More Australian businesses are travelling further afield for their conferences and incentives due to the more favourable currency conditions over the past 12 months, according to Corporate Travel Management Company, BCD Australia.

BCD Australia’s Sydney office reports a significant increase in overseas bookings for major company events over the past financial year, with the Australian dollar continuing to hover around 95c against the US greenback.

New Zealand and the broader Asia Pacific region has long been the most popular region for overseas conferences and incentives held by Australian companies, but this year more Australian companies have been choosing destinations in Europe, the US, China and India.

Among the locations selected by BCD Sydney’s corporate travel management clients in FY07-08 are Monaco, Istanbul, Hawaii, Cancun, Mauritius and various cities throughout China and India.

As the world’s two most important emerging economies, China and India have extra appeal, with many Australian companies recently establishing new business ties there. Both countries are undergoing significant leisure and corporate travel booms as more foreigners, including Australians, choose to visit on personal holidays or business excursions. New hotels and resorts are popping up all over both countries, with Hilton Hotels Corp recently announcing that 75 new hotels will be built in India over the next five years, along with 18 in China.

Pullman at Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney’s newest 5 star hotel, open from September 1, 2008

A new chain of upscale hotels for Accor, Pullman hotels are designed to meet the needs of business travelers, whether traveling alone or in a group.

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Pullman, new attitude hotels for business travellers.

Pressure to reduce costs puts focus on compliance for travel and procurement managers

In an effort to reduce costs, travel and procurement managers are focusing on enforcing travel policy – but while they may be driving out costs in some areas, preferred supplier compliance is declining, according to BCD Travel’s 2008 Travel Program Survey.

This year’s survey shows a 23 percentage point increase in companies whose policy enforcement is either “strict” or “moderate to strict,” from 36 percent in 2007 to 59 percent in 2008. But the number of companies enjoying air program compliance levels of greater than 70 percent decreased by eight percentage points from 2007, from 65 percent to 57 percent. Despite aggressive measures to strengthen policy enforcement, they are still struggling, in the face of increasing fares and decreasing capacity, to secure space on preferred carriers.

“Companies are focused on reducing their total cost of travel – but doing so in a way that balances their other top priorities of improving traveler satisfaction and maintaining traveler safety and security,” said Mary Ellen George, general manager of Advito, the independent consulting division of BCD Travel, which provided data analysis and forecasting for the survey and resulting analytical document, Insight on Corporate Travel. “To help support them in this task, they are reducing processing costs through increased usage of online booking tools; they are enhancing policy communication to travelers; and they are enforcing the use of preferred suppliers and the preferred agency.”

European transport ministers have approved a mandate for the European Commission to negotiate with the Rudd Labor Government on a potential ‘open skies’ agreement between Australia and the European Union (EU).

Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, the Hon. Anthony Albanese says this is an important step towards a historic open skies agreement which could deliver greater competition, more flights and lower air fares between Australia and EU countries.

“An ‘open skies’ agreement could remove many – if not all – of the existing regulatory limitations on Australian and European airlines operating between our two continents – allowing them to offer more flights and a wider range of services at the most competitive prices,” says Albanese.

“Such an outcome would benefit Australian businesses and travellers.

“Currently, flights from Australia to Europe are limited by outdated bilateral agreements. For example, our carriers are only allowed to offer three flights per week to Paris.

“The agreement will be broader than market access issues, and is likely to address competition, safety and security and environmental protection issues,” he says.

The EU is Australia’s largest aviation market. In 2007, 4.5 million passengers travelled between Australia and the EU – an average of 43,780 passengers each way per week.

Negotiations for an ‘open skies’ agreement will build on Australia’s ‘Horizontal’ air services agreement with the EU.

The Horizontal agreement, signed in April 2008, recognises the existence of a single European market for air transport links to and from Australia.

Source: Supply Chain Review