Managing Travel in the New Normal
“Managing Travel in the New Normal” is a new report put out by American Express Business Travel (AEBT). The study focuses on changes in corporate travel plans during the economic downturn. Most participants believe travel demand will expand in 2010, but not at pre-recession levels of business.
Meeting policies are not a priority in the corporate world. Analysts found that less than 30% of their respondents formalize and enforce a meeting policy. An additional 11% create but do not enforce a meeting policy and 25% have no meetings policy at all. Meetings policy is often subsumed by corporate travel policy, which may or may not be enforced.
Company officials often mistakenly believe their employees comply with travel rules. In most cases, a first time offender is given a verbal or written warning. Subsequent failures to comply result in a fiscal slap on the knuckles; that is, offenders are not reimbursed for off policy expenditures.
As a counterpoint to the new normal report, American Express launched a new travel scorecard that analyzes many factors of travel practices. Site visitors answer a series of questions regarding travel management, company compliance for attendance, and technology requirements. The results are compiled and compared to the answers of similar companies.
