />
91<br />
90<br />
80<br />
88<br />
89 83<br />
87<br />
86<br />
84<br />
85<br />
41<br />
42<br />
43<br />
44<br />
45<br />
66 67<br />
68<br />
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70<br />
74<br />
73<br />
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71<br />
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72<br />
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78<br />
79<br />
82<br />
223<br />
222<br />
81<br />
221 220<br />
212<br />
206<br />
2<strong>19</strong><br />
218<br />
211<br />
216<br />
65<br />
207<br />
210<br />
217<br />
215<br />
46<br />
208<br />
231<br />
63<br />
64<br />
60<br />
59<br />
209<br />
58<br />
213<br />
214<br />
232<br />
228<br />
230<br />
47<br />
62<br />
56<br />
57<br />
224<br />
61<br />
48<br />
225<br />
227<br />
229<br />
49<br />
55<br />
226<br />
53<br />
54<br />
50<br />
52<br />
51<br />
144<br />
143<br />
142<br />
Get the full picture of<br />
this global organisation at<br />
atpi.com/globaltravel<br />
Find us on<br />
stand B440
Breaking<br />
the mould<br />
Experience the difference<br />
fcmtravel.co.uk<br />
@FCM_UK
Data / TMCs<br />
RELATIONSHIP GOALS<br />
What’s the key to a fruitful relationship with your TMC? Some would say it’s<br />
treating them as a strategic partner rather than simply a preferred supplier or<br />
approved vendor. Delegates at <strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> Conference were polled on<br />
their TMC relations and needs, while a recent BTS survey delivers further insight<br />
What best describes how you<br />
feel about CONSOLIDATION<br />
among TMCs?<br />
47%<br />
It’s an accepted and inevitable<br />
development if the sector is to evolve<br />
35%<br />
It combines the best of two TMCs<br />
and delivers an improved offering<br />
8%<br />
It’s not good for anyone<br />
involved or affected<br />
10%<br />
Not applicable<br />
IN WHICH AREA/S DO YOU THINK TMCs<br />
FAIL TO DELIVER A SATISFACTORY SERVICE?<br />
61 % 54 % 39 % 38 % 23 %<br />
Technology<br />
Customer service<br />
Consulting/advice<br />
Cost/ROI<br />
What do you think is<br />
the most important<br />
SELECTION CRITERIA<br />
when choosing a TMC?<br />
70 %<br />
SERVICE<br />
9 %<br />
CULTURE<br />
9 %<br />
TECHNOLOGY<br />
4 %<br />
SIZE<br />
4 %<br />
COST<br />
TO WHAT EXTENT DO<br />
YOU THINK BREXIT<br />
WILL AFFECT YOUR<br />
BUSINESS IN 20<strong>19</strong>?<br />
4 %<br />
£<br />
FINANCIAL STABILITY<br />
31 %<br />
Data<br />
Other<br />
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR<br />
CURRENT TMC RELATIONSHIP?<br />
45 % STRATEGIC PARTNER<br />
24 % PREFERRED SUPPLIER<br />
30 % APPROVED VENDOR<br />
AS A TRAVEL BOOKER OR<br />
MANAGER, WHAT IS YOUR<br />
BIGGEST FOCUS RIGHT NOW?<br />
74 % DUTY OF CARE AND WELLBEING<br />
68 % COST SAVINGS<br />
55 % NEW/IMPROVED PROCESS<br />
50 % NEW TECHNOLOGY<br />
27 % SHAPING TRAVEL POLICY<br />
18 % SOURCING NEW SUPPLIERS<br />
45 % A LOT<br />
42 % A LITTLE<br />
10 % IT WON’T<br />
3 % NOT SURE<br />
23%<br />
Are you HAPPY<br />
with the service<br />
you receive from<br />
your TMC?<br />
47 % Yes<br />
10 % No<br />
43 %<br />
Don't use a TMC<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM<br />
91
EVENT REVIEW<br />
A new lease of life for<br />
ground coffee beans<br />
PA & EA networking evening<br />
Autumn<br />
Sparkle<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> Conference<br />
hosted Autumn Sparkle, an exclusive<br />
event for PAs and EAs, at Bankside<br />
Hotel, London, in October.<br />
Attendees enjoyed complimentary<br />
drinks, food, massages and<br />
manicures, and had the chance to<br />
win some fabulous prizes courtesy of<br />
the generous partners.<br />
A warm welcome at<br />
Bankside Hotel<br />
Autumn Sparkle ▼<br />
Cooking demos<br />
from hotel chefs<br />
▲ 22.10.<strong>2018</strong><br />
With thanks to all<br />
our sponsors<br />
Autumn Sparkle<br />
PA & EA Networking Evening<br />
Cup cakes from Q Apartments<br />
Brought to you by<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Business</strong> <strong>Travel</strong> Conference<br />
With thanks to the host venue<br />
92 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM
DEPARTURES<br />
New kid on the block<br />
Vintry & Mercer, London<br />
THE LOWDOWN This chic 92-room<br />
hotel opens in the City of London this<br />
February complete with roof terrace,<br />
all-day restaurant and underground<br />
speakeasy bar. It is set back on<br />
Garlick Hill, a two-minute walk from<br />
Cannon Street and Mansion House<br />
stations. <strong>The</strong> hotel has a gym, three<br />
private event rooms – <strong>The</strong> Library,<br />
Drawing Room and Music Room –<br />
and breakout area. It is a sister<br />
property to the capital’s Ampersand<br />
Hotel and a member of Small Luxury<br />
Hotels of the World.<br />
that's a FACT Vintry & Mercer is<br />
named after two of the City’s historic<br />
guilds, trading since the 1300s in wine<br />
and silks respectively. Its modern<br />
credentials include running on 100%<br />
renewable electricity.<br />
they said it “Vintry & Mercer<br />
is nestled in the heart of the City,<br />
among the livery halls, guilds and<br />
narrow streets that line the banks of<br />
the Thames. This is where past and<br />
present intersect, where the long<br />
traditions of trade and commerce<br />
come to life. <strong>The</strong> rich cultural<br />
influences of two of the City’s historic<br />
guilds – Vintry and Mercer – can be<br />
seen throughout the hotel with its<br />
carefully considered design.”<br />
Rates Standard rooms<br />
start from £175 per night.<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
93
DEPARTURES<br />
<strong>The</strong> best new... Gadgets & gear<br />
time flies<br />
British Airways and watchmakers Bremont<br />
have teamed up to launch a limited edition<br />
timepiece that incorporates the metal from<br />
one of the most iconic planes in history –<br />
Concorde. <strong>The</strong> Bremont Supersonic contains<br />
aluminium from the G-BOAB Concorde,<br />
known as Alpha Bravo, and is limited to 300<br />
in stainless steel (£9,495), 100 in rose gold<br />
(£16,995) and 100 in white gold (£17,995).<br />
TRACK YOUR<br />
FITNESS<br />
high five: camera phones<br />
A TIMEPIECE<br />
WITH HERITAGE<br />
slim pickings<br />
<strong>The</strong> Slim Wallet is the latest addition to<br />
Stuart + Lau’s range of leather goods and<br />
travel accessories. <strong>The</strong> full-grain Italian<br />
leather and suede wallet has an RFID<br />
blocking interlayer and a back sleeve for<br />
easy access to metro cards. It is available in<br />
eight colours and is priced around £100.<br />
Keep fit<br />
<strong>The</strong> latest addition to the<br />
Fitbit family is the Versa.<br />
A more affordable<br />
version of the Fitbit<br />
Iconic, this smartwatch is<br />
priced around £179 and,<br />
with a rounded face<br />
design, resembles a more<br />
traditional watch than<br />
regular Fitbit trackers.<br />
<strong>The</strong> device tracks major<br />
workout types, is<br />
waterproof, has a fourday<br />
battery charge and a<br />
companion app.<br />
FASHION AND<br />
FUNCTION<br />
Huawei P20 PRO <strong>The</strong> P20 Pro has a<br />
lighter price tag than the iPhone or<br />
Samsung Galaxy, but it stands head to<br />
head with its excellent camera and<br />
impressive battery life.<br />
Google pixel 3 Keen photographers<br />
will marvel at the quality of photos taken<br />
with this phone with its 12.2 megapixel<br />
sensor on the back and two 8 megapixel<br />
sensors on the front. <strong>Travel</strong>lers will also<br />
find its wireless charging capability<br />
useful on the road.<br />
THE BEST<br />
iphone xs <strong>The</strong> latest from Apple<br />
CAMERAS IN<br />
features an edge-to-edge 5.8 inch YOUR POCKET<br />
super retina display and a 12<br />
megapixel dual lens camera. <strong>The</strong><br />
device is powerful with a fast processor.<br />
samsung galaxy S9 PLUS With a huge<br />
6.2 inch curved screen and a dual-lens<br />
camera noted for quality low-light shots,<br />
the phone is ideal for those after a great<br />
camera and a big screen.<br />
oneplus 6T At the budget<br />
end of the scale is the latest<br />
from OnePlus. It features a<br />
huge 6.41 inch screen with<br />
HDR support and a 16<br />
megapixel camera. <strong>The</strong><br />
device also features Fast<br />
Charge enabling users to<br />
fully charge the phone in<br />
half an hour.<br />
94 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
20-21 February 20<strong>19</strong><br />
Olympia, London<br />
REVITALISE<br />
BUSINESS<br />
TRAVEL<br />
Europe’s largest<br />
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9,000<br />
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400+<br />
hosted<br />
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3,500<br />
pre-scheduled<br />
hosted buyer<br />
appointments<br />
Countless<br />
networking<br />
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Register for free at www.businesstravelshow.com<br />
Using code TBTM<strong>19</strong><br />
Untitled-1 1 20/11/<strong>2018</strong> 09:03
DEPARTURES<br />
On the road with Michael Struck<br />
Ruby Hotels founder and CEO Michael Patrick Struck<br />
might have a sweet spot for Sugarloaf, but it certainly<br />
doesn't run to chicken feet...<br />
day encompasses totally<br />
different places and settings.<br />
RIO'S<br />
Recently my day started<br />
SUGARLOAF<br />
with a very early morning<br />
IS A SWEET<br />
run through the sleeping<br />
SPOT<br />
streets of Mayfair and closed<br />
with a walk along the warm seaside<br />
in bustling Barcelona.<br />
Worst business travel experience:<br />
Has to be a business dinner in<br />
Guangzhou which involved eating<br />
chicken feet and other ‘interesting’<br />
specialities, to be polite.<br />
DETAILS<br />
Name: Michael Patrick Struck<br />
Position & Company: Founder and<br />
CEO of Ruby Hotels. We operate<br />
five properties at the moment and<br />
we have a further nine under<br />
construction or in the planning<br />
stages. We've also just started<br />
Ruby Works, which offers flexible<br />
work spaces.<br />
Based in: Munich, Germany.<br />
<strong>Business</strong> trips per year: 50.<br />
Estimated annual mileage:<br />
100,000.<br />
Regular destinations: London,<br />
Paris, Milan, Copenhagen.<br />
Most recent trip: Tokyo.<br />
Next trip: New York.<br />
GOOD & BAD<br />
Best business travel<br />
experience: This is pretty hard to<br />
call. I particularly like it when one<br />
ALL ABOUT<br />
THE BLUE SKY<br />
THINKING<br />
SUPPLIERS<br />
Preferred airline or hotel and<br />
why: Emirates, simply for its<br />
consistently excellent onboard<br />
service quality.<br />
Loyalty points – obsessive<br />
collector or not bothered?<br />
Honestly, I'm not bothered. I think<br />
these things tend to take care of<br />
themselves.<br />
Favourite loyalty scheme:<br />
None in particular.<br />
STEPPING ONBOARD<br />
Flights: work, rest or play?<br />
Work. I find being literally<br />
above it all is helpful with<br />
certain tasks.<br />
Onboard connectivity –<br />
take it or leave it? I like having<br />
this new option for emergencies ,<br />
but am too much of a savings fox<br />
to use it while prices for it<br />
remain so high.<br />
Onboard habits: I loosen my<br />
shoe laces, put on some noisecancelling<br />
earphones and sit<br />
back to enjoy take-off.<br />
DESTINATIONS<br />
Happy never to go<br />
back to: Helsinki. My<br />
last experience<br />
involved being there during a<br />
serious snow storm.<br />
Send me back to: Rome, anytime.<br />
Top overseas landmark: Sugarloaf<br />
Mountain, Rio de Janeiro.<br />
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT<br />
One thing that would improve<br />
business travel: Wifi on the tube<br />
in London would be really great, as<br />
would a Ruby hotel in every major<br />
city, obviously!<br />
Biggest business travel<br />
irritation: <strong>Business</strong><br />
hotels that are run of<br />
the mill, soulless and<br />
unnecessarily expensive.<br />
In fact, that is part of the<br />
reason we started Ruby<br />
Hotels, since we do the opposite.<br />
DO AS I SAY...<br />
AND AS I DO!<br />
TAKING IT<br />
IN MY STRIDE<br />
Pack light or go<br />
prepared? I’d like to<br />
say both, but since I don’t<br />
do much in the way of travel<br />
preparations, I guess it will have<br />
to be ‘light’.<br />
Never leave home without: My<br />
running shoes.<br />
TRAVEL POLICY<br />
Stick to the travel policy or a bit<br />
of a maverick? Our business is<br />
about offering lean luxury to<br />
guests so I always follow the<br />
policy. For me, it’s a role<br />
model thing.<br />
If you could change one<br />
thing about your travel<br />
policy... Nothing, or else I<br />
would have done it already!<br />
96 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM
DEPARTURES<br />
Meeting in Milton Keynes<br />
Milton Keynes was once a<br />
collection of towns and<br />
villages, but was<br />
transformed into a 'New<br />
City' in the <strong>19</strong>60s as part<br />
of a government scheme<br />
to relieve London's<br />
housing congestion. Now<br />
an economic success<br />
story, Milton Keynes is<br />
home to organisations<br />
including Santander,<br />
Volkswagen, Network Rail<br />
and Mercedes Benz.<br />
Wow factor<br />
<strong>The</strong> Arena MK<br />
This significant exhibitions and<br />
event venue opened in 2014<br />
and can host up to 3,500 for a<br />
conference. It has numerous<br />
offices, bars and green rooms<br />
spread across three floors. <strong>The</strong><br />
space is pillarless and totally<br />
customisable. <strong>The</strong> venue also<br />
provides banqueting menus<br />
and in-house production if<br />
required. Due to the versatility<br />
of the space, call for a quote.<br />
Stadium Way, Bletchley,<br />
Milton Keynes, MK1 1ST<br />
0844 902 7777 / arenamk.com<br />
big, bold and<br />
beautiful<br />
Quirky venue<br />
National Museum<br />
of Computing<br />
Events are hosted within its<br />
galleries and displays, which<br />
include WWII's famous Enigma<br />
codebreaker. Facilities include<br />
a 40-seater meeting room with<br />
three large screens, buffet<br />
catering options and wifi<br />
throughout. Corporate events<br />
have the option of private tours<br />
with experts and so are priced<br />
according to requirements.<br />
Bletchley Park, Bletchley,<br />
Milton Keynes, MK3 6EB<br />
0<strong>19</strong>08 374 708 / tnmoc.com<br />
On a shoestring<br />
<strong>The</strong> National<br />
Badminton Centre<br />
<strong>The</strong> world-class badminton<br />
club can cater for meetings of<br />
up to 100 delegates and rooms<br />
can be set up in a range of<br />
configurations. Conference<br />
rooms feature AV, flipchart,<br />
pens, tea and coffee, and a<br />
buffet lunch is included. Room<br />
hire for the smallest room<br />
starts from £145 per day. DDRs<br />
are available from £29.95.<br />
Bradwell Road, Great Holm, Milton<br />
Keynes, MK8 9LA / 0<strong>19</strong>08 268 479 /<br />
badmintonengland.com<br />
Small but perfectly formed<br />
Wired up<br />
Out of town<br />
Getting there<br />
<strong>The</strong> city benefits from<br />
direct mainline train services<br />
from London Euston which<br />
take less than an hour. By car,<br />
Milton Keynes is accessible via<br />
the M1 and the journey time<br />
from London is upwards of<br />
an hour.<br />
Further information<br />
Contact Destination<br />
Milton Keynes for advice on<br />
organising a conference or<br />
event. Destinationmilton<br />
keynes.co.uk has details of<br />
venues and accommodation<br />
available. Call 0<strong>19</strong>08 688 293<br />
or email info@destination<br />
miltonkeynes.co.uk<br />
Woughton House –<br />
Mgallery by Sofitel<br />
Situated just outside of town,<br />
this elegant hotel has four<br />
meeting rooms and a<br />
Clubhouse Suite able to host up<br />
to 250. A day meeting for ten<br />
starts at £390 and includes AV<br />
facilities, wifi, pastries and<br />
buffet lunch. <strong>The</strong>re are also<br />
breakout spaces indoors and<br />
out, plus walking trails to enjoy.<br />
Newport Road, Woughton on the<br />
Green, Milton Keynes, MK6 3LR<br />
0<strong>19</strong>08 661 9<strong>19</strong> / sofitel.accorhotels.<br />
com/mgallery/milton-keynes<br />
escape to the<br />
country<br />
Venue Cranfield<br />
<strong>The</strong> facility comprises four<br />
flexible venues in one,<br />
which are suitable for<br />
conferences, meetings,<br />
and accommodation.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are over 65 rooms<br />
in all, suitable for up to 250<br />
delegates. <strong>The</strong>re is high-speed<br />
wifi, a 24-hour reception,<br />
exercise and leisure areas and<br />
a licenced bar and restaurant.<br />
Enquire for DDRs.<br />
Duncan Road, Wharley End, Cranfield,<br />
Bedfordshire, MK43 0HG<br />
01234 754 885 / venuecranfield.co.uk<br />
meetings<br />
to the four<br />
Whittlebury Hall<br />
<strong>The</strong> 254-room hotel is located<br />
20 minutes north of the<br />
city and comprises 20<br />
conference and training<br />
suites, 28 syndicate<br />
rooms, an executive<br />
boardroom and three<br />
private dining rooms. Event<br />
organisers can also make use<br />
of the two banqueting and<br />
conference suites that can hold<br />
up to 500 delegates. DDRs are<br />
from £31 plus VAT.<br />
Whittlebury, Towcester, NN12 8WP<br />
01327 857 857 / whittlebury.com<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
97
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DEPARTURES<br />
On business in... Berlin<br />
<strong>The</strong> German capital –<br />
once divided by the<br />
Berlin Wall – is today<br />
known for its wealth of<br />
modern and historical<br />
landmarks, arts scene,<br />
festivals and nightlife.<br />
A centre of<br />
History<br />
Getting there<br />
British Airways, easyJet,<br />
Eurowings and Ryanair between<br />
them operate services from<br />
several destinations around the<br />
UK to the German capital,<br />
including Heathrow, Gatwick,<br />
Luton, East Midlands, Liverpool,<br />
Newcastle, Manchester,<br />
Edinburgh, Glasgow and Bristol.<br />
Further information<br />
For details on meetings<br />
and events and visiting Berlin,<br />
see visitberlin.de/en, email<br />
convention@visitberlin.de or<br />
call +49 (0)30 26 47 48-400.<br />
SLEEPING<br />
Luxury options include the Berlin<br />
Marriott Hotel, DORMERO Hotel, the<br />
refurbished Ritz-Carlton or Grand<br />
Hyatt Berlin. At the budget end of the<br />
scale consider the centrally located<br />
Aga’s Hotel, Azimut Hotel in City<br />
West, multiple Motel One properties<br />
or the super-budget easyHotel. <strong>The</strong><br />
Hilton and InterContinental groups<br />
are well represented in the city.<br />
EATING<br />
For Bavarian fare try out<br />
Clubrestaurant am Wannsee or<br />
Restaurant Schlossgarten for hearty<br />
German food. La Caleta is well<br />
known for Mediterranean dining.<br />
Lia’s Kitchen is a vegetarian restaurant<br />
and Grill Royal is a gourmet<br />
steakhouse popular with visiting<br />
VIPs. For Michelin-star dining try<br />
the double-starred Rutz.<br />
after hours<br />
Berlin is packed with trendy bars<br />
open until the early hours. <strong>The</strong><br />
Green Door in Shönenberg is a<br />
popular cocktail bar requiring<br />
visitors to ring a bell for entry.<br />
Becketts Kopf follows a similar<br />
speakeasy model in Prenzlauer<br />
Berg. For a traditional Bavarian<br />
beer hall try Hofbräu<br />
Wirsthaus or Löwenbräu am<br />
Gendarmenmarkt beer hall in<br />
the centre of the city.<br />
GETTING DOWNTOwN<br />
Berlin has two airports, Shönefeld<br />
and Tegel, which are both well<br />
connected to the city centre. From<br />
Shönefeld airport there is a railway<br />
station with connections to the city<br />
centre and a number of bus routes.<br />
Tegel Airport has four BVG bus<br />
stops outside terminals A and B.<br />
Both terminals have taxi ranks.<br />
MUST-SEE SIGHTS<br />
<strong>The</strong> historic Brandenburg Gate is<br />
not to be missed. Remnants of the<br />
Berlin Wall remain, and visitors can<br />
see a line through the city where it<br />
once stood. Checkpoint Charlie is a<br />
reminder of Berlin during the cold<br />
war era. Also visit the Reichstag<br />
Building and the Berlin<br />
Zoological Gardens.<br />
Amazing<br />
Architecture<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com<br />
99
DEPARTURES<br />
Focus on... Australia & New Zealand<br />
A shared language plus<br />
similarities in the legal<br />
and administrative<br />
systems make trade<br />
between the UK and its<br />
Commonwealth<br />
cousins Down Under<br />
relatively simple, writes<br />
Benjamin Coren<br />
UK businesses looking for new<br />
opportunities overseas might<br />
overlook Australia and New<br />
Zealand, simply because the two<br />
nations seem so far away. In reality,<br />
actually being on the other side of<br />
the world matters little. Our shared<br />
history and heritage easily outweigh<br />
the perceived problems, making<br />
both countries the ideal place to<br />
test products.<br />
<strong>The</strong> numbers add up. Australia is<br />
the 13th-largest economy, while its<br />
citizens boast the second-highest<br />
wealth per capita. Meanwhile, New<br />
Zealand is already the UK's fifthlargest<br />
two-way trading partner.<br />
Those making the leap should be<br />
aware of certain challenges, of<br />
course. Australia has very strict<br />
biosecurity regulations that need to<br />
be considered for imports of<br />
certain products and packaging.<br />
And visiting is time-consuming –<br />
it can take 24 hours to fly there;<br />
factor in the time and cost when<br />
sending products to market. <strong>The</strong><br />
time difference of seven to 11<br />
hours can also make international<br />
business calls difficult.<br />
Trade minister Graham Stuart<br />
headed to Australia and New<br />
Zealand earlier this year as the<br />
Department for International Trade<br />
(DIT) kicked off its opening<br />
consultations about future trade<br />
relationships post-Brexit.<br />
Stuart promoted opportunities<br />
for UK firms in NZ infrastructure<br />
and launched a joint UK-Australia<br />
investment report, which shows the<br />
UK is now the second-largest<br />
Time zones: Australia has<br />
five time zones ranging<br />
from GMT +8hrs in the west to<br />
GMT +11hrs in the east.<br />
Currency: Australian Dollar:<br />
£1 = AUD1.80. New Zealand<br />
Dollar: £1 = NZD1.95;<br />
Dialling codes: Australia +61.<br />
New Zealand: +64.<br />
Visas: To enter Australia, UK<br />
citizens require a valid passport<br />
and an approved ETA (apply<br />
online). British travellers can<br />
enter New Zealand for up to six<br />
months with no visa.<br />
100 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
DEPARTURES<br />
destination globally for<br />
Australian investment.<br />
Appearing alongside<br />
Australian Minister for Trade,<br />
Tourism and Investment,<br />
Steven Ciobo, he highlighted<br />
the investment ties between<br />
the UK and Australia – which<br />
grew 22% between 2010 and<br />
2017 to more than £63billion.<br />
“We’ve taken a major step<br />
towards building our bilateral<br />
trading relationships with<br />
Australia and New Zealand –<br />
two of our closest international<br />
partners – by opening consultations<br />
on our potential future agreements,”<br />
said Stuart.<br />
“Combined, their investment into<br />
the UK delivered 95 new projects<br />
last year, creating almost 2,500<br />
British jobs. <strong>The</strong>se consultations<br />
will examine new possibilities for<br />
British exporters in the region,<br />
especially in technology and<br />
infrastructure,” he added.<br />
Ciobo added that Australia and<br />
the UK were committed to working<br />
together aross diverse industries<br />
“from defence to infrastructure”.<br />
“Both countries offer large, open<br />
and flexible economies as well as<br />
an ideal location from which to<br />
access other regional opportunities,<br />
be it in Europe or Asia.”<br />
Top exports to Australia and<br />
New Zealand include vehicles,<br />
machinery and mechanical parts,<br />
print products, pharmaceuticals,<br />
gems and precious metals, as well<br />
as plastics, furniture and iron and<br />
steel products.<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com 101
DEPARTURES<br />
Factfile: Australia & New Zealand<br />
FLIGHTS<br />
British Airways: operates<br />
flights to Sydney via Singapore,<br />
which depart daily from<br />
London Heathrow. <strong>The</strong> airline<br />
operates connecting codeshare<br />
flights to Australia and New<br />
Zealand via Hong Kong, Doha,<br />
Singapore or Sydney.<br />
hit the<br />
heights in<br />
auckland<br />
Emirates: flies to Australia<br />
and New Zealand via its Dubai<br />
hub. <strong>The</strong> carrier operates over<br />
120 non-stop flights per week<br />
from eight UK airports to<br />
Dubai. From Dubai, Emirates<br />
offers 28 flights a week to<br />
Sydney, 21 a week to Brisbane<br />
and Melbourne, 14 a week to<br />
Perth and Auckland and seven<br />
a week to both Adelaide and<br />
Christchurch, New Zealand.<br />
Qatar AIRWAyS: flies to<br />
Australia and New Zealand via<br />
its Doha hub. From London<br />
Heathrow, there are convenient<br />
connections in Doha to services<br />
to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth,<br />
Adelaide, Brisbane and Canberra.<br />
Qantas: flies daily from<br />
London Heathrow to Sydney<br />
via Singapore. <strong>The</strong> airline also<br />
operates a non-stop daily<br />
service from London to Perth<br />
with onward connections<br />
throughout Australia. Qantas<br />
also flies to Brisbane via<br />
Singapore and offers a wealth<br />
of domestic connections. New<br />
Zealand flights operate from<br />
the east coast.<br />
Royal Brunei: the airline<br />
has introduced daily non-stop<br />
services from London to Brunei<br />
– cutting out the previous stop<br />
in Dubai – which then fly on to<br />
Melbourne.<br />
Etihad: offers services to<br />
Australia and New Zealand via<br />
its Abu Dhabi hub. One-stop<br />
services are operated from<br />
Heathrow to Sydney,<br />
Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane<br />
and Adelaide alongside onestop<br />
services to Auckland and<br />
Christchurch in New Zealand.<br />
Singapore AIRLINES offers<br />
daily services from Heathrow<br />
to its Singapore hub where<br />
regular onward flights are<br />
available and ANA operates a<br />
daily service from Heathrow to<br />
Sydney via Tokyo Haneda,<br />
among other one-stop options.<br />
off duty<br />
no<br />
shortage of<br />
Brisbane, australia:<br />
options<br />
Brisbane’s South Bank is a<br />
hot-spot for eating out and<br />
entertaining, or find peace and<br />
quiet in the Botanic Gardens.<br />
Sydney, australia:<br />
Sydney Opera House and<br />
the Harbour Bridge should<br />
australian<br />
to its core<br />
Canberra, australia:<br />
As the seat of Australian<br />
government, it is worth<br />
be top of the list. Head to<br />
Bondi Beach for surfing and to<br />
Darling Harbour for dining.<br />
visiting Parliament House and<br />
its associated Museum of<br />
Democracy (in the old<br />
Parliament building). <strong>The</strong> city is<br />
Melbourne, australia:<br />
Architecture buffs will get a kick<br />
out of the stunning design of<br />
the City Library and Flinders<br />
also home to the National<br />
Gallery of Australia, Australian<br />
War Memorial and striking<br />
National Museum of Australia.<br />
Street railway station. <strong>The</strong> city's<br />
Yarra River offers plenty of nice<br />
spots for a stroll.<br />
Christchurch,<br />
new zealand: Go punting on<br />
the Avon through the heart of<br />
the city, then get a taste of<br />
colonial life at Mona Vale, an<br />
early <strong>19</strong>00s homestead with<br />
gardens, riverside walks and a<br />
restaurant. <strong>The</strong> Christchurch<br />
Gondola offers panoramic<br />
views of the city and coastline.<br />
Perth, australia: Visit<br />
Freemantle Prison to find out<br />
more about convict life in<br />
Australia. <strong>The</strong> nearby Swan<br />
Valley region is well known for<br />
food and wine.<br />
Auckland, new zealand:<br />
Take a trip up the 60-storey<br />
Sky Tower, which also features<br />
a revolving restaurant and<br />
bungee jumping. Shopping on<br />
Main and Queen Streets.<br />
102 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
DEPARTURES<br />
Reality check<br />
AMERICAN AIRLINES, PREMIUM ECONOMY<br />
THE FLIGHT<br />
Flight AA100 from<br />
of fruit plate, yoghurt and croissant was<br />
New York’s JFK Terminal E to London<br />
served just under an hour before arrival.<br />
Heathrow Terminal 3, departing at 06.15<br />
THE SEAT<br />
A bottle of water and<br />
and arriving at 06.50 (local times), and<br />
comfort pack (with Casper blanket and<br />
operated by a B777-300. I was flying in<br />
lumber pillow, Cole Haan amenity kit,<br />
American Airlines' Premium Economy.<br />
and headset) were awaiting me in the<br />
THE PRE-BOARDING<br />
I was unable to<br />
seat. I travelled in seat 16D which has<br />
check-in online but the airline’s check-in<br />
the extra leg room in front on the bulk<br />
area at T3 was efficient and straight-<br />
head. <strong>The</strong> seat was roomy and controls<br />
forward and the queue through security<br />
for the recline and foot rest were simple.<br />
relative short. Boarding was at Gate 8<br />
<strong>The</strong> screen was stowed within the seat<br />
and was done in seat location groups to<br />
but popped out easily and the IFE<br />
ensure efficient loading.<br />
system offered a comprehensive choice.<br />
THE SERVICE<br />
I had pre-ordered my<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was a small storage compartment<br />
meal choice online and it was delivered<br />
and fold-out tray stowed in the arm rest,<br />
quickly – so quickly, in fact, that I was<br />
plus a USB charging point.<br />
THE DETAILS<br />
American Airlines<br />
half way through eating it before the<br />
THE VERDICT<br />
<strong>The</strong> aircraft felt new<br />
operates up to four direct flights a day<br />
drinks service arrived! <strong>The</strong> meal was<br />
excellent with a good-sized chicken<br />
portion served with a side salad and the<br />
best bread roll I’ve had onboard, plus a<br />
good chocolate dessert, cheese and<br />
crackers. All was presented well with<br />
and the Premium Economy seat was<br />
definitely comfortable and well-thought<br />
through. <strong>The</strong> meal quality was excellent<br />
and the amenities supplied with the<br />
seat were good quality and useful,<br />
especially the lumbar pillow. <strong>The</strong> staff<br />
THE AMENITIES<br />
SUPPLIED WITH<br />
THE SEAT WERE<br />
GOOD QUALITY<br />
AND USEFUL<br />
from London Heathrow to New York<br />
(JFK), and up to 10 a day when including<br />
the flights operated by joint business<br />
partner British Airways. Fares start from<br />
£270 in Basic Economy, £330 in the<br />
Main Cabin, £789 in Premium Economy,<br />
ceramic crockery and linen napkin. A<br />
were efficient if a little brusque in their<br />
£1,593 in Flagship <strong>Business</strong> and £3,143<br />
second drinks service was offered after<br />
trays had been cleared, and a breakfast<br />
service but overall the journey was a<br />
good experience.<br />
in Flagship First. aa.co.uk<br />
Julie Baxter<br />
STAYCITY APARTHOTELS, BIRMINGHAM<br />
THE APARTHOTEL<br />
Staycity Aparthotels<br />
consisted of a living area with flat<br />
in Birmingham’s Newhall Square has<br />
screen TV, a fully equipped kitchen<br />
142 one-bedroom and 24 two-bedroom<br />
with hob, microwave, cooking utensils<br />
apartments that can accommodate up<br />
and dishwasher, plus a dining area,<br />
to six people. Situated in the city's<br />
bedroom with king-size bed and<br />
historical Jewellery Quarter, the<br />
bathroom. I was particularly impressed<br />
property is less than a 10-minute walk<br />
with the powerful and roomy shower<br />
from Birmingham city centre and New<br />
and may have indulged for slightly<br />
Street Train Station and a five-minute<br />
longer than necessary as a result.<br />
walk from the bars and restaurants of<br />
Hairdryers were also provided in<br />
bustling Broad Street.<br />
the bedroom.<br />
THE CHECK-IN<br />
As the hotel is<br />
THE FACILITIES<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is a fitness<br />
situated in a busy area, street parking<br />
centre on-site along with a café –<br />
is not an option. <strong>The</strong>re is limited space<br />
breakfast is available at an additional<br />
available in the on-site car park or,<br />
cost. If you did want to cook your<br />
alternatively, a 24-hour NCP car park is<br />
own meals, there is a grocery shop<br />
THE DETAILS<br />
88 Charlotte Street,<br />
just next door. Both options cost £12<br />
conveniently located next door to the<br />
Birmingham, B3 1PW. Check-in is<br />
per night for the privilege. Once inside,<br />
I received a warm and friendly<br />
welcome at the reception desk along<br />
with what seemed a genuine interest in<br />
how my journey had been. I was given<br />
my room key and breakfast options<br />
aparthotel. <strong>The</strong>re is free wifi access<br />
throughout the property.<br />
THE VERDICT Perfect for a short stay<br />
in Birmingham for those that want to<br />
be self-sufficient. Staff were friendly<br />
and helpful and made you feel very<br />
PERFECT FOR A<br />
SHORT STAY AND<br />
THOSE THAT WANT<br />
TO BE SELF-<br />
SUFFICIENT<br />
from 3pm and check-out by 11am.<br />
Nightly rates start from £71 for a onebedroom<br />
apartment. Staycity has over<br />
3,000 apartments across ten different<br />
cities in the UK, Ireland and France,<br />
and has recently launched sub-brand<br />
and guided to the lift.<br />
welcome upon arrival. <strong>The</strong> location<br />
Wilde Aparthotels by Staycity. Tel:<br />
THE ROOM My compact and<br />
modern one-bedroom apartment<br />
is within easy access of some of<br />
Birmingham’s main attractions.<br />
0121 237 5600; see staycity.com<br />
Jessica Pook<br />
104 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM
DEPARTURES<br />
ROYAL BRUNEI AIRLINES, BUSINESS CLASS<br />
THE FLIGHT<br />
Flight BI0003 from<br />
18 larger-than-average business class<br />
Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, to<br />
seats are in a 2-2-2 configuration and<br />
London Heathrow T4. Departing at<br />
each contoured seat converts to a fully<br />
00.15 and arriving at 07.20 the following<br />
flat bed. Passengers were offered a<br />
morning, this new direct service is<br />
plush duvet, fluffy pillow and a mattress<br />
operated by B787 Dreamliner aircraft<br />
topper for added comfort. An amenity<br />
with a cabin of 18 business class seats<br />
kit contained the usual items along with<br />
ahead of the economy cabin.<br />
some Harnn products, while slippers<br />
THE PRE-BOARDING<br />
Royal Brunei<br />
and noise-reducing headphones were<br />
Airlines has a separate open check-in<br />
also provided. Inflight entertainment<br />
lounge for their <strong>Business</strong> and Royal<br />
was on offer through the 15.4-inch<br />
Skies members featuring comfortable<br />
touchscreen monitor. <strong>The</strong>re was some<br />
seating and magazines. <strong>The</strong>re were no<br />
storage at seat level and ample<br />
queues so check in was swift and I was<br />
overhead cabin space too.<br />
handed a pass to access the newly<br />
THE SERVICE<br />
Once seated I was<br />
upgraded Sky Lounge. After quickly<br />
offered a fresh juice or mineral water<br />
THE VERDICT<br />
This was the final leg of<br />
passing through security and passport<br />
(no alcohol is served onboard) and a<br />
my journey with the airline and I felt like<br />
control I went straight to the lounge.<br />
steaming hot towel. An on-demand<br />
a VIP throughout the journey. <strong>The</strong><br />
Due to the late hour only a snack menu<br />
was provided which included savoury<br />
pastries, sushi and sandwiches, plus<br />
fruits and desserts. Showers, free wifi<br />
menu was presented so you could<br />
order from this at any point during the<br />
flight, up to 90 minutes prior to landing.<br />
Due to the late take off I enjoyed soup<br />
I FELT LIKE A<br />
VIP THROUGHOUT<br />
THE JOURNEY<br />
spacious set up of the business class<br />
cabin ensures you arrive as relaxed and<br />
as refreshed as possible.<br />
THE DETAILS <strong>Business</strong> class return<br />
and charging points were all available.<br />
with accompaniments and, prior to<br />
flights from London Heathrow to<br />
THE SEAT<br />
<strong>The</strong> first impression<br />
arrival, a full hot breakfast from a menu<br />
Bendar Seri Begawan start from £2,948<br />
on walking into the business class cabin<br />
was just how generous the space is. <strong>The</strong><br />
featuring several choices. <strong>The</strong> service<br />
was ultra-polite throughout the flight.<br />
inclusive of taxes. flyroyalbrunei.com<br />
Kirsty Hicks<br />
10 CASTLE STREET, DORSET<br />
THE HOTEL<br />
10 Castle Street is a<br />
marble-clad en-suite bathroom was<br />
Grade II listed country house hotel in<br />
quite stunning and included a separate<br />
Cranborne, Dorset. Set in stunning<br />
shower and a freestanding bath, plus<br />
grounds, it has recently been remodelled<br />
Temple Spa toiletries. An added bonus<br />
and has nine individually designed and<br />
were the stunning views across the<br />
furnished guestrooms. Bournemouth<br />
property's manicured lawns and gardens.<br />
Airport is 15 miles away.<br />
THE FACILITIES<br />
Within the house<br />
THE CHECK-IN<br />
My room wasn't ready<br />
were two bars, a billiards room and<br />
when I arrived, but the receptionist went<br />
various lounges including one outside<br />
through the check-in process and then<br />
which can easily double up as a meeting<br />
offered to store my bags whilst I enjoyed<br />
space – each of them offered a unique<br />
a welcome drink in the bar.<br />
atmosphere and design. <strong>The</strong> elegant<br />
THE ROOM<br />
My room on the<br />
restaurant also offered a ‘tasting room’<br />
second floor was nicely designed and<br />
where guests can sit and watch the chefs<br />
decorated with white and cream colours<br />
at work. <strong>The</strong> food is all locally sourced<br />
complemented by dark wood furniture<br />
including from a vegetable garden within<br />
THE VERDICT<br />
This was a wonderful<br />
and red seats. It featured a superbly<br />
the grounds. <strong>The</strong>re was complimentary<br />
country house experience and the<br />
comfortable super king-sized bed, work<br />
wifi throughout the property but mobile<br />
property has obviously been lovingly<br />
desk, and a separate seating area with<br />
sofa, two single armchairs and a coffee<br />
table situated in front of a fireplace.<br />
Also provided were bathrobes, slippers,<br />
phone signal wasn’t great – but that<br />
could be seen as a positive. Numerous<br />
activities can be arranged including wine<br />
tasting, game shooting, screenings, artist<br />
THE PROPERTY HAS<br />
OBVIOUSLY BEEN<br />
LOVINGLY RESTORED<br />
restored. It would be ideal for external<br />
meetings or a company get together.<br />
THE DETAILS 10 Castle Street,<br />
Cranborne, Wimborne, BH21 5PZ.<br />
coffee and tea-making facilities, a<br />
talks and private parties. <strong>The</strong> property is<br />
Rates start from £265 (B&B). Day<br />
hairdryer, iPod docking station, DAB<br />
available for exclusive use. <strong>The</strong>re are<br />
delegate rates are £60 and the 24-hour<br />
radio, Smart TV and ample storage space<br />
including two chest of drawers. <strong>The</strong><br />
plans for a spa to be opened in the not<br />
too distant future.<br />
rate is £285. 10castlestreet.com<br />
David Clare<br />
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM 105
DEPARTURES<br />
<strong>The</strong> final word<br />
Brits’ pressing issues<br />
Hilton Garden Inn is<br />
taking the unusual<br />
step of launching an<br />
Ironing Club for its guests<br />
after research found that<br />
pressing clothes and linen is<br />
Brits’ greatest simple pleasure.<br />
According to the hotel group,<br />
72% of us love firing up the iron<br />
and letting off some steam to<br />
help ‘decompress’, while twothirds<br />
believe ironing is more<br />
relaxing than yoga or meditation.<br />
Almost half (44%) say it’s the<br />
satisfying smoothing of creases<br />
that makes it such a pleasure,<br />
while 43% say it’s the excuse to<br />
stand still for a while, coupled<br />
with the repetitive motion of the<br />
iron. Meanwhile, 40% say the<br />
soothing sound of the steam is<br />
what really does it for them.<br />
Guests at the Hilton Garden<br />
Inn London Heathrow Airport<br />
can book into organised Ironing<br />
Club sessions as part of a pilot<br />
ahead of the scheme’s wider<br />
roll-out across the UK. “Guests<br />
are encourage to wear loose,<br />
comfortable clothing,” says the<br />
hotel group, “and soothing music<br />
will be played throughout”.<br />
Tal Shefer, Brand Head, Hilton<br />
Garden Inn, EMEA, says: “We<br />
know that today’s travellers<br />
are looking for unique ways to<br />
unwind. Our research reveals<br />
that ironing is one of the nation’s<br />
top simple pleasures, alongside<br />
enjoying freshly-brewed coffee<br />
and a lie-in.”<br />
THE TOP 10…<br />
STUNNING LIBRARIES<br />
Check out the world's most<br />
stunning public libraries on<br />
your travels, as identified by<br />
Wordery and Instagram<br />
1 Seattle Public Library (below)<br />
2 Bodleian Library, Oxford<br />
3 Vancouver Public Library<br />
4 Real Gabinete Português de<br />
Leitura, Rio de Janeiro<br />
5 <strong>The</strong> Public Library, Stuttgart<br />
6 <strong>The</strong> Morgan Library, NYC<br />
7 Bibliotheca Alexandrina,<br />
Egypt<br />
8 Stockholm Public Library<br />
9 George Peabody Library,<br />
Baltimore<br />
10 Richard J. Riordan Central<br />
Library, Los Angeles<br />
Out with the old...<br />
Move over Great<br />
Pyramid of Giza<br />
and the Hanging<br />
Gardens of Babylon – a new<br />
Seven Urban Wonders of the<br />
World has been identified<br />
and there’s one UK entrant<br />
on the list… but it might not<br />
be the one you expect.<br />
London’s Camden Market is<br />
joined on the new list by the<br />
Sydney Opera House, Tokyo’s<br />
Tsukiji Fish Market, <strong>The</strong> Bund<br />
in Shanghai, the Louvre in Abu<br />
Dhabi, Temple Street Night<br />
Market in Hong Kong and<br />
Albertina in Vienna. <strong>The</strong> super<br />
seven was compiled by<br />
LikeWhere on behalf of Hilton<br />
and drew on smart data and<br />
crowdsourced suggestions.<br />
While it might seem daft to don a pair of<br />
stilettos to explore the ancient wonders of<br />
Greece, the wearing of high heels is in any<br />
case banned at the country’s archaeological<br />
sites in order to protect them from damage.<br />
<strong>The</strong> rule is among some unlikely laws highlighted<br />
by travel website Smart Lemur. In<br />
Iran, for example, it’s illegal for men to walk<br />
the streets wearing ponytails or mullets, and<br />
in Burundi, president Pierre Nkurunziza<br />
decided that jogging is a<br />
subversive protest against<br />
the government.<br />
106 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM
20<strong>19</strong><br />
September 17th-18th<br />
Registration open from<br />
<strong>December</strong> 1<br />
<br />
<strong>The</strong> FREE event for<br />
buyers and arrangers<br />
of business travel and<br />
meetings<br />
Hilton London<br />
Bankside, Southwark<br />
For further information about attending as a delegate or exhibitor<br />
contact Kirsty.Hicks@bmipublishing.co.uk<br />
thebusinesstravelconference.com<br />
20<strong>19</strong><br />
September 17th-18th
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