Business travellers shunning ancillaries, but want meetings help
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Business travellers are largely avoiding ancillaries but expect more help with meetings management, according to a new Business Travel Show study.
Questions put forward exclusively by Travel Daily UK show only 38% of business travel buyers have seen clients are more willing to book extras for their trips.
Among those that said travellers are asking for extras the most popular was an upgrade in the hotel or airline (30%) followed by other airline seating options such as being able to choose a specific seat (22%).
Around 16% said clients asked for car hire or meals, while 12% have had taxi booking requests. Although none had seen enquiries for attraction or excursion tickets around 5% had been asked to arrange leisure-driven pre or post- stay arrangements.
However further results released by the Business Travel Show revealed that buyers with a responsibility for meetings has increased from a 52% share to 57%. This has also increased since 40% in 2011. The number of those with a strategy for meetings has increased from 27% to 34%.
“An increasing number of travel managers may be taking on responsibility for meetings management but that doesn’t mean the transition is without its challenges,” said Jef Robinson, global category manager (meetings and events), Citrix Systems. “It’s tricky to develop a meetings and events process that reduces risk and reduces company expenditure but without planners losing ownership.”
Unsurprisingly when asked which service is most valuable for clients the majority of the 179 buyers said Wi-Fi (44%), followed by breakfast or dinner at the hotel (25%). This was followed by automated expenses/processes (19%).
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