Business Travel Management Strategies

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: During a rail or airplane trip on an early midweek’s morning men in suits working on their laptops or reading the latest newspaper are a common scene. This might lead to the assumption that business travellers are important customers to the tourism and travel industry and companies spend large sums on the trips of their employees. Indeed this impression can be proven right. Such 30-40% of all travel in Germany is business driven. In average companies spent 3,9% up to 5% of their yearly indirect cost on business travel. In a globalized market business travel is important and necessary for companies. It is an investment which influences the performance of a company positively if applied correctly. However as for every investment costs are attached which need to be validated upon their necessity and their cost-benefit ratio. Furthermore for business travel aspects like security, work time, employee wellbeing and other factors must be considered to increase the positive outcome for the company. There is a clear requirement for business travel and its management which will be explained in more detail during this thesis. However still many companies are not aware of the cost factor of business travel. Even if certain awareness has been established often still no clear strategy is in place to improve the value for money and avoid yearly cost increases. To create such a strategy it is necessary to have a good understanding of the travel industry, their relevant players and the companies travel structure. Motivation: Business travel management i.e. the professional organisation of business travel has just developed during the last 50 years. Globalisation and development of transportation caused a quick increase during the last years of the business travel industry. In 2008 German companies spend 46.6 billion Euros on business travel. The strategic management of business travel requirements however is still not common in every company. Though scientific, universal literature about business travel management is limited. Only a small number of authors give directions upon how to implement a complete travel management system in a company. In many cases the available theoretical literature has no practical tips for users. On the other hand there are many white papers, studies and articles available which are up to date, give practical tips, however only refer to one aspect of the travel process. This implies that inexperienced [...]