Travel managers are increasingly looking to combine business trips with already scheduled meetings and events in an effort to reduce costs.
A forthcoming report by meetings technology specialist Cvent will reveal that travel managers have adopted a variety of tactics to combat rising inflation.
The number one method to cut costs has been to combine business trips with existing events that staff are already scheduled to attend - this is being used by 40 per cent of corporate travel managers, according to the Corporate Travel Manager Report: Europe Edition 2023 report.
There has also been an increase in the number of travel managers who plan to reduce the number of employees travelling - 37 per cent of them plan to do this, up from 32 per cent in Cvent’s December 2022 report.
Cvent revealed its first insights from the report at Business Travel Show Europe in London on Wednesday (28 June) ahead of full publication in July.
Graham Pope, vice president of international sales at Cvent, said: “Over the last few years, corporate travel manager roles have expanded to include hotel sourcing for meetings and events, in addition to sourcing for employee travel.
“This has allowed for greater visibility into an organisation’s overall travel programme, and managers are leveraging this view to shift their focus from quantity to quality and maximise their budgets. This integrated approach is also enabling more streamlined processes, improved supplier negotiations and enhanced policy control.”
Cvent commissioned research company Censuswide to survey more than 600 corporate travel decision-makers in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. The full report will be released in July.