2008 proved to be a volatile year for business travel. As the economy began to slow, so did hope for growth throughout the industry. Rising fuel costs, slowing demand and budget cuts plagued the industry, and companies began to prepare for the worst. In a challenging business environment, the value of NBTA education and networking is even greater, and 2008 proved to be NBTA’s most successful year yet.
Here are just a few highlights:
Growth
NBTA Membership grew 35 percent from 2007 to 2008. This growth was due in large part to the success of the National Travel Forum – a government business travel event – and the corresponding growth of NBTA’s Government Travel Group (GTG). NTF 2008, held in June, was previously run by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), which asked NBTA to take over the event. The first NBTA-managed NTF broke all previous attendance records.
NBTA continued to expand globally in 2008, officially partnering with ABGEV – the Brazilian Business Travel Association. ABGEV is now NBTA’s Latin American regional affiliate. NBTA and ABGEV partner each year to host the Latin American Corporate Travel & Technology Exchange (LACCTE) in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which grew by 20 percent in attendance in 2008.
Another NBTA event that passed attendance records last year is the NBTA International Convention & Exposition, held in Los Angles. More than 6,450 corporate travel professionals were in attendance, including 1,400 travel buyers, beating 2007’s attendance record of 6,200. Representatives from more than 40 nations were present, and 475 exhibitors provided attendees with demonstrations and offers at the Expo.
New Educational Programs
NBTA held its first Pan-European conference in May 2008, drawing in more than 350 corporate travel professionals from more than 20 countries. Co-hosted by the Paragon Partnership, Crossroads Milan provided a perfect platform for industry leaders such as Dale Moss, Managing Director, OpenSkies, and Charles Petruccelli, President of Global Travel Services for American Express, to address the European business travel community. Crossroads will be held this year in Paris, May 14-15.
At the 2008 IT&CMA Asia-Pacific event in Bangkok, NBTA offered its Fundamentals of Business Travel Management/CTE course for the first time in the Asia Pacific region. Twenty-eight pupils earned their Corporate Travel Expert (CTE) designation upon completion of the course, which as customized to fit the needs of corporate travel professionals in China and throughout Asia Pacific.
New/Updated Tools
The NBTA Aviation Committee unveiled the new, completely revamped NBTA Airline RFP at the 2008 International Convention & Exposition. Businesses can customize the new RFP to include only necessary features based on the demographics of a company and its travelers. Airlines can also expect greater ease through the RFP process with this new industry standard, which will allow for uniform proposal sections to be quickly modified upon each request.
The NBTA Foundation upgraded its Managed Travel Index® (MTI) & Benchmarking Tool last year, adding car rental rate benchmarking, enhanced hotel benchmarking, and the ability to assess the maturity of travel-related corporate social responsibility initiatives.
The NBTA Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee launched a new tool aimed at helping companies launch and effectively execute travel-related corporate social responsibility initiatives. The 2008 NBTA CSR Toolkit: A Primer on Responsible Travel Management was also unveiled at the 2008 Convention.
In 2008, the updated NBTA Modular Hotel RFP for the 2009 bid season entered into widespread use. Changes announced late in 2007 included the addition of six questions to help travel buyers and hotels reach common understanding of the hotels’ environmental programs, as well as changes to the pricing grid to support dynamic pricing requests.
Major Government Relations Victories
The Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which NBTA has supported for numerous years, was expanded this year to include seven new countries: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, the Republic of Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia. This expansion marked a victory for NBTA and the corporate travel community, enabling the free flow of commerce between the U.S. and important business partners. NBTA’s efforts were recognized last year with an invitation to represent the corporate travel industry at a White House Rose Garden event to acknowledge the advancement of VWP.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s international trusted traveler pilot program, Global Entry, was launched in four U.S. international airports last April with NBTA support and presence. In June, NBTA President & CEO Kevin Maguire was invited to participate in the official launch at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) in Houston, where he urged DHS to expand the program to more airports. Two months later, Global Entry was expanded to an additional four U.S. airports, and in November, the first-ever NBTA Committee Summit served as the first test for Global Entry field enrollment.
Return to Connecting News January 2009