Business Travel News - November 19, 2007 - (Page S18)

European 100 Online Booking Benchmarks Buyers Use Tools To Reap Savings, Data BY SETH HARRIS he corporations with the largest travel spending in Europe increasingly are incorporating online booking tools for savings, data consolidation and reporting, and advancing policy and preferred vendor compliance. Meanwhile, many travel programs are hard-pressed to reach the highest levels of adoption due to complexities within Europe, including slow adopting markets, the prominence of multisegment itineraries that drive traffic to agents and the gaps in content of online booking tools fitting traveler needs. More than in the U.S. travel market, European travel itineraries are multinational, multi-destinational and use multiple modes of travel. This had made online booking difficult, but that is changing as online booking tools build out their capabilities and travelers become more comfortable booking online. “In Europe, there is always this complexity of complex regions,” said Frank Palapies, Amadeus IT Group head of global account management for corporate & distribution channels. “The vast majority of all bookings are point to point. However, the expectations on the system are that if you want to be successful in Europe, it’s definitely that it has to be more than just point to point.” European 100 respondents on average reported considerably higher transaction fees than those of the top spenders in North America. This year’s Corporate Travel 100 companies reported an average $9 or €6.15 per-transaction online booking fee without agent assistance, while European buyers spent an average of €16.90. One explanation is that although multi-leg itineraries now are booked online, they rarely are touchless, as manual intervention often comes into play. The fee difference also is derived from costs to develop and run multiple cross-border T technologies and infrastructures. “You can cover all of North America with one infrastructure, one network and one set of services,” said Stewart Harvey, HRG director of client management. “In Europe, to cover the same physical network in scope and size, you may have to run multiple servers and infrastructures spanning 20 or 30 countries with a dozen currencies. The cost to bring that together steps up.” Harvey said the top spenders in the region exhibit different behaviors than smaller spenders by using online book- bers. The company also has noted that some countries, such as Finland and Sweden, are leading the way at more than 50 percent adoption and that companies today are able to drive high adoption levels in much shorter amounts of time. One HRG client has gone from nothing to between 70 percent and 80 percent in the first three months of implementation in a single market. “That’s been unheard of in Europe,” said Nigel Meyer, HRG director of business technology in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Current Online Booking System Status In the process of replacing company-approved system 8% We are using an online booking system 60% We will select one in 2008 We are in the process of buying and/or implementing a company-approved system We will select one in 2007 16% 8% 8% ing tools for greater control across markets via uniform processes, and tighter, immediate data reporting. They enact a program in which 80 percent adopt standard processes and 20 percent use local content and service. “We see trends where clients want their own data and reporting, and demand management features through the self-booking tool,” he said. While travel management company HRG’s total European volume is between 15 percent and 20 percent online, with top clients contributing adoption rates of between 40 percent and 60 percent, slowadopting countries, such as Italy with 1 percent adoption, are lowering the num- Eastman Kodak implemented the Amadeus E-Travel booking tool in more than one dozen European countries at the start of 2007 and already has reached 45 percent adoption without a mandate, according to Kodak manager of global corporate travel services Doug Baldy. One Corporate Travel 50 buyer and top EMEA spender has seen similar results. With 1,400 weekly reservations in its two biggest European markets, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, 47 percent are processed online, according to the company’s EMEA travel manager. While the online booking tool has been Continued on page 20 18 EUROPEAN 100 BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS WWW.BTNONLINE.COM http://WWW.BTNONLINE.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - November 19, 2007

Business Travel News - November 19, 2007
Contents
Avis Ups Its Bet With Carey Investment
Notebook: ACTE Assails Green Taxes
EC Adopts Revised CRS Code Of Conduct
Dynamic Discovery: General Dynamics’ Loper Mines Data
American First: AA Wins BRN's 2007 Air Survey
Perfecting Attendance: CA’s Brust Deploys Event Reg. Tech.
Mtg. Buyers Grapple With Price Hikes
Business Travel News - 2007 Resource Guide
Table of Contents
Airline Benchmarks
Siemens: Global Balance
Hotel Benchmarks
Syngenta: Selective Sourcing
Online Booking Benchmarks
Pfizer: Cross-Border Mtgs. Consolidation
Meetings Benchmarks
Planes, Trains and Striking Good Deals

Business Travel News - November 19, 2007

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