Business Travel News - September 8, 2008 - (Page 4)

NEWS Groups Vie To Define Green Mtgs. communications, onsite office and A pair of meetings industry asso- audiovisual and production. ciations separately are looking to “The first step is to define the provide a certification and standards scope of their category because catfor green meetings management. egory terms are rather broad,” said The Convention Industry Council Amy Spatrisano, chair of the Green umbrella group of meetings organi- Meetings and Events Practice Panzations is working with ASTM Inter- el and a principal at third-party national, a standards development meetings management firm Meetorganization, to develop industry ing Strategies Worldwide. green standards as part of its longOnce created, committees will running Accepted Practices Ex- send standards to Spatrisano’s panchange effort. el, then to the industry to obtain Meanwhile, the newly formed As- feedback. The standards will be resociation of Green Meetings and vised and sent to Apex commissionEvents has develers and ASTM for fioped a certification nal approval. process. By next month, One of the stakeApex plans to proholders in CIC’s effort vide an online forum is the U.S. Environto weigh in on the mental Protection standards. Agency, which apImplementation proached ASTM to costs of phase-one help develop an acstandards will not credited industry be exorbitant, Spastandard. trisano said. “If we “CIC and Apex don’t do it at a base wanted to develop level, we’ll spend AGME’S LORIANN WHITE standards that years debating Heads new green-mtg. group would be widely acwhether something cepted and because should be added, we knew the EPA’s interest in cre- because everything wants to get inating standards around green meet- cluded,” she said. ings and because of their link to Meanwhile, the Atlanta-based AsASTM, collectively all the organiza- sociation of Green Meetings and tions said we should be doing this Events was started in June, but jointly,” said Sue Tinnish, Apex di- counts more than 250 members, 72 rector. She added that Apex has fol- percent of whom are buyers, said lowed the ASTM process when cre- president and co-founder Loriann ating previous standards. White. AGME has developed a green “Our process is not For the latest breaking news, meetings certification, going to be that differconsisting of a 25see btnonline.com/bn ent except there will hour, 13-step course. be a final ratification and a final The certification process includes viewing of the standards through developing an environmental misASTM,” she said. sion statement, looking at different Apex has been in discussion with types of meeting budgets and negoASTM since February and plans for tiating green contracts and addenda the first phase of the project to ei- with suppliers. ther be fully launched or sent for At the conclusion of the course, ASTM approval by April. participants must conduct a postCIC set up committees to create convention report of an actual meetstandards in nine areas: accommo- ing and submit a case study, she dation, meeting and event venues, said. The CGME program will be destination selection, transporta- held in Atlanta in November. tion, exhibits, food and beverage, ■ ehunter@btnonline.com ■ BY ELISSA HUNTER TWO YEARS LATER, AA AND AMADEUS STRIKE CONTENT DEAL INSIDE TRACK After years of operating under a month-to-month interim agreement, Amadeus in July reached a long-term full-content agreement with American Airlines. Amadeus said the agreement is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2008. An Amadeus spokesperson said its agency subscribers were “already getting access without surcharges under our interim agreement with AA.” The negotiations with American stem back to 2006, when major global distribution players and U.S. legacy carriers restructured content agreements. The Amadeus-AA deal was the last outstanding agreement between a major GDS and a legacy carrier. TSA CONTINUES TO EXPAND SELF-SELECT LANES The U.S. Transportation Security Administration in late August added the 36th airport to its rapidly expanding Self Select program, which lets travelers select security lanes geared to their comfort with checkpoint screening processes. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport joined the program on Aug. 28. TSA in February introduced the lanes at Salt Lake City International Airport and Denver International Airport, with three separate checkpoint options for travelers requiring special assistance or families, casual travelers and expert travelers. “Since initial rollout, these self-select lanes have already increased throughput and helped thousands of passengers as they pass through the checkpoint,” Verdi White, TSA’s Phoenix federal security director said in a statement. TSA in August said it would continue to expand the program to other airports across the country. ACCOR QUASHES TAKEOVER TALK, BRACES FOR SLOWDOWN Paris-based Accor, parent to brands that include Motel 6, Sofitel, Novotel and Ibis, has reached an agreement with a concert group—investment group Eurazeo and U.S. property company Colony Capital, part of the team that acquired Fairmont Hotels & Resorts—that has raised ownership stakes in the company, prompting concern of a takeover (BTNonline, May 12). In a statement released in late August, the Accor board of directors noted that “the concert group has expressed its full support for Accor’s expansion strategy, which is based on two core businesses, Hotels and Services, and has no intention of seeking either de jure or de facto control of the company.” In turn, Accor is giving the group, which now owns 21.6 percent of Accor, an extra seat on the board of directors, to be approved at the next shareholders meeting. Accor also announced that it is cutting marketing spending, particularly in face of the deepening U.S. economic slowdown. REPORT: CREDIT PROBLEMS CONGEST U.S. HOTEL PIPELINE Though the U.S. hotel development pipeline continues to show year-over-year growth, credit woes continue to slow the transition of projects from conceptual to reality, according to a recent report by Smith Travel Research, Torto Wheaton Research and Dodge Construction. “We have seen a bubble of projects forming in the final planning stage over the course of the year,” STR vice president Duane Vinson said in a statement. “It is still unclear if those projects will be built or if they will be abandoned.” As of the end of July, the pipeline stood at 5,943 hotels, or 660,928 rooms, which is up 18.1 percent from 2007. However, that also is a 0.5 percent decrease of rooms compared with June. “It now seems clear the industry will avoid the huge supply surge that accompanied the last two building cycles,” according to STR president Mark Lomanno. 4 Monday, September 8, 2008 www.BTNonline.com Business Travel News http://btnonline.com/bn http://www.BTNonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - September 8, 2008

Business Travel News - September 8, 2008
Contents
Inside Track
Profiles In Travel Management
BTN Research
Aviation
Meetings Today
Lodging
Asia/Pacific
Washington Wire

Business Travel News - September 8, 2008