Thaindian News

Gurgaon (Haryana), Mar.3 (ANI): Though India Incorporated has by and large welcomed the budget proposals for 2011-12, there appears to be a disturbing aspect in them insofar as the hospitality and travel industry is concerned.

Changes in the country’s service tax regime for the coming financial year will make air travel and hotel reservation more costly, and in such a circumstances, organizations can meet the challenge of rising prices and even reduce annual corporate travel spend without affecting service, comfort and safety for their travelers, feels the world’s fifth largest travel management company, Egencia.

Offering expertise in corporate travel management, Egencia in its 2011 Cost Avoidance Strategies for Corporate Travel study believes it can help travel managers to circumvent and protect against the growing costs associated with corporate travel.

The study focuses on savings opportunities through better monitoring, compliance and management of hotel and air reservations.

Accepting that the Asia-Pacific region, in particular, offers a challenging negotiating environment for corporate travel because of an increase in airline and hotel prices, the study offers several tips and strategies that travel managers can use to combat the increase predicted for prices in the coming year.

According to a recent joint Egencia/NBTA (National Business Travel Association) Foundation study, companies have been able to reduce annual travel spend by at least 45 percent or more due to carefully conceived and consistently enforced corporate travel policies.

The study suggests that traveler groups need to be identified and specific policies need to be established based on responsibilities, roles or functions of a designated team.

It also says that steps should be taken to make it easy for employees to identify and select in-policy travel options at the time of purchase.

According to the 2011 Cost Avoidance Strategies for Corporate Travel Managers, 72 percent of travel managers have favored the establishment of pre-trip approval systems, while 69 percent said giving an update on regular travel spend to company leaders would be beneficial.

As per the study, travel managers in Australia, China and India also said displaying alternative in-policy options when out-of-policy selections are made such as providing e-mail notification; identifying or initiating a follow-up on rogue travelers; providing e-mail notification to travel managers or the employee’s manager, would help to enforce policy compliance and realize up to 45% in savings .

The study also suggests that travel management firms absolutely need to educate their travelers to carefully compare and examine all extra fees before they complete their travel bookings.