Various industries including financial services, technology, engineering, consulting, entertainment, food, and government services were represented by travel managers who took part in the survey.
According to the Institute of Travel Management(ITM), the UK & Ireland's top professional body, corporate travel managers are seeing a change in approval processes and in the usage of online booking tools following a large increase in demand for the UK and US domestic business travel.
A straw survey of 30 global EMEA and UK travel managers who took part in ITM's recent Buyer Knowledge Exchange reveals that further c Suite permissions are being revoked and that approvals are being reverted to local market management levels during the pandemic. For most domestic reservations, online booking tools (OBTs) were also activated again.
Various industries including financial services, technology, engineering, consulting, entertainment, food, and government services were represented by travel managers who took part in the survey. They have shown how to educate travelers and bookers about returning business travel as a significant problem. This involves reserving prior visits because of the complexity of COVID and arranging schedules to maximize time for both testing and environmental actions in the area. Buyers also try to make travelers' messages basic, whether they book online or offline on the market.
Company travel agents also stated that they need to manage the expectations of their trip bookers in terms of reaction times to offline inquiries, while travel management companies (TMC) adapt to personnel from Furlough who are returning and reconstruct their post-pandemic activities.
"It is good that ITM's corporate travel management community has the feeling that domestic traveling is returning - albeit not before COVID, but there is certainly more travel, especially in the UK and in the USA. Cott Davies, Chief Executive Officer, says ITM.
However, international travel still presents several problems, including managing the expectations of passengers that they can no longer just get on an aircraft and that journeys need meticulous planning far in advance. While the UK government announces that properly vaccinated European and US voyageurs may enter England without quarantine, much other complexity and logistical levels still need to be considered before a journey can take place.
"Company travel administrators are also aware of the serious impact on the company and employee level of their TMC from the pandemic. Consequently, our buyer members work closely with their TMCs to adjust to such changes as returns on business and manage the expectations of their visitors and bookers that it is still not business as is normal," Davies added.