What are the main challenges facing the GBTA in 2012?
Paul Tilstone - It's been around a year since the GBTA changed its name from NBTA, dedicated to the United States, to GBTA, incorporating the notion of 'global'. This is not just a name change, but a new approach. The association realised that in order to provide greater added value to its members, it needed to be active in other regions of the world, but also to better understand these other markets, in order to offer more resources to its members. The other challenge is to strike a balance between this international development and financial imperatives, in a world where many regions are facing economic difficulties. We have to make sure that the new operations we set up are viable, enter the right markets and adapt our resources to them.
What about your presence in France?
P. T. - It was important for us to launch a French branch of the GBTA that is run by local professionals who understand the market, rather than making decisions from the UK. It's also about providing practical tools and advice to travel buyers in France. We realised that we needed to translate the online resources, or at least some of them, into French for the many people who prefer to access them in their own language.
We also want to reach out to the French-speaking community as a whole, putting travel professionals in France in touch with their counterparts in Canada, North Africa and elsewhere, and integrating them into the network of English-speaking professionals.
2012 began with a major expansion in Brazil. What are the next steps in the globalisation of GBTA?
P. T. - Brazil is one of our fastest-growing markets, but we also established a presence in Asia this year, with dedicated resources and a logical focus on China and India. We also have plans to expand into Russia later this year or in 2013. Opening up to these four markets - Brazil, China, India and Russia - is particularly interesting because it allows us to share experience between professionals from markets that are all part of the same very rapid development dynamic. They need travel management infrastructures to keep pace, and it's important that they learn from each other. We also launched in Africa five or six weeks ago. So 2012 was a year of very rapid development for GBTA, and 2013 will be more about consolidating that growth, not necessarily looking at new markets, but focusing on the markets we've just entered and making sure we're doing things seriously there, including in France.
What is your view of the French business travel market?
P. T. - I'm not sure everyone realises just how important France is in the European business travel market. It is the third largest market in terms of expenditure. Of course, growth was weak in 2012, but spending is expected to pick up again in 2013, to the tune of around 3%, mainly thanks to domestic travel. International trade is currently recording the biggest decline in France, and in 2013 it will grow only very slightly. But the strength of its domestic market goes some way to protecting France. France also shares problems with the rest of Europe: maintaining control over travel policy at a time when travellers have greater access to more direct booking channels through the use of smartphones, for example. That's why it's important to put French professionals in touch with their counterparts in other countries.
Despite the crisis, which seems to be the focus of everyone's attention, are you able to look to the longer term to anticipate tomorrow's challenges for business travel?
P. T. - There are some more or less obvious trends in travel management. One of these is the need to assess the return on investment of a face-to-face meeting. Ikea, for example, is very good at deciding whether the circumstances require sending someone on site for a business meeting, or whether it is more appropriate to use the alternative of new technologies. This good perception conditions the effectiveness of negotiations, and generates growth, because the trip represents a big investment. It's not just a question of the financial cost of the trip itself. It is also, and above all, about the cost of the time spent by the company's employees with their contacts. Finding the right communication format for each case is particularly important, and is becoming even more crucial with the development of new technologies within the company.
I also see distribution as one of the challenges of the future. Cost control is all the more decisive in the current context, and this is an issue on which we will have to work over the next five years, to achieve a much more efficient distribution system, adapted to the expectations of users, and which will enable much more effective travel management. This is inevitably linked to the behaviour of travellers themselves, who are increasingly seeking to control their environment directly. A business traveller from one company does not have the same needs as his counterpart from another. So we need to create programmes that are tailored to the needs of each individual, but that's very difficult when you're trying to control travel policy through standardised processes. It's a difficult balance to strike, and it will be one of the challenges of tomorrow.
Are you confident about the sector's ability to meet these challenges?
P. T. - Yes, the business travel market is very creative. It has survived numerous crises, 9/11, wars and economic downturns. The sector has been able to adapt and innovate when under pressure. So I'm very confident about the future.
What do you think of the various studies that point to the counter-productive nature of a travel policy?
P. T. - Supporters of the idea that all travel policy is bad are wrong, as are those who believe that it is the answer to all problems. It all depends on the market in question, the culture of the company, the regions of the world in which it is developing, and the demographics of its teams. In a company like Google, for example, where employees live and breathe Google and are very up to date with new technologies, granting a great deal of autonomy to business travellers is probably the best thing to do. On the other hand, another company will need to keep a very close eye on travel policy, or risk going straight into the wall.
What is the status of the "trusted traveller programme"?
P. T. - This is one of the main themes of the GBTA: we would like to see the " trusted traveller program "We are working on this with IATA. We are working on this issue with IATA, and we share very similar objectives on this subject, with a view to setting up a voluntary profiling programme for frequent travellers in international airports around the world, with simplified and accelerated passage through security checks. We will be focusing on this issue over the coming months.
What is GBTA's relationship with the MICE sector, which is beginning to be integrated into European travel policy?
P. T. - It is important for every company to adopt a good strategic vision of this sector, i.e. to determine the best way to interact with its contacts, both internally and externally. I have the feeling that the boundary between MICE and travel management is gradually disappearing. We at the GBTA are aware that the strategic management of the events sector is one of the expectations of our members, and a section of our training programme is devoted to this. But we're going to take this issue further: we're in the process of developing our offer for the MICE sector, and we're preparing to formalise an approach along these lines in the coming months.
What are your views on the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)?
P. T. - The GBTA understands the purpose of the ETS, which is a good principle in itself. There must be a quantified cost for aviation-related carbon emissions. But we believe it should be a global programme. Especially since launching such a programme in Europe, given the current economic situation, is probably not the most sensible decision. On this point too, we share the same view. point of view that IATA A comprehensive programme should be put in place.
How do you view new technologies, and their sometimes problematic compatibility with a controlled travel policy?
P. T. - Everything can be very positive for business travel if the right tool is used by the right company. On the other hand, it can be particularly harmful and detrimental to business travel if you don't understand the culture specific to each market, if you implement the wrong tool simply because others are doing it. It's also a question of being flexible in the face of the mosaic of choices in terms of technologies: from one year to the next, the tools and the most suitable partners evolve. There is a form of consolidation taking place at the moment, with the various players forging partnerships to offer a more complete range, but there will always be a mosaic of products, and companies will always have to make the right choices for business travel, and be able to determine which tools are best suited to their market.
Business travellers, for their part, want to be able to access all the information about their journey from a single mobile device as soon as they leave for the airport. This makes the business travel experience much less restrictive, and enables professionals to be much more efficient. The business trip of the future must move in this direction: it must be as fast and efficient as possible, and professionals are prepared to pay for it, because this optimisation of time is of decisive importance for business.
