corporate travel management essay

The comeback of corporate travel: How should companies be planning?

It seems that, finally, the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel is in sight—at least in some parts of the world. In 2020, total global business travel expenses contracted by 52 percent, while managed corporate-travel spending in the United States plummeted 71 percent, or $94 billion. Last year, when we reported  on the impact of COVID-19 on corporate travel, we projected that the road to recovery would be a long and uneven one.

Much has changed since then, thanks largely to progress on the vaccination front. Even though there’s much debate  surrounding the timing of herd immunity in the United States, it’s indisputable that vaccination rates are on the rise across the country. At the time of writing, more than 40 percent of the US population has been fully vaccinated , with more than 50 percent having received at least one dose. Companies are starting to bring employees back to offices. Corporate executives are planning in-person meetings and gatherings with customers and colleagues.

In light of new developments, to what extent will videoconferencing replace business trips? How should corporations prepare for the next phase of business travel? While our insights from last year still hold, we’ve sharpened our understanding of how business leaders could be thinking about the postpandemic role of corporate travel. In this article, we identify four categories of business travelers—the “never left,” the “never returning,” the “fear of missing out” (FOMO), and the “wait and see” segments—and provide recommendations for how key players in the corporate-travel ecosystem can make effective plans in this context.

What’s changed: Increased vaccination is expanding flexible work arrangements

The most significant change shaping our thinking about the return of corporate travel is the rising vaccination rates in the United States and Europe. We project that the United States and the United Kingdom will slowly transition toward normalcy in mid-2021, with the rest of the European Union following shortly after (Exhibit 1).

Notwithstanding the risks presented by new virus strains and limited visibility into the duration of vaccine immunity, rising vaccination rates are ameliorating some of the travel anxiety. Many organizations are now proactively figuring out the future of work —which includes the role of business travel.

For many companies, COVID-19 has proven that more workplace flexibility is possible . Around 70 percent of executives said their companies will employ more temporary workers than before the pandemic, and 72 percent of executives report that their companies have started to adopt permanent remote-working arrangements for a subset of their employees. Nearly 40 percent of the workforce in the United States has the potential to work from anywhere. These signals and others suggest that many organizations are reevaluating working and organizational arrangements , including when, why, and how their employees should hit the road.

There’s no consensus, however, among business leaders about what to do with this newfound flexibility, and many organizations have not yet clearly communicated a vision for postpandemic work: around 30 percent of executives in a recent survey  say they have not heard about specific plans for corporate travel after the pandemic, while another 28 percent described their companies’ plans as vague.

Four key segments in the return of corporate travel

Breaking down corporate trips into different segments can help travel planners and suppliers plan for the return of corporate travel. We’ve identified four different business-travel profiles, each sitting at a different point on the travel-resilience spectrum. Three indicators were used to define each archetype and determine its position on the spectrum: sector, travel purpose, and whether the trip was domestic or international. For travel purpose, if in-person interactions remain critical for a company, then the more resilient such business trips are. Some assumptions were made on how likely it was that some forms of corporate travel would recover rather than be substituted by videoconference technology.

The profile mix varies from company to company, and it’s possible for all four to coexist within the same organization, although some might feature more prominently in some companies and less in others.

• The “never left” segment. On one end of the spectrum, employees for whom travel is deemed essential for conducting business resumed their trips as soon as lockdowns eased. This category accounted for around 15 percent of all corporate travel expenses in 2019 and includes managers in manufacturing companies with a wide distribution of factories and plants and field-operation workers. Those who were reluctant to fly opted for rail and private cars instead.
• The “never returning” segment . On the other end, business travelers that contributed to one-fifth of business travel spending in 2019 present an enticing opportunity for corporations to permanently slash their corporate-travel budgets. Digital adopters who are able to maintain high levels of effectiveness while working remotely may never return to corporate travel. Furthermore, advances made in digital technologies that enhance oversight of outposts have paved the way for corporate travel to be further reduced. For instance, many chain restaurants found ways to minimize corporate travel by replacing in-person visits with virtual alternatives, as well as establishing more local oversight systems. They are likely to want to keep these significant cost savings; although a certain number of business trips will continue after the pandemic even in this segment, they will do so at much lower levels than before.
• The “fear of missing out” (FOMO) segment. The bulk of business travel (60 percent of business-travel expenditure in 2019)—which will likely drive the rebound of corporate travel—will be fueled by the FOMO segment: those traveling to cultivate important client relationships. Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) will likely increase corporate travel at much faster rates, as they are not subject to the heightened approval process that large enterprises have to follow. SMEs are likely to trigger a domino effect where one company’s resumption of business trips will catalyze its rivals’ return to work-related travel. Faced with intense competition, different players in the company (leadership, management, staff) coalesce to reinstate corporate travel at scale to seize a first-mover advantage over rival businesses. An April Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) member survey reported that more than 50 percent of respondents are developing or plan to develop a timeline for resuming travel, updated travel policies, or new safety resources and information for travelers.
• The “wait and see” segment. This segment consists of workers in relatively noncompetitive industries and roles; it contributed 5 percent of total business-travel spending in 2019. These corporate travelers tend to come from the public sector, professional associations, and nonprofits. During the pandemic, many professional associations were able to hold virtual events to replace in-person conferences and will likely be more cautious in their return to travel.

Taken together, the trajectories of the four travel categories confirm our earlier projection of an uneven recovery for corporate travel. Overall, we can expect a 20 percent reduction in corporate travel spending by 2023.

In addition, it’s worth noting that even within these segments, business-travel recovery will vary depending on the purpose and distance of the business trips (Exhibit 2). For instance, even for firms in the “never left” segment, overseas travel to attend international conferences has not returned because of government-imposed restrictions due to public-health concerns. Furthermore, given the uneven rollout of COVID-19 vaccines internationally, the return of international travel may be further suspended in regions with limited or delayed access to vaccines due to sustained public-health restrictions and/or disease outbreaks. On the flip side, “never returning” business travelers may still make exceptions for key events that are held regionally.

In the United States, a comparison of a multinational conglomerate’s internal and external travel spend and that of a private health insurer provides an example of how the recovery trajectory may differ from business to business (Exhibit 3). Internal travel encompasses trips taken for intracompany purposes, where employees participate in activities such as training, team building, or inspection of field operations. External travel, on the other hand, refers to trips employees take for engagements outside the company, including in-person meetings with clients and suppliers, trade conferences, and customer sales calls.

The multinational conglomerate we examined, a manufacturer of building products, had a total travel spend in 2019 of around $80 million. As a customer-driven business, the company spends the majority of its travel expenses on external travel. Much of this falls into the FOMO segment, which is already recovering at a faster pace this year relative to internal travel even though the overall travel expenditure remains depressed. The bulk of its internal travel was for the purposes of internal collaboration in 2019, a third of which is expected to be permanently eliminated, while the rest should gradually return over the rest of this year and 2022.

A McKinsey Live event on 'Returning to corporate travel: How do we get it right?'

Approaching the future of corporate travel: Four steps

Charting a safe and effective road map for future corporate travel requires all players to collaborate. Key players in the ecosystem—suppliers (including airlines, hotels, car-rental and rideshare companies), corporate-travel planners, travel intermediaries such as online travel agencies (OTAs), global-distribution-system (GDS) providers, and travelers themselves—need to master four critical skills: leveraging real-time data, planning with agility, aiming for comfort and safety, and communicating with clarity.

Leverage real-time data

Planning for the future can feel like flying through a fog of uncertainty, which makes it even more important for players to leverage real-time data to inform their decision making. Organizations could invest in data capabilities to identify and monitor the first signs of an acceleration in business travel.

Planning for the future can feel like flying through a fog of uncertainty, which makes it even more important for players to leverage real-time data to inform their decision making.

OTAs and GDS providers may be worth exploring as new data sources. Travel intermediaries such as these are uniquely situated to provide aggregate data for each industry. For instance, they can inform a corporate-travel planner how many seats are being booked by the rest of the company’s sector, signaling whether the company is ahead of or behind the curve. Many corporate-travel planners are also concerned about the fluctuations in the cost and availability of tickets, given the volatility of flight schedules during this time. Intermediaries can provide data that suggest which flights are more likely to stay on an airline’s schedule, helping clients build more agility into their decision making. Intermediaries may be able to create a new revenue stream from these data.

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Real-time data also help suppliers of corporate travel, such as air carriers and hotels, become more agile. As corporate travel returns, these suppliers will need to deploy the right resources in real time to match demand, which may shift abruptly. For example, one airline made a costly mistake by being unprepared for the sudden spike in demand for leisure flights over the recent Easter holiday. As recovery will likely be uneven, airlines will have to figure out how to have aircraft, pilots, and crew on standby so they can increase capacity quickly whenever there’s a need. Organizations can meet regularly to discuss data-driven insights and align on next steps.

Embed agility into planning

It pays to have a detailed plan and strategy for different recovery scenarios in place. When demand picks up, many firms may find that they don’t have the time to pause and think through their strategies.

When it comes to organizing business trips for employees, corporate-travel planners will need to take into account four considerations:

• First, the factors that affect whether corporate travel should increase: for example, local and regional infection levels, customer demand, and competitive actions.
• Second, the relevant data sources used to evaluate these factors: these could include public-health indicators, customer surveys, data from travel partners on industry trends and competitor behavior, and real-time pricing from GDSs consistent with typical corporate agreements, even as airline-fare classes go through realignments.
• Third, company policies on business travel: What distance-based policies should staff adhere to? Should they use rental cars, rideshares, taxis, or flights? When should they wear masks or engage in group gatherings? How (and should) companies distinguish between what activities vaccinated and unvaccinated employees can participate in?
• Fourth, information needed by travelers: this includes websites, travel help desks, and messaging.

A US health-products wholesaler and manufacturer provides an example of how these considerations work together. Currently, the company’s factories are open, while corporate offices remain closed and corporate travel is at a standstill. The company recently decided to stage-gate the resumption of corporate travel, starting with executives. Critical sales meetings and conferences will be in the next wave of business trips, followed by general sales and internal corporate activities, and finally, internal training and events. The level of corporate travel varies by state, based on local infection and vaccination rates. The company also set up tracking codes in its customer-relationship-management system to monitor when sales are won or lost due to competitive travel, which involved working with its corporate travel agent to get data on corporate-travel bookings.

The company instituted different policies for each level, including when masks must be worn, the permitted group size for indoor gatherings, and what lodging choices should be made (for example, home shares are avoided for safety and sanitation reasons). The company is developing internal brochures and a communications plan to keep its employees informed.

Personalize experiences based on safety and comfort

Safety and comfort are crucial elements in the travel experience, and they can sometimes pull in opposite directions. More can be done to bridge this gap. Both employers and travel companies could find ways to give passengers peace of mind and improve comfort and convenience. The guiding principle here is giving the traveler greater control over decisions that affect their sense of comfort and security.

For instance, airlines can personalize flight experiences by improving the functionality of their mobile apps to allow passengers to preorder their meals and snacks or make special requests. Hotels may let guests decide on the frequency and timing of housekeeping. They might consider offering initiatives that improve guests’ physical and mental well-being, for example, by offering virtual trainers to guide meditation or fitness practices. Suppliers could also consider offering radically transparent flexibility policies and allow customers a greater range of options with different associated fees for cancellations and changes.

Communicate with clarity

Even the most seasoned travelers have to accept that traveling has changed. Masks have become ubiquitous, and border restrictions, boarding procedures, and hygiene requirements seem to be ever changing. It’s critical that organizations communicate clearly what their corporate-travel policies are at any given moment in time, for every stage of the journey—from pre- to post-trip.

It helps for organizations to be extra proactive in communicating any type of change, whether regarding company-wide strategic policies or more granular details such as the company’s preferred rideshare or car-rental options for corporate travel. When changes in operations are made, companies can take special care to ensure the availability of amenities. Leadership can play a prominent role in modeling how to travel in this new reality by clearly reiterating company policies. Information websites, travel help desks, and easily digestible infographics could all be used to get the message across. Keep channels of communication open and allow employees to give feedback and raise concerns as and when they arise.

Employees, too, will go through an adjustment period as they resume their business trips. Leadership can communicate that it’s OK for them to take it slowly and that they should raise concerns if they ever feel unsafe.

Some corporate travelers will find they have to adapt quickly to the many changes in business travel, while others will have the luxury of easing themselves in over a longer period. Unpredictability will continue to be a fact of life, but one thing is certain: if everyone plays their part well (and smartly, by leveraging the technologies and processes at our disposal), the resumption of corporate travel is possible.

Jenna Benefield is a consultant in McKinsey’s Philadelphia office, Vik Krishnan is a partner in the San Francisco office, Esteban Ramirez is the capabilities and insights team leader in the San Jose office, and Matthew Straus is an associate partner in the Chicago office.

The authors wish to thank Guenter Fuchs, Jennifer Heller, and Jillian Tellez for their contributions to this article.

This article was edited by Jason Li, a senior editor in the Shanghai office.

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What Is Corporate Travel Management?

Corporate travel management addresses all functions associated with supporting business travel for employees, customers, vendors and business partners. Companies may rely on in-house corporate travel management teams, travel agencies, online booking tools or any combination of those options to perform these functions. Corporate travel management policies create or enforce meeting and travel procedures while passing along travel data to accounting and finance systems and teams.

How Does Corporate Travel Management Work?

In addition to ensuring employees comply with a company’s travel policy, corporate travel management supports other tasks such as arranging business trips, establishing preferred arrangements with carriers (airlines, rental car companies, etc.) and hospitality providers, and issuing real-time reports that relay travel spend to accounting departments and other corporate stakeholders.

Why Is Corporate Travel Management Important?

Business travel management plays a key role in helping companies get the most out of their travel budgets by ensuring they are not overpaying for transportation and accommodations. It also establishes how employees arrange business trips and ensures all travel spend is allocated in the best interest of the company. A well-managed corporate travel program is also important to ensure traveler safety.

What Tasks Fall Under Travel Management?

Itineraries, accommodations, transportation.

• Meeting & Events
• Costs & Policy Compliance

Travel Support

• Reporting & Data Analysis

Companies have different approaches when it comes to how employees create itineraries for their business trips. Considerations include cost, balanced with an employee’s business responsibilities and the company’s travel polices. In most cases, employees now use online booking tools to create their own itineraries. Some larger companies may have personnel or travel agency resources to create itineraries for senior leaders or those who travel frequently. Companies with a corporate travel program can configure travel management software with online booking tools to ensure travelers create itineraries that meet the firm’s travel guidelines while providing a mechanism for trip approval and the reporting of travel and expenses.

Corporate travel management is responsible for keeping costs in check, as travel prices are notoriously variable. Optimizing pricing can have a measurable impact on maintaining budgets and help companies fund more business trips without significantly expanding the budget. Corporate travel management can set guidelines for how much employees can spend on various travel costs, based on reasonable and customary prices in a given locale.

Some companies negotiate prices with certain providers, while others rely on agencies and other third parties who may have more leverage. Some might rely on both internal teams and a travel management company. Where it makes sense, companies should also leverage any business client relationships they may have with those who provide transportation, hospitality or other travel support functions.

Lodging costs are cyclical depending on economic conditions, location, time of year and other factors. The cost of accommodations also varies considerably throughout the world. Thus, corporate travel management may negotiate prices with major hotel chains or those who provide alternative accommodations such as Airbnb —or oversee an agency who does so. In addition to costs, businesses should consider accommodations that meet employees’ business needs and have favorable cancelation polices or are willing to waive certain fees.

When it comes to transportation, corporate travel management plays several roles, including determining the best mode of transportation for a given destination. It is the conduit through which employees make their arrangements with preferred carriers and ensures transportation arrangements comply with company polices.

Meetings and Events

Companies that host their own meetings and events need resources with which to book restaurants, hotels, convention centers or other venues that can accommodate everything from small executive meetings to large conferences. A corporate travel management team or tool facilitates these bookings.

For important meetings and events, the team will scout various venues and ensure each can meet the needs and budgets of a meeting or event. If it’s a major gathering that will bring together customers, investors or other influential stakeholders, corporate travel management teams will visit the venue. Besides evaluating the meeting facility, the team will ensure the surrounding accommodations and logistics are suitable.

Costs and Policy Compliance

Many companies require corporate travel management to not only set cost thresholds but also track and enforce employees comply with them. Ideally, corporate travel management ties compliance to reimbursement policies. Moreover, its systems should prevent employees from making arrangements that fail to meet the company’s policies.

Because circumstances at times may necessitate exceptions, corporate travel management should have flexible approval mechanisms. Many businesses also issue a corporate credit card, which allows for better tracking of travel and expenses, simplified travel booking, faster reimbursement and access to real-time data regarding employees’ costs.

Sometimes, corporate travel management teams will serve as a conduit between employees, their supervisors and accounts payable. Larger organizations may outsource this role to travel agencies, such as American Express , which have sophisticated travel management platforms. Some organizations will provide higher levels of support, such as arranging for transportation to airports, making dinner reservations or serving as a liaison to travelers when they need assistance. In both scenarios, other than top executives and VIP guests, employees are increasingly expected to rely on self-service tools to address common travel needs.

Reporting and Data Analysis

Corporate travel management must report all travel expenses to accounting. Finance departments use that information to not only track expenses incurred during an accounting period but also inform current and forward-looking budgets and forecasts.

Automated Travel Management vs. Hiring a Travel Manager

Until recently, companies had to decide whether to hire people to support and manage travel or to rely on outside agencies to oversee those functions and then let accounts payable departments enforce policies when reimbursing employee expenses. While some companies choose one or the other and others go with a blend of both, nowadays companies have the option to automate much of the travel management process.

Some business management platforms, for example, offer corporate travel management capabilities. Many of the leading platforms have features including expense management , analytics , client management and project management , which together serve to automate travel management. These platforms also give accounting teams real-time information on travel’s impact on financial performance.

How Is AI Changing the Travel Management Landscape?

Business travelers are now actively using tools to automate travel management. With recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), they can now book a business trip with online booking tools even faster. For example, American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) is among the firms using AI to automate business travel planning. The global travel agency now has a recommendation engine that uses a traveler’s history to help find suitable accommodations when planning a trip.

But it is not just the giant travel agencies that are using AI to help automate business travel booking and related processes. Airlines, hotel operators and car rental agencies have started introducing chatbots to address routine inquires and issues. People are using voice commands for recommendations and to place reservations. These technologies are starting to appear in workforce automation, help desk and other business process management systems to enable increased self-service to routine processes.

The true potential of AI for corporate travel management comes from using all the data amassed by travelers to eliminate as many tasks in the planning of trips as possible, according to Travel & Hospitality magazine.

By analyzing how travelers across companies behave in creating their itineraries, AI automation tools can become more precise in predicting preferences, according to the report . “When preferences can be catered to without even asking for them, search time is heavily reduced, and traction is increased. Even shifts in traveler partners can be detected beforehand while negotiating with properties. Ultimately, an AI-powered recommendation mechanism could eliminate the dependence on potential complications of last-minute changes.”

Challenges of Corporate Travel Management

• Employee desire for flexibility and comfort can conflict with a company’s efforts to manage costs.
• Services that were once included in the cost of airfare or a hotel booking may now cost extra, creating disparities in company policies.
• Escalating cancellation or change fees are costly if employees make errors when booking.
• Company polices can often limit employees’ ability to choose lower-cost services that they discover on their own.
• Many companies still lack ways to calibrate the needs of the business with costs and changing business conditions when it comes to travel.
• Accounts payable policies are not always aligned with corporate travel management. The reimbursement process is very manual and requires significant resources to review and verify receipts for travel expenses.

How to Institute a Travel Management Policy

Every company should have a documented travel management policy and one that they enforce. The policy should be reasonable and ideally put together with input from employees who frequently travel. Gathering that input will reduce non-compliance, which by various accounts is high. Corporate travel surveys show more than half don’t understand or meet their companies’ travel policies. The Society of Human Resource Management, a non-profit trade association for HR professionals created a template that offers a baseline policy that companies can adjust to meet their own compliance requirements and what leadership believe fits within their organization’s best practices.

Trends in Corporate Travel Management

Business travelers expect every aspect of their trips to be accessible from their phones and their computers. Gone are the days of calling a travel agent to book their travel and submitting manual expense reports.

Businesses that can integrate all of the information pertaining to the planning of trips, expenses and how employees spend their time on the road are better positioned to determine the value they are receiving.

Improvements in technology and advances in AI are helping companies ensure they are receiving the most competitive rates, more flexibility and better visibility.

Improve Expense Management Efficiency

Best Tools for Corporate Travel Management

Many companies expend significant resources on corporate travel for business development, sales and marketing. Besides widely variable travel expenses, there’s a cost in terms of human capital management—organizations that use modern corporate travel management tools effectively are better positioned to get higher ROI.

Ideally, organizations should ensure their corporate travel management solutions are integrated with, or include, expense and vendor management systems. Likewise, organizations should integrate corporate travel management with core financial management and accounting platforms and resource and planning solutions.

On the front end, tracking expenses for travel has become easier now that employees can use their mobile devices to scan receipts when they receive them. As a result, many organizations have simplified their formerly paper-intensive expense management processes.

Accordingly, companies should make sure their expense management solution includes configurable mobile apps that can scan receipts and allow employees to easily itemize and categorize each expense.

Tools that can track polices will automatically reject unallowed expenses. The platform should offer flexible and configurable workflows that can avoid bottlenecks that delay approvals. The best expense management tools also offer connectivity with ERP, project management, accounting, billing, and analytics systems.

Travel expense management solutions that offer certified integration with leading platforms and help organizations reduce the amount of data entry among those in accounts payable departments. Likewise, they make it easier for employees to compile expense data, especially those that provide integration with approved credit card providers.

Financial Management

Extended Planning and Analysis (xP&A) Defined

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What Is Corporate Travel Management and Why Do You Need It?

By Randi Gollin | American Express ® Freelance Contributor 4 Min Read | September 17, 2021

Whether your organization has mushroomed from a mom-and-pop shop to a larger business with a traveling workforce, or arranging business trips has become too much for your human resources or finance department to handle, there comes a time when it makes sense to implement a corporate travel management program.

Here’s an overview of how corporate and small business travel management programs work, including how they can benefit companies that prioritize both domestic and global travel.

What Is Corporate Travel Management?

Corporate travel management (CTM) is the framework that companies administer to successfully handle business trips and travel and entertainment (T&E) expenditures. CTM programs oversee, organize, and manage business travel end to end, including activities such as approving and booking flights and hotels, managing business credit card spending , ensuring employees comply with company travel policies, and recordkeeping.

Though these programs are commonly referred to as corporate travel management, even small organizations can benefit from a dedicated business travel management program.

How Does Corporate Travel Management Work?

As travel becomes more expensive, safety concerns heighten, employees become more mobile, and companies more global, the job of arranging everything from travel visas to restaurant reservations becomes more challenging. To effectively manage travel tasks, it’s often necessary to develop a CTM program. Depending on the company’s needs, this could mean one or more of:

• Hiring a corporate travel manager.
• Establishing an in-house corporate travel management team.
• Hiring an external corporate travel agency.

Smaller companies may be better off developing and hiring in-house business travel management teams to ensure that the workforce complies with company travel policies like spending caps and using approved vendors. Depending on the organization, a CTM program may grant employees the autonomy to self-book travel and accommodations that comply with company travel policies. Companies may even integrate automated travel management software systems that can be customized with budget restrictions and approved suppliers to better manage travel spending.

For larger corporations with major travel requirements, it can make sense to hire an external corporate travel agency that takes over all tasks related to business travel. As specialists in their field, they may be better able to negotiate the best rates while keeping employees’ comfort top of mind, handle global business travel management tasks, and take the time-consuming job of booking trips away from busy HR or finance departments. These professionals might implement corporate travel software that includes a booking tool, expense management tools, and reporting and analytics capabilities. These software tools may even use Global Distribution Systems (GDS) to pull up real-time data about hotel room availability, flight data, car rentals, and other pertinent travel information.

Benefits of Corporate Travel Management

The benefits of CTM programs are important to some companies because, for many employees and executives, company travel is so vital a part of doing business. Though video-conferencing calls have become routine, when it comes to building and nurturing relationships with clients and colleagues, converting prospects into customers, and networking with industry professionals, there’s no substitute for personal interaction. In fact, it’s reported that U.S. travelers took 462 million domestic business trips in 2019, and that number is expected to climb to 499.4 million by 2022. 1

Given the importance of business travel, companies may wish to consider the benefits of CTM programs, such as:

• Cost reduction : CTM agents, teams, and specialists should have greater travel expertise than the typical employee. They’re usually better fit to negotiate or find the best deals for flights, hotels, insurance, and other travel-related expenses.
• Time savings : Organizing a business trip takes a lot of time and effort, especially if your workforce travels often. CTM teams relieve your employees or finance department of that burden, allowing them to focus on their jobs.
• Policy enforcement : CTM professionals can help enforce corporate travel policies, enabling companies to monitor and reinforce compliance around hotel, car, and airfare spending caps, vendor stipulations, and more.

How Business Credit Cards Can Help Streamline Corporate Travel Management

Some companies manage business travel expenses by asking their team to report expenses with the promise of reimbursement. But expense reporting can become difficult to manage as an organization grows, and the paperwork can become onerous.

For many companies, a more workable approach is to integrate corporate credit cards into their CTM programs. This can make it easier to monitor expenses and reconcile transactions. For example, business and corporate credit card programs often come equipped with expense tracking tools that can ensure spending visibility for employees and management. Stakeholders can monitor compliance with travel policies, validate expenses without paper receipts, and see what employees are spending. Automatic reconciliation can save time, while expenses can be integrated into a company’s accounting system, simplifying the often-tedious approval process. What’s more, card activity may be fed into the travel management software to further streamline the process.

Other benefits to integrating CTM programs with business credit cards for employees include:

• Closing loopholes for fake receipts or receipt manipulation.
• Increased security protection against theft, loss, and unforeseen incidents like accidents and mishandling, thanks to common business credit card benefits like travel insurance.
• Access to credit card perks, such as earning rewards, saving money on air travel and hotels, and gaining access to airport lounges.

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The Takeaway

Corporate travel allows employees and executives to forge bonds with colleagues, turn business prospects into clients, and gain inspiration from new horizons. Corporate travel management (CTM) programs help to minimize the time-consuming aspects of business travel, like bookings and reporting paperwork, along with some of the other pain points of business travel. An effective CTM program can help organizations implement company travel policies, booking, track T&E expenditures, and successfully integrate business credit cards .

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1 “ Number of domestic and leisure trips in the U.S. from 2008 to 2019, with a forecast until 2024 ,” Statista

Randi Gollin

A freelance writer and editor who’s covered topics including shopping, travel, dining, and food for tech and media brands and digital publications.

This content was written by a freelance author and commissioned and paid for by American Express. 

The material made available for you on this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal, tax or financial advice. If you have questions, please consult your own professional legal, tax and financial advisors.

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The Strategy Guide to Corporate Travel Management

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Developing a corporate travel management strategy is one of the most important decisions you will make because it sets the framework for all your future travel plans.

With a solid plan in place, you can develop a budget, determine your objectives, identify your target audience, then build a program to achieve those goals.

It's also a way to build credibility with your employees and to encourage them to be responsible and accountable when they travel.

What Is Corporate Travel Management?

Corporate travel management is a business process used by companies to control, plan, and monitor the expenses of corporate travel. The changing global economy has affected the travel industry and, with it, the pressure on companies to reduce costs has grown.

Corporate travel management attempts to reduce these costs by streamlining company policies and procedures, which then translates into more effective and efficient business practices.

Here are some simple yet effective ways you can achieve this:

Plan the Logistics of Your Business

To plan for the logistics of your business, it’s important to first define what this term means. According to Investopedia , logistics refers to the “overall process of managing how resources are acquired, stored, and transported to their final destination. Logistics management involves identifying prospective distributors and suppliers and determining their effectiveness and accessibility.”

In the context of corporate travel management, logistical details may include what resources are needed by employees to travel safely and reach their destination. One example is financial resources, which can include the procurement of travel tickets, as well as the cost of lodgings and local transportation. Logistics in this sense can also include suppliers like the travel agency your company works with to make travel arrangements.

Identifying the logistical needs of your business will make planning and managing the trip easier. Additionally, you’ll be able to outline, adjust, and schedule corporate travel procedures accordingly.

Track Your Travel Costs on the Go

It’s easy to lose track of how much you’re spending when you’re moving from one place to another. The problem with travelling is that some unplanned costs can happen, especially when immediate problems arise. Some examples of this include going off-route in a taxi or the flight is delayed. This can lead to problems in the long run, especially if you’re travelling on a budget.

Thus, it’s important to keep track of your travel costs while in transit. Fortunately, it’s a lot easier to track travel costs through expense tracker apps, which can be web-based, cloud-based, or with mobile integration.

Not only can you track costs with these apps, but you’ll also be able to scan receipts, submit reimbursement reports, switch between currencies for international travel, compare actual costs with your set budget, and many more. Here are seven expense tracker apps specifically designed for travelling:

• Expensify (our top pick)
• Trail Wallet

Plan for Long-Haul Travel, but Also for Shorter-Haul Flights

In some cases, long-haul flights are not only necessary but also more appealing to corporate travellers as they may be able to save on costs.

According to a study published in the Journal of Air Transport Management :

“Business travellers are particularly attractive to book flights as they tend to travel more frequently than leisure passengers, and they tend to be prepared to pay higher prices than leisure passengers. In short-haul markets, such as those within the European Union (EU), business travel may represent a large proportion of a scheduled airline's traffic.”

This means that shorter-haul flights tend to cost more than long-haul travel, compelling companies to plan in advance and opt for long-haul flights.

However, effective corporate travel management should also take short-haul flights into account depending on the needs and nature of your business.

By planning for and allotting a budget for both long-haul and short-haul flights, you can meet business goals in a timely fashion without shortchanging other travel expenses, such as lodgings or local transportation.

Key Takeaway

Corporate travel management can be a necessary tool for companies, but it's also a huge money saver. Understanding how to properly use it will help you stretch your costs and make sure that you're following the right procedures .

Define Your Corporate Travel Management Goals

Most corporate travel managers can use some practice and advice on how to improve their skills. Corporate travel managers are responsible for planning, negotiating, and organizing travel for employees. While most employees rely on their employers to help them book flights, hotel rooms and rental cars, corporate travel managers complete those tasks for an entire company. Here are tips from a seasoned corporate travel manager on how to master the art of corporate travel management:

Understand Your Company's Travel Policies

For effective corporate travel management to happen, there should be clear guidelines about the company’s travel policies. This can include, but is not limited to, the following:

• Clear details about the company’s travel procedure
• Travel agency approved by the company
• Rules and regulations while employees are travelling, such as conduct and behaviour
• Method of travel, whether by land, air, or sea
• Procedures for procurement, cancellation, or loss of travel tickets
• Boarding and lodging details
• Travel arrangements while heading to and upon reaching the destination, such as car rentals or taxi services
• Expenses, such as per diem and meal expenses, or miscellaneous and emergency expenses
• Safety and security of travelling employees
• Insurance coverage for international travel

Clearly outlining and understanding these policies can help corporate travel managers to plan ahead and tailor travel arrangements according to the company’s business goals.

Additionally, employees will have a smoother time planning for the trip without disruptions to their day-to-day tasks and the company’s overall workflow.

Understand the Needs of Your Employees

Before the pandemic, corporate travel management tended to focus on getting the best arrangements for accommodations or the best deals for ticket prices.

These factors and many others are still important today, but the pandemic has brought to the fore another element in corporate travel that necessitates a higher priority: the safety and well-being of travellers.

In keeping up with the current changes, corporate travel managers should also ensure that partners and suppliers, such as their airline of choice or hotel accommodations, have solid health protocols in place.

It’s highly unlikely that employees will be willing to travel when there’s a high risk of getting infected. Thus, corporate travel managers should look into safety guidelines, quarantine policies, and local travel restrictions for the trip to be both safe and successful.

Use a Travel Management System

Similar to tracking travel expenses, corporate travel managers need to stay on top of all the necessary steps to organize and execute the trip successfully. This begins with making travel requests all the way to the return trip home. With a travel management system in place, it will be much easier to achieve the following:

• Streamline processes
• Gain approvals in a timely manner
• Create up-to-date reports
• Manage scheduling
• Anticipate emergency scenarios
• Smooth booking experience
• Compare prices for tickets, accommodations, and local transportation
• Manage other expenses
• Get the best value-for-money deals

If you’re using an expense tracker, be sure that your travel management system can integrate well with your chosen software.

Build Relationships With Vendors and Providers

In the industry of corporate travel management, vendors and providers can mean airlines, travel agencies, hotels, and other third parties providing goods and services that corporate travellers need.

As the ones spearheading the planning and managing for corporate travel, corporate travel managers will benefit a lot from building strong relationships with vendors and partners.

Communication is the foundation of strong relationships, so you should first be clear about what you need, as well as your travel goals and policies, so expectations can be properly set.

At the same time, it’s important to be responsive to prospective suppliers so you can engage with them and weigh your options.

Similarly, just as the supplier should understand your needs, you should also take into account the supplier’s needs as a business. If you aren’t able to come to a satisfying agreement, consider partnering with another vendor from which you can mutually benefit.

Create a Travel Calendar

A travel calendar will ensure that you’re making timely travel arrangements and you won’t encounter any delays. Keep in mind that delays can easily translate into extra costs, so be sure to allow time for possible unforeseen circumstances.

Proper scheduling also prevents disruptions, whether that’s on the employee’s side or the vendor’s side. With a timeline set in place, you’ll also be able to make the necessary adjustments that can address scenarios such as delayed flights or a high volume of travellers, especially if you’re planning arrangements during the holidays or vacation months.

Creating a travel calendar can also be made easier with an effective travel management system. Find one that works for your company’s processes, policies, and budget so you can maximize the app to suit your needs.

Follow Up To Make Sure All Goes Smoothly

Further to communication, following up on the progress of your corporate travel plans is necessary to ensure that all steps have been accomplished by all parties involved.

For instance, you can check whether all employees have the required travel documents or if approvals have already been signed by the relevant departments or managers.

Following up on your suppliers and providers can also smoothen out potential issues early on, especially when it comes to the availability of tickets or accommodations.

Follow-ups also keep everyone up-to-date about where they are in your set time frame. If someone still hasn’t accomplished their requirements, you can still make timely changes that won’t significantly affect the other stages of planning and executing the trip.

You can achieve corporate-travel-manager success if you are organized, diligent, and prepared to work hard. Keep these tips in mind while planning and managing business travel, and you'll be well on your way to mastering the art of corporate travel management.

Build a Program To Meet Those Goals

It’s not an easy task to manage corporate travel, especially if you are responsible for managing multiple teams and travel budgets. So, what are the best practices that a corporate travel manager has to follow?

Create and Manage a Travel Policy

A clear outline of travel policies will steer everyone involved in the right direction. This also ensures that corporate travel managers themselves are in line with the company’s overall rules and regulations, as well as the destination’s local laws and guidelines.

Having a travel policy will also let your employees know how to conduct themselves while travelling. This is especially important if you’re travelling internationally, as there are certain things you are expected to do and not do according to the local culture.

Aside from creating and managing an internal travel policy , it also pays to do research on where you’re going, even if it’s just a different state or a different country altogether.

Compile your research and summarise the information in a way that travelling employees will be able to easily digest. At the same time, get employee feedback while preparing travel policies to make sure that you’re covering all bases.

Know Your Budget

Of course, knowing your corporate travel budget is important. As previously mentioned, some airlines tend to charge corporate travellers a higher amount since they know that this is a necessary business expense.

Knowing and understanding your budget, its allocations, and limitations will allow you to build an effective corporate travel program that meets all your goals and needs.

Having an understanding of your budget will also allow you to properly adjust expenses and prioritize certain elements of the trip.

For instance, you can save on flight tickets in exchange for higher-end lodgings. Additionally, you can anticipate unplanned costs, such as emergencies, delayed flights, or even when travellers get caught in the middle of a natural disaster.

Plan for the Worst-Case Scenario

Speaking of emergencies and natural disasters, nobody can tell when these things might happen. Accidents, whether major or minor, are also highly unpredictable.

As such, it will be to your advantage to plan for the worst-case scenario. It’s always good practice to anticipate that something untoward might happen during the trip so employees in transit won’t be in a bind when it actually happens.

Aside from allocating a budget for worst-case scenarios, it will also help employees if you include these scenarios in your corporate travel policy. This way, they’ll know what contingency plans the company has in store for them.

Use Technology To Make Travel Easier

In the past, spreadsheets were typically used to manage corporate travel procedures. These days, however, there are more advanced travel management solutions that can centralize, systematize, streamline, and even manage risks while employees are on-the-go.

Take advantage of the available technology so you can have a better view not only of travel expenses, but also policies, relationships with vendors, local rules, and all the updates needed to accomplish travel requirements.

This way, you can plan for the trip effectively while staying on top of all tasks required of you, employees, and suppliers.

It’s important that you understand what a corporate travel manager does and how they are responsible for their team's travel projects.

Execute With Excellence

There are many businesses that struggle with their travel management, spending countless hours a week dealing with the logistics of getting their employees to the right place at the right time.

Technology has made it easier for businesses to manage their own travel, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement.

Here’s how companies can take the leap from struggling with their current travel management system to enjoying a seamless and efficient experience:

Design Your Corporate Travel Schedule

Managing schedules is just as important as managing costs, so it’s important to design a detailed corporate travel itinerary.

Generally, this can be a checklist list that lets your employees know what happens during a specific date and time. This can be especially helpful when they have conferences or multiple events to attend.

A well-designed corporate travel schedule can include, but is not limited to, the following:

• Ticket and flight details
• Boarding and departure dates and times
• A list of activities that will happen during an event, conference, or meeting
• Event venues and attire
• Scheduled mealtimes
• Time for rest and leisure
• Estimated time of travel from the hotel to the event location, and vice versa

Again, it’s also beneficial to get employee feedback when designing the corporate travel schedule to see if your list covers all their needs.

Implement a Flexible Itinerary

Although it’s important to list down all the things that can happen during a trip, it’s equally important to make your schedule flexible. Take into account the possibility of delays, traffic, or other difficulties and emergencies that might happen along the way.

As mentioned, unforeseen events can happen and a flexible itinerary can help buffer the consequences of those scenarios so your schedule and the trip won’t be significantly impacted.

Create a Budgeting System so You Can Track Expenses and Benefits as They Are Needed

Corporate travel expenses can easily skyrocket when they’re not tracked properly. At the same time, employees might not immediately realize the benefits they can gain from undertaking corporate travel.

In this regard, a budgeting system will help them have an overview of what’s important to spend on and what they can gain from certain budget allocations.

Generally, it’s ideal to save on all expenses but everyone knows that you can only cut down on expenses so much without severely impacting the quality of the trip and the well-being of corporate travellers.

In this case, you need to go back to your company goals to properly assess which factors you can save on and which ones need a higher budget. There are no hard-and-fast rules for this, but a good rule of thumb to follow is if allocating a lower budget for, say, airline tickets, won’t affect the fundamentals of the trip, then it can be beneficial to pursue that route.

In turn, you can use what you save to arrange better lodgings for employees or allocate that for emergency scenarios.

Corporate travel management is a process that requires you to know your employees and plan accordingly. Find out how to improve it, then implement it. This ensures that everyone is on the same page.

A Successful Corporate Travel Management Plan Is One That Is Developed Strategically

Business travel management solutions can ensure smooth travel and procedures for all parties involved. This section will cover the different business travel management solutions and how they work.

Reporting Tools

According to a November 2020 survey , “roughly 66.5% of respondents stated that their organizations used an online expense reporting platform that includes mobile solutions.

In contrast, only 8% of the surveyed travel buyers claimed that their companies relied on Excel spreadsheets or other offline processes to track their travel expenses.”

Locomote offers a centralized dashboard for corporate travel management that makes sense of your data so you can pinpoint areas for improvement and review how well your corporate travel policy is performing.

With its breakdown of real-time data, you can track expenses, receive a detailed invoice, and even apply unused tickets to book your next trip.

Budget Management

Budget management refers to the financial resources corporate travellers are allotted for the entire trip and what they are used for. This can also refer to points, benefits, and deals offered by suppliers and partners.

With an effective budget management tool, each expense can be tracked quickly and efficiently, allowing corporate travellers to focus on why they went on the trip in the first place. At the same time, they can gain travel points and even access to different airport lounges.

Booking Tools

Booking tools for corporate travel management make it easier to acquire the best accommodations and book trips in a more convenient manner. There are many booking tools that you can compare depending on your trip’s goals.

Our booking tool focuses on features such as hassle-free group and solo travel, a user-friendly interface, and providing a safer and better travel experience.

Manage Your Business Trips Effectively

Corporate travel management can help cut down costs, get the best deals, and provide a safe and productive trip for travelling employees.

Having a strategic approach aided by technology can ensure that the trip is successful and rewarding to all parties involved.

Contact us today if you want to see a platform that can do all of this for you and more.

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Corporate Business Travel: Everything You Need to Know

Katie Miller is a consumer financial services expert. She worked for almost two decades as an executive, leading multi-billion dollar mortgage, credit card, and savings portfolios with operations worldwide and a unique focus on the consumer. Her mortgage expertise was honed post-2008 crisis as she implemented the significant changes resulting from Dodd-Frank required regulations.

Corporate business travel involves the movement of individuals representing their organizations for work-related reasons. Whether it’s attending client meetings, industry conferences, or sealing business deals, this practice covers a range of activities essential for professional growth.

In the interconnected global business environment, where face-to-face connections matter, corporate business travel plays a central role in sustaining and expanding enterprises across borders. Businesses face challenges in optimizing this crucial element of their operations. Strategic considerations must be taken into account to use this element of business to its greatest potential.

Key Takeaways

• Corporate business travel can unlock new opportunities for business growth, offering the possibility of reaching new markets, connecting with a wider pool of prospects, or developing brand presence and reputation.
• Traveling for business has many benefits for individuals as well, providing them the chance to meet fellow employees, grow their career by participating in different opportunities, and network within the industry, not to mention experience new destinations.
• Business traveler safety and security are top priorities during corporate travel.
• To ensure that travel goes smoothly and stays within budget, companies should implement corporate travel policies and best practices for employees traveling on behalf of the company.

Importance of Corporate Business Travel

There are many business-related reasons to travel. It can encourage team building, promote learning, offer different perspectives, provide connection to a wider network, open up new markets, and drive sales. And whether or not the trip is for a specific purpose (such as a conference or a retreat), the benefits for employees and companies alike can extend beyond the stated intent of the trip, building confidence, cultural competency, relationships, and company reputation.

Many employees consider the opportunity to travel for work a desirable job perk, as it can offer the chance to venture somewhere that they may not ordinarily go, or to have a trip paid for by their company. And although expenses are associated with travel from a corporate perspective, they may be well worth the return on investment in terms of potential leads or sales—plus, many travel expenses are tax- deductible .

Types of Corporate Business Travel

Corporate travel can take many forms, including the chance for employees and executives to attend events, such as meetings, conferences, industry networking sessions, and fairs. Or a trip may take advantage of educational opportunities such as training sessions, seminars, and workshops. Retreats and guided trips can make for valuable team-building time in new contexts that unlock different perspectives and strengthen working relationships.

Businesses may send their employees to a different location to network, sell, teach, learn from, or generally connect with external contacts or internal employees in regional offices, or to act on behalf of the company in some way.

Additionally, from a client perspective, business travel may occur as a form of due diligence , ensuring that your vendors or suppliers are legitimate, legal, and compliant organizations—for example, traveling for regular audits to confirm that what you think is happening at your supplier organizations is actually happening.

Creating a Corporate Travel Policy

From a company perspective, travel can be a challenge to administer and manage . Costs can easily balloon out of control; travel logistics can be time-intensive to arrange; employees traveling on behalf of the company must be granted a great deal of trust; and like any form of travel, business travel can open up risks to safety, security, and health.

No matter the size of the business or the frequency or complexity of travel, a corporate travel policy can be a helpful tool for any company to set expectations for its employees, communicate guidelines and processes, keep expenses within budget, and streamline booking and logistics.

In creating a corporate travel policy, companies might consider the following for both domestic and international travel, as applicable:

• Purpose(s) of travel
• Which employees are eligible to travel
• Booking and expense approval processes
• Risks and liabilities of travel and how to manage them
• Expectations for employee behavior, including acceptable and secure uses of technology, personal vs. leisure time, communication, and entertainment while traveling
• Eligible expenses for employees while traveling, including per diem rates if applicable
• Determine if employees will be reimbursed for their expenses or given a corporate credit card to use
• Financial tracking, record-keeping, and reimbursement processes
• Acceptable booking practices and costs, including preferred agents or vendors
• Travel insurance

Of course, policies must also be communicated and enforced to ensure compliance and fairness. Including a travel policy as part of a corporate handbook or reviewing it in an onboarding or training module can be a good way to ensure that all employees receive and understand the information. Making it easily accessible for future reference on a shared drive or company portal will encourage employees to refer to it often.

Business travel managers estimate, on average, that spending on domestic and international corporate travel is at 77% and 74%, respectively, of where it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Setting a Corporate Travel Policy

Corporate Business Travel Best Practices

There are many best practices that both employees and companies can keep in mind around corporate business travel to ensure that it is a successful experience. These encompass everything from administration and financing to employee behavior and well-being.

Booking Corporate Travel

Booking travel can be labor-intensive and time-consuming. To improve the booking process, save on costs, and streamline expense reporting, it can be helpful to designate preferred travel agencies, online platforms, vendors, and lodgings for employees and executives to book with. If the size of the company allows, it can also be helpful to hire an employee or team specifically to oversee and administer corporate travel, or designate this duty as part of an employee’s broader job description.

Managing Travel Expenses and Budgeting

There are many financial considerations when it comes to corporate business travel, and expenses and budgets must be carefully managed to keep costs under control. Many travel expenses are tax-deductible and can be written off, representing potentially significant savings for a company. Setting a budget and clear guidelines for employees about what can be an expense and what cannot is a must, as is creating and enforcing policies and procedures around tracking and reporting expenses.

Many corporate credit cards offer travel rewards and cost-saving opportunities for business travel, as do many other vendors and suppliers in the corporate travel industry. Businesses can take advantage of these to reduce inefficiencies and save on costs.

How to Manage Corporate Travel

Ensuring Traveler Safety and Security

As with any trip, business trips are not without safety and security risks, including the potential for political or civil unrest, crime, illness, injury, accidents, emergencies, natural disasters, cybersecurity breaches, or theft.

To protect their employees against unexpected and undesirable circumstances, at a minimum, businesses will want to have a travel insurance plan in place. It’s also helpful for businesses and employees to undertake some form of travel risk assessment to aid them in navigating potential risks, and outline safety and emergency preparedness guidelines within a corporate travel policy.

Employees should also know how to call if something goes sideways, such as hotel booking issues. A travel agent? A supervisor? If there’s a hurricane, you don’t have a car, and your flight is canceled, can you book another last-minute flight to get around the weather to get home? These details should be planned ahead for.

Maximizing Productivity During Business Trips

The overlap of business and leisure, sometimes referred to as “bleisure,” is one of the main draws of corporate business travel. However, there can also be pitfalls associated with this gray area. It can be difficult to stay productive while working remotely, whether due to the many distractions of a new environment (positive and negative), or because the trip entails an increased workload or time spent away from day-to-day job duties.

Employees looking to manage their time efficiently while away should get clarity on the intended purpose and expected outcome of their trip, and their employer’s and teammates’ expectations for their workload and communication frequency. They can also plan ahead to make the most of their travel time and downtime, and anticipate time zone differences to ensure smooth communication and adjustment to jet lag.

It’s important for employees to maintain work-life balance while traveling on behalf of work. Researching food, entertainment, and fitness options and preparing accordingly can pay off in terms of mental and physical wellness, especially for frequent travelers.

Tips for Business Travel Etiquette

Traveling anywhere, whether domestically or internationally, comes with responsibilities and expectations regarding employee behavior. Perception is one of the most important factors to remember when traveling as a representative of your company. You represent your company out in the public, so you need to ensure you’re displaying any key values that your company represents when interacting with vendors, clients, and peers.

This applies to cultural sensitivity as well. Travelers should do research in advance of their trip to ensure that they can be mindful of local customs and professional etiquette and behave with awareness and respect. Even the basics, such as learning appropriate forms of greeting or how to handle money and payment, and committing a few common words or phrases to memory can go a long way toward demonstrating good intentions and building a new relationship across cultures.

Sustainable and Responsible Business Travel

Recognizing that corporate travel can have a negative impact on the environment, many businesses and individuals are reexamining their travel practices and policies to see where they can make improvements. One example is reducing emissions by booking different means of transportation when possible. In general, seeking out vendors or companies that promote sustainable travel practices and responsible tourism, and that support local communities and ecosystems, can be a good first step to reduce environmental impact.

Technology and Tools for Corporate Business Travel

Software and technology tools can be immensely useful across all aspects of corporate business travel. Travel management and booking platforms; apps for tracking expenses, navigation, or converting currency; and translation and communication tools are all things that employees and businesses alike can take advantage of before, during, and after traveling.

When it comes to technology, it’s important to account for cybersecurity risks and only bring what is necessary to reduce the potential impact of damage, loss, or theft.

Managing Business Travel Expenses

What Is an Example of Corporate Business Travel?

There are many work-related reasons to travel, but many businesses will have their employees travel for conferences, events, sales and networking, seminars, meetings, team building, retreats, and to open up new business growth potential.

How Does Corporate Business Travel Work?

Corporate travel is simply travel for business-related purposes, so the nature of the trip will depend on its length and purpose. Companies whose employees travel frequently on behalf of the business should consider creating a corporate travel policy with information and guidelines for their employees.

Who Handles Corporate Business Travel?

Some businesses employ internal teams or individuals to manage corporate travel and business trips. At other times, employees are responsible for making their own arrangements within guidelines laid out by the company. There are also corporate travel agencies that businesses can leverage to streamline and optimize their bookings and costs.

The Bottom Line

Corporate business travel can be an invaluable path to both business growth and individual career development, building strong relationships and teams. No matter what form it takes, it’s prudent for companies to collect, implement, and communicate best practices for business travel to their employees in a company handbook or corporate travel policy. This should incorporate areas such as expense and booking management, safety and security, productivity, sustainability, technology, and employee behavior and etiquette.

Michela Buttignol / Investopedia

Internal Revenue Service. “ Understanding Business Travel Deductions .”

Global Business Travel Association. “ GBTA Business Travel Industry Outlook Poll .”

Harvard Business Review. “ How to Work and Travel at the Same Time .”

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Corporate travel management: Essential guide for businesses

Today businesses rely heavily on business travel to succeed. As and when the processes are re-defining in the corporate industry, business travel is one such aspect that is changing at a rapid pace. It is becoming more value-driven and technologically advanced. When it comes to managing a business trip, it doesn't just involve flight bookings, accommodation, transportation, and meals. It also requires setting guidelines for approval processes, financials such as expense reports, budgets, reimbursement protocols, and corporate travel policies compliance. 

We will look at the challenges that occur while managing corporate travel and how you can simplify your travel management process. Business travel management is necessary so that employees can optimize their time on the road while still keeping company goals in mind and complying with regulations.

For employees, work trips can be both productive and exciting, and it is only until they come back from the tip and spend hours filing that expense reports. Trips should be an opportunity to broaden your network, raise your company's profile and create unforgettable memories But making the expense report.

What is corporate travel management?

Corporate travel management entails everything from planning and booking flights, hotels, and transportation to organizing the proper papers and approval methods and mileage tracking and paying for everything essential for a corporate trip. In simple terms, if we were to explain, it is a system for monitoring and organizing business travel.

With managing business travel, it's essential to balance employees' travel needs with the company's financial and other objectives. Some businesses hire specialized travel services to handle this other full-time travel managers.

Importance of travel management

Business travel management is critical because it ensures that businesses should get the most out of their travel expenses. It's important to analyze that they are not overpaying for transportation and lodging. It also specifies how employees plan business travels and guarantees that all travel expenditures are distributed in the company's best interests. The most significant factor in having a well-managed company travel program is to ensure employees' safety.

Corporate travel management categorization

Financial control: Involves working with each department to evaluate their travel needs and build a budget based on current spending.

Safety and efficiency: It involves ensuring employee safety and efficiency while keeping tabs on travel expenses.

Policy adherence: It entails the creation of business travel policies that reduce the company's travel costs.

Productivity: It allows employees to feel calm and recharged at all phases of travel to achieve the goals of a business trip. This helps them concentrate exclusively on their task, resulting in better results.

What does corporate travel manager do?

Corporate travel managers are a vital part of the company. A corporate travel manager is the internal employee of a company, or maybe, an external agent (if you have outsourced your travel system) who oversees and plans the corporate trip for an entire organization. And not just this, the central role entails establishing corporate travel policies, which is the make or break point of a company as it involves the rules and procedures for employees to follow. Overall, the travel manager assists the organization in efficiently and effectively navigating worldwide business travel.

Some of the activities that a travel manager facilitates are:

1. Booking trips and accommodations for employees.

2. Keeping track of the company's travel expenditure and ensuring that it remains within budget.

3. Vendor selection and management.

4. Evaluating or delivering travel expense information to the finance department for review.

In-house travel managers

An in-house travel management agent is a person you hire to handle the booking of trips, make last-minute modifications to travel plans, and maximize your savings while finding the most excellent prices for your staff.

External corporate travel managers

These people are highly specialized travel agents. These people are available at your request and use online booking tools to help you save money. External travel management agencies will be open 24 hours a day to your service.

Simplify your travel expense management process

4c's of corporate travel management.

Every business needs to master the four c's of corporate travel management if they want to streamline their travel spending.

Collaboration

It's necessary to understand the why of overspending. As overspending by employees can account for up to a third of a company's travel and expense budget, employees must collaborate with corporate travel managers to understand travel policy guidelines, and CFOs must collaborate with travel managers to create strategic policy improvements.

In business, everything comes down to expenses on office supplies, vendor payments, ads, or traveling Though traveling is just a small part of expenses, it can take a significant toll on your budget if not managed properly. Overall corporate travel managers have to look for only two aspects: Spending less and higher ROI from business travel Pricing optimization can help organizations finance additional business trips without increasing their budgets substantially.

Effective travel management will only be possible if CFOs are involved in understanding the technicalities of a travel policy or instead of creating a business travel policy. Because if it comes down to cost-cutting, they should know where the travel spend is allocated and why.

Whenever we talk about a good environment, culture plays an essential role. Businesses should encourage a positive corporate travel culture for employees to be their most productive selves; Businesses may empower their employees with tailored travel experiences by utilizing effective corporate travel management software.

How does travel expense management software work?

Because each employee in the organization has a corporate card, the process for each employee is the same:

- Through their travel software, the employee submits a request for an additional trip. This information contains the vendor, the price, and the rationale for the purchase.

- Their manager, deployed during the approval process, receives an alert. They get access to all of the information through the software they require without leaving their workstation.

- The manager gives his approval, and the employee can now access the funds.

- Using either a virtual card or physical card, they make the purchase for which they requested funds.

- When employees upload a photo of receipts, the transaction (together with the receipt or invoice) is forwarded to the finance department.

- The transaction, receipt, and required accounting details are synced to the accounting software. 

- In accounting, inbox transactions are labeled as owner, merchant, amount, date, and status.

- Now the finance team can reconcile expenses & receipts from one single platform through an automated encoding.

What is travel management system?

Travel management systems help companies streamline their travel processes. It is software that allows you to plan, track, analyze business trips and provide travel inventory, policy, and reporting. 

For companies that still follow old and traditional managing expenses, the system smoothens out those manual work and automates them altogether.

A travel management program is built on four pillars:

- Maintaining employee safety.

- Boosting program cost-effectiveness.

- Increasing employee productivity.

- Increasing transparency.

Challenges in managing corporate travel

Travel costs aren't always the most critical portion of a company's budget. Employees think that if it isn't a core component of their job, they will find various ways to avoid adhering to the rigorous standards. And instead, focus on the element of their job description. They avoid specific guidelines or steps because there are too many rules, approval hurdles, and complicated processes. Challenges to managing corporate travel range from operating costs, rigid policies to not giving employees freedom while planning a corporate trip.

Minimizing errors

Sometimes fixing the errors takes a lot of time. Employees sometimes fill in incorrect expenses, which may not match your credit card statements. It involves going back and forth to your invoices, receipts, and if any receipts go missing, it's annoying. It's annoying in terms of figuring out who approved the expense. So to avoid any errors and save up hours, it's essential to invest in good automation software that avoids the errors and duplication of travel expenses.

Too many rigid rules

For employees, a business trip is an opportunity for new experiences and to build a business. So employees must plan their journey according to what's best for them. Too many rules, like forcing them to live in a particular hotel they don't want. If employees feel compelled to choose specific options, some of the allure is lost, And they may not be able to focus on work assignments with the same excitement. Doing this will provide employees with autonomy and will lessen the burden of the finance team on booking itineraries for every employee.

Expense claims

Filing expense claims is the one thing that employees dislike. Expense reports take a lot of admin if employees pay from their pocket or through company credit cards. Every time employees come back from the trip; they have to spend hours filling the expense report and avail for reimbursement the next day.

The thing with using company credit cards for managing travel expenses is that keeping track of receipts becomes a nightmare for employees and the finance team. The finance team has to collect those receipts every month to reconcile the expenses with the credit card statements And later work to settle employees' claims.

To lessen the burden for both payment cards are the best way to settle expenses. They log in every payment the moment you make it, so there is no more reconciliation or filing expense report headaches.

Monitoring and tracking approvals

Managing travel requests differ for small to large businesses. Large corporations might hire a travel agency to manage that corporate travel, wherein the small businesses' workload comes down to the person in charge of the financial or administrative aspects of the company.

What if you have to go on several business trips? Depending on your company's size, you may find that traveling becomes quite cumbersome compared to how easy it was when you were managing things on a smaller scale. At times like these, having suitable systems in place can help ensure you don't fall behind or delay the approval process.

Otherwise, it could mean missing out on essential things, which means fewer positive outcomes relating directly to your project's results. Sometimes it may also happen that one team member from one department may send you trip requests through different sources simultaneously.

How to automate travel expense management?

Sometimes unplanned travel like last-minute air booking, hotel booking can be hard to pull together, And the challenges seem to vary. Frequent modification or cancellation of flights can add to a company's already enormous travel costs.

Travel automation software helps your finance team and employees:

- In managing all employees and their expenses through an easy-to-use interface.

- Regular detailed reports help keep track of your spending.

- A software that allows you to reconcile your trip expenses easily.

- Pay straight from the company wallet to save the headache of submitting lengthy reimbursement paperwork.

And with all of this, Automation leads to fewer errors in travel arrangements, and the administrative crew is free to focus on more vital tasks. Furthermore, if employees may arrange their excursions, they can design the most convenient vacation for them.

Built-in travel policy

A travel policy is an effective tool to manage employees' travel expenses. No matter how good your travel policy is, it takes time for employees to go through every detail in that lengthy document. And if they do, they might skip some steps, ignore some essential rules, ask too many questions if they don't understand, and forget those minute details. This could lead to mistakes. 

But what if you automate it? That means you can incorporate your travel policy into a travel management system, which eliminates the need for anybody to remember it or ask questions. They follow the procedure from beginning to end, doing what is needed of them. Remember that compliance will be significantly more straightforward if the policy is well-balanced and flexible than if it is excessively rigid.

Set spending limits

This is the best way to control your budget. How. Apart from the flights and overnight accommodation, employees might pay for daily expenses such as meals and cabs out of pocket or with a business card; depending on your firm's policies, these small costs can quickly add to your travel budget. 

So, the finance team can set spending limits for each card according to the budget. And not only this, they can even restrict the available vendors. And the budget for traveling employees is set slightly higher than the other employees. And for that, your finance manager can increase your pre-approved sum to match your per diem. The primary purpose of setting limits on cards is to provide controlled access to company funds to the employees. They can spend freely and fast, but never over the limitations.

Create approval workflows

Approving funds requests or trip expenses is another time-consuming task. With the automation tool, you can request funds and get them approved in real-time just by using the mobile app, web app, and even just from email. 

You can create approval workflows in 3 ways

- No approval is required for any trip

- Approval is required for some trips

- Approval is required for every trip.

You should have a simple approval process in place. If an employee tries to book a trip outside of policy, they should be able to request approval from within the app, And once they send the approval request, the admin should be notified instantly. There's no need to send emails with all the expense details for approval.

The most crucial step is to choose who will approve the trips: the finance manager, corporate travel manager, CFO, or numerous department heads. Some systems offer a multi-level approval process to streamline requests, wherein you 2-3 people to approve the requests. This procedure could save your company time spent on back-and-forth emails between team members and supervisors and hours spent examining the details of budgets per trip type.

Eliminate expense claims

The most challenging work a travel automation software lessens is filing expense reports. So, if there is no filing of expense reports, no expense claims, You know employees hate expense reports altogether. 

As no one wants to come after a long trip and create long expense reports and then wait for months to attain reimbursement, finance departments have to reconcile payments with credit card statements, chase receipts, and instruct the entire firm on complying with the guidelines.

The sad part is, what if employees lose their receipts? A finance manager has to go back and check credit card statements amongst the thousands of other transactions and look for who made the payment and what? Employees can quickly file a claim with the tools by clicking on the receipt and sending it in for review. So, giving employees access to the company's funds from the beginning of their trip takes away a lot of pain and admin work and takes away the headache of losing expense receipts.

Managing employee travel expenses with Volopay

Expense management software like Volopay allows you to pay with virtual and physical cards to keep track of your travel bookings and payments in one spot. You can use a virtual card generated by the platform to book flights or accommodations online. You have a physical, prepaid credit card to pay for when you're on the go, maybe an Uber. As a result, employees are never required to pay for anything with their funds.

Now, it's decided that fixing your travel issues is about improving how your company spends. It would help if you had comprehensive expense management software for your business that manages travel expenses and other expenses. It provides real-time insights into your travel spending, so you don't have to track payments later. Combine this expense management approach with payment methods such as prepaid and corporate expense cards. Both these cards include pre-approvals, spending limits, so you don't have to look into travel policy every time you make payment.

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A Study of Corporate Travel Management in Selected South African Organisations and a Conceptual Model for Effective Corporate Travel Management

South African corporations with a substantial travel expenditure of between R1 million and R300 million per annum are faced with two main issues. The first is the management and control of travel expenditure and the second is the management of the travel process to ensure required service levels at an optimum cost benefit ratio. The corporation depends heavily on numerous interactive relationships to achieve this. In this article the key elements of corporate travel management are identified and the results of a survey conducted on the way in which corporate travel is managed in terms of each of these elements in selected South African organisations is reported. A conceptual model, based on a “soft value management model” which highlights conflicting values of participants and their commitment to goals is proposed as a foundation on which further research can be conducted.

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Berendien Lubbe

A travel management programme allows an organisation to manage corporate travel expenditure, and through a well-formulated travel policy, to control its travel expenses. However, traveller non-compliance of the travel policy is an increasing area of concern with surveys conducted amongst travellers showing various reasons for non-compliance, both deliberate and unknowing. The purpose of this article is to look beyond the reasons and identify the underlying factors that influence travel policy compliance. Two broad categories of factors that lead to non-compliance are distinguished: those related to the corporate travel policy as formulated and communicated by the organisation, referred to as corporate-related factors and including issues of corporate culture and business ethics; and those related to the person of the corporate traveller, referred as personal-related factors and including issues of personal ethics. This article makes a first attempt at identifying factors that have not previously been recognised in those industry or academic studies done on non-compliance or violation of the corporate travel policy.

Anne-Maria Holma

… Annaler: Series B, …

Jonathan V Beaverstock , Frank Witlox , James Faulconbridge

Natan Uriely , orit unger , G. Fuchs

The study explores the business travel experience as a framework of time with four phases: trip preparations, passenger experience, destination experience and homecoming. In-depth interviews with frequent business travelers indicate that their experience as passengers includes ''moments of relaxation " and is perceived as a sort of ''time off " , in which they enjoy their familiarity with airports, the comforts provided to privileged passengers and the limited connectivity during flights. The other phases of the trip are devoted mainly to work-obligations and shape the nature of the trip as primarily a vocational experience. These findings add insight to mobility research of tourism, conceptualizations of the nexus between work and tourism, and the literature on business travelers.

James Faulconbridge

Abstract International business travel has always been an important labour process in the accumulation of capital for the firm. It is surprising, therefore, that relatively little time has been devoted to the study of business travel, both as a facet of contemporary mobility and as an economic practice. In this article we review how existing literatures provide insights that can be used to understand the role of business travel as international labour mobility in the contemporary professional service economy.

Frederic Dimanche

The purpose of this study was to glean insights into a better understanding of the potentials of merging travel and meetings management. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to collect information. The study explored the needs and strategies as well as corresponding benefits and challenges to reduce spending while maintaining the generation of revenues from travel and meetings activities. Findings suggest that integration of travel and meeting spend is growing despite barriers related to managing change. Indeed, about 40% of the companies that were surveyed have either integrated travel and meetings, or are in the process of doing so. Beyond financial gains and cost control, key benefits of integration are: • consolidation of supplier management • realizing a strategic alignment for travel and meetings, in line with overall company goals • consolidation of compliance management • development of more streamlined and efficient processes for supplier negotiation and contracting • realization of better cost control and increased savings • optimization of risk management systems • increase in employee satisfaction with processes and policies • increase in transparency and policy compliance However, a number of barriers exist. Investment in technology is no longer a major concern for executives: the most common difficulty is now the issue of change management. Taking away the travel processes from those who are managing meetings within the company is considered to be a highly emotional issue. The objectives that a company wishes to achieve through change must be clearly communicated and carefully managed.

UK Department for Transport

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Although the notion of destination management organization remains a particularly prolific and attractive concept, being extensively addressed in the last 20 years, there is no consensus at an academic level on how it can be operationalized. Much less empirically, little attempts have been developed in order to attain comprehensive ways of optimizing the activity of such organizations. The tendency for this concept to be associated with destination brand management is not necessarily representative, and by no means exhaustive. The present paper aims to highlight a series of definitions in this regard in the first part, following that in practice, to carry out a meta-analysis of recent literature, in order to identify the areas where Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) can be developed. Thus, we consider the exploration of different DMOs' analyses, within the Scopus (Elsevier) and Springer international databases which have published research in this regard in the past 2 ...

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The complete guide to corporate travel policies 

The business travel policy guide you’ve been waiting for .

Creating a business travel policy for employees can feel really daunting. You don’t want to just throw something together and hope for the best, but it feels impossible to anticipate every possible scenario. The truth is your policy serves as more than a rule book; it's a guide to better decision-making about your corporate travel program and can save you a world of headaches down the road. 

Introduction

What is a travel policy .

• Why do you need a travel policy?
• How to create a travel policy

What to include in a travel policy 

• Travel policy best practices
• How to promote travel policy compliance
• How to market your travel policy

When to review and update your travel policy

• Final thoughts

When it comes to company travel, a travel policy brings it all to one place. It acts as an influencer for travelers to make the most cost-effective choices, an important visibility tool for your managers and HR department, and it protects your people if it’s done right. 

If you’re new to business travel or haven’t looked at your travel policy in a while, we’ll start with the basics and then move into the nitty gritty of corporate travel policies. We’ll touch on a few best practices for writing a travel policy, what to include, and offer plenty of resources along the way. 

Ready to get cracking? Let’s go! 

A travel policy is a guide for business travelers to follow that outlines: 

• How, where, and when to book 
• Approved technology for travel management 
• Preferred suppliers for air travel, land travel, and accommodations 
• Approvals process for out-of-policy bookings 
• Trip extensions and personal travel 
• Expenses and what is covered or not covered 
• Reimbursement processes 
• Business travel insurance information 
• Emergency procedures and contacts 

Your company’s travel policy should reflect your company culture and values, be supportive of your travelers and their needs, and protect your company from unforeseen circumstances. It acts as a central document that guides your team to the processes of embarking on company business travel, from start to finish! 

While you might hear a few grumbles and groans around the words “policy” or “process,” don’t worry! A travel policy does not need to be rigid and inflexible. 

Do your travelers prefer to book on their own? Don’t take away their autonomy. They can still self-book, you’ll just provide them with a better tool and way to do it more efficiently. 

Do your people feel prepared for any event that can cause a travel hiccup? With a travel policy, you can give them clarity and help them feel more prepared when traveling for business purposes. 

Why do you need a travel policy? 

Your travel policy is an extension of your travel program and company culture. It’s the glue that holds your travel program together – from approvals, expenses, booking processes, and emergency contacts. 

Having a travel policy helps you: 

• Control travel costs 
• Determine how reimbursement works 
• Compile a list of trusted and approved travel vendors 
• Manage an employee’s travel experience and safety 
• Cut rogue bookings – and simplify approvals 
• Budget, report on travel expenses and activity and reconcile bookings 

It’s a roadmap or guidebook that your travelers can reference when they’re booking their own travel if they run into a tricky situation abroad, and it helps provide clarity around processes. 

As a company though, your travel policy helps centralize your travel program, makes data and tracking more accurate and easier to navigate, and it saves time and money (including on expense management). Plus, if you take the time to craft your policy in an intentional and inclusive way, you’ll have a policy your travelers are happier to follow. 

How to create a travel policy for employees 

• Determine business travel guidelines 
• Create a travel policy that puts your people first 
• Set reasonable budget limits 
• Simplify the process of expense claims 
• Adopt a user-friendly all-in-one travel platform 

Once you’ve read through our tips, be sure to download our free  travel policy template  so you can get started on creating a travel policy of your own! 

1) Determine corporate travel guidelines 

When you take the time to create a policy that meets the needs of your business, you are making sure that your travelers are safe, costs are controlled, and you’ve made every business trip count. 

Start by looking at what types of travel are allowed and the reason for each trip. 

If you have team members traveling all over the globe, you might want to set some extra safety measures. You should also decide if there will be restrictions on the type of ground transportation used or where employees can stay. 

Create a process for booking flights, hotels, and other ground transportation needs. How far in advance should they be booking? Do different rules apply based on the traveler’s position? Who is the point of contact for bookings and other travel questions? 

Making sure to include your company’s travel insurance info is also important. Make sure to note if your policy covers medical expenses and/or any losses due to cancellations or delays in transportation services due to factors outside an employee’s control. 

Do you have a policy for reporting and documenting expenses? This includes having a system in place for claims (like meal expenses) and a reimbursement process, so your team can easily get their money! 

2) Create a travel policy that puts your people first

You’ve heard the term “duty of care” before, so it’s important to create a corporate travel policy that puts traveler safety and accessibility needs first. You’ll need to define and assign the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved, including a travel manager, if you have one. 

Set up an emergency plan and provide access to traveler safety information. Determine who is the emergency contact (your TMC?) and how to get in touch. Do they have 24/7 emergency support available by phone or chat? What about email support? 

Invite your HR department, the travelers themselves, and your DE&I manager into a discussion to find out what needs your team has as individuals, what hiccups they face when traveling, and what holes exist in your travel program that make it difficult to navigate. 

Working with a TMC is a great way to ensure travelers are kept safe before and during their trip.  

3) Set reasonable budget limits for business travel

You have a budget you need to adhere to, but is it realistic? Setting reasonable budget limits is key to an effective policy. 

Your budget should account for all travel-related expenses, including airfare, accommodation, meals, and ground transportation. And once you’ve set your budget, you can determine reasonable costs for hotels and accommodation, ground transport, flights, and more. Build these caps into your  travel booking software  to help travelers stay within the set parameters, which will later help with accountability. 

It's important to set clear rules on what the company can pay back and what types of expenses are out-of-pocket. 

If you’ve set a maximum daily rate for meals on work trips, it's crucial that travelers understand the limit before racking up additional charges. Requiring receipts can also help keep track of employee spending and make sure they're not going over budget. 

By working with a  travel management company  like Corporate Traveler, you can review your previous year’s expenses and find where you can optimize or make changes based on market changes. 

4) Simplify the process of expense claims 

If you're unfamiliar with how to write a travel expense policy, creating a simple process for claiming expenses is key to getting your team on the same page. Do you have access to a payment system that pays for the majority of expenses at the time of booking? This could be a good way to save time and stress down the road.  

The more you can pay for before your travelers get to their destination, the easier everything is to reconcile after they get home.  

If you have a person in charge of reviewing expense reports and watching pre-trip approvals, make sure to set criteria for claim approvals and look at automating processes to make approvals simple! 

5) Adopt a user-friendly all-in-one travel platform  

Finding the right  corporate travel platform  is essential. The right booking platform can provide travelers with an easy-to-use experience, giving them access to the best fares and availability. 

For example, at Corporate Traveler, we use Melon . It’s a booking tool, reporting suite, travel policy pusher, traveler profile manager, and so much more. Melon features a “recommended spend” function, which helps keep travelers booking in policy. Hello, visual guilt! 

Melon’s simple user interface, combined with dedicated travel consultants and expert 24/7 support, makes it simple to book, manage, and keep track of your business travel. You’ll be able to access Melon-exclusive deals and perks (alongside many negotiated contracts and online deals) and take care of all your travel needs from one place. 

From the get-go, you’ll be able to work closely with our team to ensure that all of your needs are met. We'll help you customize your travel program to meet specific business needs, build your travel policy into the platform, and offer training to staff to help them along the way.   

Putting it all together  

Wow! You’ve reached the end and should have a better idea of how to write a corporate travel policy. High five! Now it’s time to put it all together and get it on paper.  

Maybe you already have something in place that needs some work or an entire overhaul. Check out our easy-to-use template and start checking those boxes! 

Grab our corporate travel policy template builder

Not sure where to start? No worries! We’ve got you. Here’s how to streamline your process with a travel policy template! 

While there’s no one-size-fits-all travel policy for every company, following the set guidelines helps you nail a perfect-for-you policy that can see you through an ever-changing travel climate. 

Travel policy template  

When you’re crafting your business travel policy, there are so many considerations to be made. Things might come up that you never even thought of, but not to worry. We have loads of resources to help you see this through. 

Starting out, it might be looking a little drab and wordy, but depending on your travel program size, a visual travel policy might be just what you need. You can search for examples online or take a look at an example of a visual travel policy we’ve created.  

When building your policy, it’s important to include: 

1. International or foreign travel policies  

When you’ve got travelers all over the globe, you need to build out a policy for international or foreign travel. This is a protects them (and you) on anything from travel safety, to expenses, and everywhere in between. 

Whether your travelers are individuals or entire teams, your international travel policy needs to cover: 

• How and where to book – is that with a travel manager, online booking tool, a travel management company (TMC) ? 
• Travel insurance coverages and contact info – international numbers and policy information 
• Emergency contacts – how to reach them and the process of in-destination emergencies 
• Travel expenses – limits and how to file for reimbursement 
• Travel documentation – who to contact with questions 
• Advance booking timelines – when should they be booking for international travel? 
• Travel extensions – are these allowed and what are travelers expected to cover if they choose to extend their trip for leisure? 

By outlining all of this information in your policy, you’ll streamline the process for your finance teams, travel managers, and your travelers. And really, who doesn’t want to make travel a smoother experience? 

2. Corporate travel policy for business class travel 

Does your corporate travel program have different rules, limits, or allowances for different levels of seniority? Are some junior members expected to travel in economy class, while some executives are allowed to book in business class? 

If some certain exceptions and situations might allow for an employee to book business class, regardless of their position, you should include that in your policy as well. 

Making this as clear as possible will avoid an approvals nightmare down the road. 

3. Corporate meal allowance policy 

It’s great if you’ve already centralized most of your business travel expenses like flights, accommodation, transportation, and car rentals, but your people gotta eat! It’s super important to include a meal allowance policy that clearly outlines which meals (and how much) you’ll cover. 

Some of your team might be traveling with corporate credit cards, while others might need to be reimbursed. The guidelines and procedures for submitting expenses or asking for reimbursement need to be crystal clear! 

Make sure to outline if you have a corporate travel policy for alcohol, too! You don’t want murky policies when it comes to footing the bill for drinks. 

Some things to consider for your meal allowance and alcohol travel policy: 

• Which meals are covered and for how much? 
• Who is footing the bill for an alcoholic beverage with dinner? 
• If entertaining clients, what is the budget, and how flexible is it? 
• What is the process of submitting company card expenses? 
• What is the process for requesting reimbursement? 

Your team will always have questions about the policy on food and drinks, so make sure they can find the info easily and have a point of contact for whoever can offer more clarity. 

4. Executive travel policy 

We briefly touched on executive travel when we talked about traveling in business class, but there is certainly more to the top dogs traveling. 

Executive travel can be a touchy subject if there are more lenient policies in place than there is for less senior team members. Your executives also may need to know the guidelines in place for their own travel, so they don’t accidently go overboard, which could be an accounting nightmare! 

You’ll need to make sure you deliver a guide for approvals, procedures, booking deadlines, meals, accommodation, basically everything. 

Lay it all out. Make your policy as digestible as possible, and for a busy exec, consider bullet points and titles in bold so they can easily skim to the areas they need to know. 

5. Natural disaster or COVID-19 business travel policy  

We can all agree that COVID-19 caused business travel to come to a screeching halt. Across most industries, the pandemic impacted client relationships, the ability to gain new clients and caused budgets to get slashed pretty dramatically.  

While this was only one event, many businesses have begun to consider the “what-ifs” of their travel programs should another outbreak of COVID or something else happen. Crossing our fingers and toes doesn’t cut it, unfortunately. 

There is also the chance of their travel being impacted by a natural disaster. We’ve seen it before – earthquakes, tsunamis, volcano eruptions, hurricanes. Do you have a plan or policy to aid your team and guide them through the unthinkable? 

In 2022, we surveyed 120 employees across various industries and businesses. More than half, 51% of respondents said their companies didn’t provide resources or tips for safety on their trips. Duty of care isn’t something to put on the back burner, it’s your legal obligation to make sure your team is informed. 

So, what’s the solution, you ask? 

Working with a TMC gives you the backup you need if anything ever happens and you have people traveling abroad. At Corporate Traveler, our travel management software, Melon, is a central place to house your policy for quick and easy access. Plus, our travel experts can help you paint the big picture of what to do, who to call, and how to get your team home safely as quickly as possible. 

Is there anything missing from your travel policy? 

Let’s break it down. If you think of your policy like a sandwich, it should include: 

The bread and butter  

• Where and why: Are there any restrictions on who travels domestically or internationally? Or guidelines around reasons for travel? 
• When: Are there any restrictions on when business travel is a no-no, like during an auditing period or financial downturn? 
• How? How should travel arrangements be booked? Through your corporate travel booking software or with a preferred Travel Management Company (TMC)? How far in advance should domestic and international trips be booked? 
• Preferred suppliers: Do you have preferred partners for air travel, accommodation, ground transport or travel insurance? 
• Approvals: Who’s responsible for giving the green light on trips? 
• Show me the money: What’s the process for managing/submitting expenses, paying for travel and reimbursements? 
• Uh-oh: How will you prevent or deal with non-compliance to the travel policy? 
• Noise level: Getting loads of ‘noise’ and questions about things in your policy? This means it’s not clear and it’s time to review why and where the stumbling block is for travelers (or your finance team!) 

 The filling  

• Classy, baby: Who gets to fly business class, book 5-star properties or order UberLUX? And how does your business handle upgrades or airport lounge access for long-haul flights? 
• All work, some play: What are the conditions if someone wants to extend their business trip to take personal leave? Are you happy for them to enjoy a bleisure trip, and if so, who foots the bill and for what? 
• Loyalty: Are there any travel rewards or business loyalty programs that can be used during booking? 
• Spending money: Do your business travelers have a daily allowance for meals, snacks, and drinks? How much is it, what does it include – and what’s not covered? Can they order room service, drink from the mini-bar, or use the in-house laundry service? 

The not-so-secret sauce  

• Safety first: your policy should support air, accommodation and ground transport suppliers that have been safety and security vetted. Guidelines or information on travel insurance for work trips is also helpful. 
• Now what: What’s the plan of action in the case of Acts of God or Force Majeure events? Does your team know who to call for help? 
• What’s next: Who is responsible for updating and reviewing your travel policy, and how often? 

Corporate travel policy best practices

• Write for skim readers
• Guide travelers to the right resources
• Automate your policies
• Stipulate a timeframe for expense claims
• Be prepared for the unexpected

1. Write for skim readers  

One of the first steps towards writing a people-first travel policy is understanding how your travelers will read it. And the truth is…  

They probably won’t.   

Research has shown that  adults get distracted every 47 seconds . So if a business traveler is looking at your policy, they’re most likely just searching for a specific answer – and they want it fast. So what can you do?  

First, make sure the document is easy to navigate. That means including things like:   

• A table of contents  
• Visual elements to help guide the eye toward crucial information, like flow charts and tables  
• Clear headings and important details in bold  
• Bulleted lists (see what we did here?) 

And even though it’s a technical document, don’t make it sound like one. An effective travel policy should be clear, concise, and easily comprehended. So skip the long, complex sentence structures and technical jargon, and write in plain, simple English. It helps to pretend like you’re writing it so an eighth-grader can understand it.   

2. Guide travelers to the right resources  

Remember when we said travelers will only read your policy to find a solution for a specific need? Whether it’s a link, a phone number, or a step-by-step tutorial – a well-managed travel policy should provide them with the right resources.  

Instead of treating a travel policy as a list of rules, treat it like a resource sheet. Here are some key pieces of information travelers might need to pull up easily:  

Your approved online booking tool (and steps on how to use it)  

• QR codes to download your  mobile travel app   
• Preferred airlines, including class, budgets, and other limits  
• Permissible hotels, including guidelines on star-class and incidental expenses  
• Guidelines on ground transportation (trains, ride-sharing services, rental cars, and personal car usage)  
• How to get travel support  
• Travel insurance carrier  
• Clarification on the reimbursement process (more on this later)  

You can also include other factors specific to your company, but this should at least be the necessary groundwork to help employees make the right choices on their own.  

3. Automate your policies  

Let’s face it: even with the best communication efforts, there’s always a chance that an employee may violate policy, even unintentionally. So, what can you do?  

Build policy into booking.  

By building your travel policy into your travel management software, it becomes unavoidably embedded in the booking process, so even the most easily confused employees end up following by default.   

Automation tools can sound the alarm on out-of-policy bookings and even provide an audit trail. This can be especially helpful for employees who may struggle to remember procedures and policies, especially after big changes to your travel program.  

4. Stipulate a timeframe for expense claims  

No one wants to get stuck waiting on the money they’re owed – or worse – find out they’re not getting reimbursed for an expenditure they thought would be covered.  

Having a clear and well-defined expense claim process is critical in any travel policy. Employees need to know how to claim their travel expenses, how soon they need to submit an expense report, and when to expect reimbursement.   

The policy should also be clear about what expenses are and are not reimbursable, including any limits or exceptions. For example, if an employee needs to book a different seat class to  accommodate a disability , the policy should include the process for requesting and approving this expense.   

Plus, a submission deadline reduces cash flow issues and provides more accurate and complete expense data for that period (your finance team will thank you later).  

5. Be prepared for the unexpected  

As a company, you have a duty-of-care responsibility. When it comes to business trips, you need to be prepared for the unexpected. No matter how much effort you put into planning, there will always be a few hiccups along the way.   

For instance, lost luggage, canceled or delayed flights, and sudden weather or political emergencies in unfamiliar destinations could all leave your employee stranded.   

“Companies need to be prepared to plan for the particular, not just the universal. Every aspect of the travel program needs to be able to fit each of your travelers like a glove, from adaptable plans and experts on call, to technology that makes the journey seamless.” - Emese Graham, DE&I Manager @ FCTG  

Don’t let unexpected situations blindside you. Have processes in place to ensure travel safety and security. Make sure they know what to do, where to go, and who to get a hold of if something goes wrong. Taking a proactive and prepared approach to your policy can minimize the impact of emergencies and take care of your team’s well-being while they’re on the road.  

BONUS TIP: Update your policy regularly  

Here’s a free business travel policy best practice just for you! It isn’t just a “one and done” deal – it’s a living document.  

What’s that mean? As your company grows and travel conditions change, so should your travel policy. Revisit your expense policy at least once a year to keep it relevant and effective – and lead you towards new cost-saving solutions.    

Data is going to be your best friend here. Here are a few key factors you should look into when updating your travel policy:  

• Analyze travel spend patterns – are you throwing a lot of company money at certain suppliers? You might want to see if you can negotiate a new deal or find better rates elsewhere.  
• Identify areas of overspending or inefficiency – are employees accruing high parking or travel costs? See if you can get season tickets or other accommodations.  
• Evaluate the overall performance of your policy – are you still compliant with any new regulations that have come into play since the policy was established? How can traveler experience be improved?  

You may even want to consider enlisting the help of professionals, such as a travel management company with experience in expense management, to give advice on how to optimize your travel policy to better meet the needs of your employees and your business as a whole.   

Building a travel policy that's good for business and travelers and meets their needs is no small feat. But whether you're looking to retain your team, attract new talent, or make life a little easier for your travelers, investing in a well-designed travel policy is definitely worth the effort and great for company culture.  

By following these travel policy best practices and ensuring your policy meets all travelers' needs, you’ll be on your way to smoother, safer, and more enjoyable travel experiences for all.  

How to promote travel policy compliance  

Whether compliance is a big or small issue in your company, it takes a little bit of investigating to figure out why it’s an issue at all. 

Maybe your policy meets the needs of only a few of your team members. Maybe it’s too difficult to navigate your policy. Or maybe, your policy is written in legalese and makes your travelers vision blur before they go rogue and book how they want. 

It could be that your travelers prefer a bit of freedom in booking and would rather do it on their own. Or, maybe they have specific needs that aren’t being met by the options provided. 

Whatever their reasons, it’s your job to figure out why they aren’t following and what you can do to build better compliance. 

Here are a few tips to improve travel policy compliance: 

• Make your policy easy to navigate, understand, and find 
• Use an online booking tool (OBT) for travelers who prefer to self-book 
• Allow a bit of flexibility so travelers feel they have some autonomy 
•  Include a category for last-minute bookings so it doesn’t mess up your data 
• Understand your traveler needs and build an inclusive policy 

Read the full guide:

You've researched, gathered the necessary resources, and communicated your travel and expense (T&E) policy to your employees. But now, you're not so sure they're actually following it.  

Read the full guide:  How to Improve Corporate Travel Policy Compliance

How to market your corporate travel policy internally?

Corporate travel might be off the radar for most employees, especially those outside of customer-facing positions. The first step in promoting successful corporate travel policies is awareness. 

Do employees know about the policy? Where can they find information and updates on business travel? Clear communication at pivotal points and frequent intervals can help keep everyone aware.

Review common and expected challenges

Business trip policies might be ineffective if they don't meet the needs of some business travellers. You can get ahead of challenges by understanding that last-minute travel can be necessary or that different travellers have unique needs. 

Inclusive policies plan for employee safety and comfort on a range of business trips, paying attention to details such as arrival and departure times, car rentals, ground transportation, and noise levels.  

Communicate business travel policies effectively

Travel managers can use best practices to ensure all employees are aware of and understand travel programs. Visual policies, internal documents, and guides all work well. People learn differently, so it’s a good idea to have key information in both visual and text formats. 

A yearly update is also beneficial, as well as communication on any major changes, like new technology or changes in the approval process or submitting expenses. An internal FAQ page can increase understanding of corporate travel guidelines, as well as prompt new questions.

Book a demo of Melon , the all-in-one travel platform. 

Increase employee engagement 

Highlight areas of company travel that offer flexibility, to show what’s possible for different preferences. Talk about benefits like an online booking tool vs. working directly with a TCM.

Developing interactive content, like employee surveys, can show if traveller satisfaction is achieved. It also helps identify travel arrangements that are unnecessary for cost savings.

Find internal champions for the business travel program 

Travel policies cross paths with a lot of different departments, from sales to the finance team. Identifying key people and keeping them involved in developing the travel program means getting buy-in and internal support.

Corporate Traveler has a long history of travel management and is ready to join forces as an external member of your travel planning team. Let’s make booking a breeze , together.  

Case studies: effectively marketing your corporate travel program

A travel manager should match your company culture for the best fit. Find out how these companies successfully targeted the right mix of technology and service to meet employee expectations and business goals.

Flipp Travel Case Study

Streamlining global travel for Eliquent Life Sciences

Beyond Energy Case Study

If the last time you reviewed or upgraded your travel policy was more than a year ago, it’s outdated and needs a refresher. If your company is small and has low turnover, you could probably get away with making small tweaks and optimizations. 

But if you have a larger company with multiple departments and higher turnover, you probably need to do an overhaul and review it more regularly. We’re not saying you have to change it every time someone is hired or leaves the company, but making sure it’s relevant to the people who are there and are traveling matters! 

Corporate Traveler conducted a survey in 2022, which showed that 48% of respondents didn’t know if their company had resources for specific traveler profiles, while 41% said their company didn’t provide resources for specific traveler profiles. This really goes to show that there’s room for improvement in how policies are built to support their people and their businesses. 

A people-first travel program and policy have become necessary as the world grows and begins to understand neurodiversity, disabilities, and cultural differences. When we learn about our team members’ diverse needs, we can better understand how to support them when they venture abroad for our businesses. 

GUIDE: Download the How to design a people-first travel program guide 

We recommend policy reviews every 3-6 months, but at the minimum, once per year. 

Final thoughts 

Business travel is so unpredictable, as we’ve seen in recent years. There will always be circumstances you can’t avoid as a company, but making sure that you have the necessary checks and balances in place can help to make things just a little easier. If you have groups traveling, VIPS, or people heading to high-risk destinations, it’s important that your policy is relevant. 

Don’t forget that travel policies shouldn’t be written and forgotten about – these are living documents that must be regularly updated to make sure they best protect your people. 

Remember these best practices when writing your travel policy: 

• Keep it simple and make it pop with visuals, bullet points, and bold headings. 
• Answer any and every question possible – think of all the eventualities 
• Always put your people first 
• Implement a quick and simple approval process 
• Automate as much as you can 
• Use technology that’s supports your policy 
• Be flexible with due reason 
• Be clear about what’s not allowed 
• Update your travel policy at least once a year 
• Keep it somewhere easy to find  

And finally, it doesn’t hurt to have a couple of different formats. Consider a visual version and an extended version so the message is delivered best depending on the person reading. For some, it might be easier to digest one over the other. 

Looking for a policy review? We’d be happy to work with you. 

Let’s chat .

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The 2024 guide to corporate travel management

What is a travel management company, how do travel management companies work, is a travel management company the same thing as a travel management agency, 8 reasons why organizations use a corporate travel management company, 1. they increase efficiency, 2. they provide 24/7 assistance, 3. they offer concierge services to organize the important extras, 4. they deliver excellent duty of care solutions, 5. they deliver excellent duty of care solutions, 6.  they help businesses reduce travel costs, travelperk is the all-in-one business travel platform that saves you time and money., 7. they offer greater visibility through real-time travel reports, 8. they can integrate corporate travel policies for greater compliance, what's the difference between traditional tmcs and travelperk.

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88 Tourism Management Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best tourism management topic ideas & essay examples, 🔎 good research topics about tourism management, 📝 most interesting tourism management topics to write about, ❓ tourism management research questions.

• Human Resource Management in Tourism In his research, Nickson points out that the human resource management in the tourism incorporates the management principles to integrate with the specific needs in the tourism industry.
• Destination Marketing and Destination Management in Tourism The purpose of this task is to discuss reasons why misunderstanding of the concepts of destination marketing and destination management leads to poor sustainable tourism planning and management of tourism impacts.
• Revenue Management in the Tourism Industry To predict the behavioural patterns of customers, the availability of the product in the market is optimised with a hope of maximising on revenues.
• Yield Management and Tourism Industry in Saudi Arabia Thus, the hospitality industry of the country can rely on the support of the state, and this factor can contribute to the development of the hospitality industry.
• Sex Tourism Management Controversy As explained in the introductory section above, sex tourism refers to an aspect of tourism where the primary aim of the tourist is to have in sexual engagements with the people in their destination.
• Sustainable Tourism Development Management It includes the air, the climate of the place, the water bodies, the landscape, the animals, the birds and other life forms habiting the place, the plants and its overall beauty.
• Tourism Destination Management and Development Tourism destination development and management is a key factor to the success of the tourism industry in any given region. The regional bodies come in with professionalism that is key to the success of the […]
• Service Management of Innovation Tourism Industry Innovation taking place in tourism industry is resulting into new ideas, services, and products to the marketplace and as part of overall changes taking place in the industry, innovation in the industry is leading to […]
• Human Resource Management: Tourism and Hospitality Industry To recognise the variety both of the diversity of sub-industries and kinds of careers the tourism and hospitality sector in Australia is likely to create, this paper cannot take into account all of these elements […]
• Tourism Disaster Management In this phase, the main element of the management strategies for the disaster that is going on is assessment of the impacts and reconstruction.
• VisitBritain’s Marketing Strategy for the 2012 Olympic Games and Diamond Jubilee The VisitBritain campaign is significant in helping Britain realize economic growth before, during, and after the 2012 Olympic Games as well as the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
• “Coolness” of the City in Tourism Management The ‘coolness’ of the city and its culture is a powerful instrument in advancing the city’s attractive features, infrastructure, and business.
• Contemporary Tourism and Hospitality Management I have always enjoyed visiting other countries, and Europe remains one of my favorite destinations since I see it as a small corner of the planet connecting a great variety of cultures.
• Tourism Management as an Ethnographic Theme Thus, as it is stated in some of the interview, tourists generally expect the attitude of obeisance towards them, and the workers of the tourism sphere feel themselves as the obedient servants.
• Sustainable Hospitality Management The paper will clear some concepts of Hospitality Management and Sustainable Hospitality Management, Assessment of Operational Efficiency of Hospitality Organizations, Critical analysis of Hospitality Parameters, Critical evaluation of Principles and Procedures Involved in Environmental Management […]
• Service 2020: Hospitality and Tourism Management Technology will change the view of service management and customer relations. This end of the market will be driven by technology, performance, and design.
• Tourism Management of the National Parks and Heritage The National parks are credited for being major tourist attraction sites as compared to national heritage and promotion of the tourism industry as they have what the tourist wants to see, that is, the beauty […]
• Home Exchange and Implications for Tourism Management A listing refers to a list of people who are also interested in exchanging a home from a particular country and the quality of their homes is also given.
• Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism’s Conflict Management The concept of Sulha, although not directly outlined in the organization’s code of conduct, is the main driving instrument of internal conflict resolution in the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism.
• Tourism Industry: Emergency and Crisis Management The technological and scientific breakthrough that has been witnessed over the past several decades has created the foil for the rapid development of the tourism industry. What are the primary causes of emergencies and crises […]
• Sun Peaks Resort: Tourism Management One is determined to examine the relevant aspects of the example of the Ski School in the Sun Peak Resort as the latter has the highest rating among all the Canadian resorts from the standpoint […]
• Hospitality Management: Arabian Desert Resort In addition, it is the role of the sales manager to improve the facilities, maintain awareness of factors, which affect the hotel, and to gain a deeper perceptive of the needs and feelings of the […]
• Forecasting the Tourism Activity as a Risk Management Instrument
• Casino and Gaming Management in Tourism: Monte Carlo, Baden Baden, and Las Vegas
• Business Continuity and Crisis Management in Tourism
• Traveling to India: The Problems Management of Tourism Business in One of the Most Conservative Countries
• The Importance of Total Quality Management in Tourism
• Management in Services as a Marketing Instrument for Increasing Customers’ Satisfaction With Tourism Products
• ICT Tools as Management Support in Croatian Tourism
• Strategic Management Within the Tourism and the World Globalization
• A Bass Model Application to Tourism Facility Management
• Strategic Management Problems for Romanian Tourism Companies
• Economic Possibilities and Management of Solar Energy Use in Tourism
• Sustainable Development and Tourism Destination Management of Hot Springs Hotels in Taiwan
• Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Management by Razaq Raj and Kevin Griffin
• Management Strategy and Policy of Etihad Airways Tourism
• Events Management in Tourism: Attracting More Tourists
• Creation and Management of Innovative Tourism Products in Italian Networks of Reserves in the Alps
• Rural Tourism: Development, Management, and Sustainability in Rural Establishments
• The Place and Role of Financing in the Management of Small Businesses in the Tourism
• Effective International Tourism Management
• The Use of Digital Technologies in the Tourism Management
• Online Tourism Information Management System
• Environmental Management and the Competitiveness of Nature-Based Tourism Destinations
• Yield Management Tourism: A Pricing Strategy to Generate Maximum Revenue
• Social Sustainability Tourism Management: Human Rights, Inclusion, Health and Safety
• Marketing and Management Implementation on Megatrends in Modern Tourism
• Destination Management Organizations and Health Tourism Visual Identification in Central and Eastern Europe
• Risk and Crisis Management in Tourism Industry: Linking Tourism Into Emergency Management
• Why the Development and Management of Tourism Can Not Be Left Entirely in the Hands of the Private Sector
• Tourism Development in Zambia: Planning and Natural Resource Management
• Management and Development Possibilities for Spa Tourism in Serbia
• Logistics and Supply Chain Management in Tourism
• Main Stages Involved With Capacity Management Tourism
• Information Systems Management for Travel and Tourism
• Stakeholders and Public-Private Partnerships Role in Tourism Management
• The Strategies for Management of the Tourism Sector During the Coronavirus Pandemic
• Collaboration, Management Contract, and Franchising in the Tourism Industry
• Operation Management Practices and Tactics of Hotel Novotel Tourism
• China’s Tourism Resources and Management
• Strengthening the Employ Ability of Hotel Restaurant Tourism Management Through Work and Travel Program
• Enterprise Risk Management With Foreign Exchange Exposures: Evidence From Taiwan Tourism Industry
• What Is the Future of Tourism Management?
• What Skills Do You Need in Tourism Management?
• What Are the Features of the Management Decision Making Process in Tourism Management?
• What Are the Benefits of Being a Tourism Management?
• When Did Tourism Management Originate?
• What Is the Task of Tourism Management?
• Is Tourism Management a Part of Economics?
• What Are the Main Features of Tourism Management?
• How Has Tourism Management Evolved?
• What Are the Functions of Tourism Management?
• What Are the Principles of Tourism Management?
• What Are the Popular Methods of Tourism Management?
• What Are the Features of Tourism Management Organizational Structures in Tourism Management?
• What Are the Management Issues in Tourism Management?
• What Is the Biggest Problem in Tourism Management?
• What Is the Main Purpose of Tourism Management?
• What Is the Concept of Tourism Management?
• What Are the Features of Tourism Service Quality Management in Tourism Management?
• Which Type of Trade Is Tourism Management?
• Who Is the Father of Tourism Management?
• Is Tourism Management a Market or Industry?
• What Is the Value of Tourism Management?
• What Is the Most Important Impact of Tourism Management?
• What Will Happen if There Is No Tourism Management?
• How Does Tourism Management Affect Society?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Bibliography

IvyPanda . "88 Tourism Management Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." November 8, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/tourism-management-essay-topics/.

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The complete guide to corporate travel management

Published on July 3, 2023

Business travel can be hellish to manage. With employees flying all over the world, there are flights to book, accommodation to arrange, and an endless list of miscellaneous costs and tasks to keep on top of.

In most cases, this is pure drudgery.

Which is a shame. Because work trips can be both highly productive and a pleasure for employees . They should be a way to expand your network , increase your company's exposure, and create lasting experiences.

So why is managing travel such a chore ? And what can you do to fix it?

In this post, we go into detail about the biggest hassles with corporate travel. (They're actually quite simple, and so's the remedy). We also look at some tools that can help, and discuss how travel and expense management go hand-in-hand.

So let's begin.

What is corporate travel management?

Put simply, travel management is the structure that a company has in place to oversee and facilitate business travel. This includes the processes of planning a trip for booking and paying for everything necessary, and the approvals and documents needed to ensure compliance.

Some companies outsource this to specialized travel agencies. Others bring in dedicated travel managers. In this piece, we’re going to focus more on the impact that software can have, and how automating much of your travel management is better for everyone in the company.

Let’s start by identifying what makes managing business travel so difficult.

The biggest challenges for corporate travel

Company travel is still an area in which most businesses struggle. Even if you think you have it under control, you may still cost yourself serious time and effort just to handle what should be simple tasks.

That’s normal, but it’s not ideal. Do you find the following issues affecting your day-to-day?

1. Managing large numbers of requests

Most companies have someone who’s eventually responsible for monitoring travel. In large businesses there’ll be a dedicated travel manager. But in smaller and growing companies, this role often falls to someone in the administration or finance teams. And it’s just one of their jobs.

When company travel is commonplace, this becomes a real burden. You have requests coming from all over the business, and they don’t always follow the proper procedures .

One team member emails you, while another sends a Slack message. Worse still, you have employees coming to see you in person, distracting you from what you should be doing .

It’s the disparate and inconsistent nature of these interactions that make them a problem. This is one of the key benefits of automation, which we’re going to look at shortly.

2. Tracking approvals

Just as the admin or finance person needs to track requests, they also need to ensure that travel has been authorized by the right people . This usually means a team leader or manager, but in some companies also requires the CEO’s sign-off.

These are more touch points - more steps - in an already drawn-out process. But because they’re mandatory, there’s no getting around them.

Here’s where your travel management system can truly help. The approval process can be baked in, so that each manager is notified and can give their consent without anyone having to leave their desk .

3. Keeping spending in check

Travel is part of running a business, and is seen as essential for growth . But the bill that comes with it can be hard to stomach.

There’s a renewed focus on work travel. Employees want the opportunity, and companies are often keen to oblige.

But this can quickly result in a swollen travel budget . And managers then have to start turning down reasonable requests.

According to the experts at TravelPerk, one key reason for this is businesses don’t give themselves access to low-cost inventory . They rely on “business hotels” and book through travel agents, all of which can come with a premium.

In our private lives, we look hard for great deals through sites like AirBnb, Booking.com, and Kayak. But out of convenience, or because they want more “professional” options, companies usually ignore these.

4. Letting staff serve themselves

This begins as a challenge. For many companies, the easiest way to keep compliant and manage costs is to book trips for team members.

But in fact, the more you’re able to let employees arrange their own travel, the lighter the burden becomes for your admin and finance staff .

And employees actually want to manage their own itineraries . For some, business travel is fun experience and a chance to visit somewhere new. If they feel forced into taking certain options, this removes some of the charm.

And for more seasoned travelers, the same is often true. They know what works for them, after all.

The goal is to be able to offer this opportunity without costing the business money . Good travel management systems make this entirely possible, and even more likely .

5. Being flexible

As with most company policies, you need to keep control without feeling like a nagging parent . Rules and restrictions are necessary, but employees are happiest when they have a little freedom.

In order to save money and keep team members happy, you want to keep a broad travel inventory. Try not to limit yourself to just a handful of suppliers or travel routes.

This has the added benefit of being cheaper in a lot of cases. But more importantly, it gives employees the choice they want.

Because you don’t have to be constantly saying no in order to get the best results.

6. Reducing errors

Mistakes can be costly. Every time your finance team has to fix any employee’s work, that’s time wasted. And that assumes that mistakes can actually be fixed .

Can’t figure out who approved a particular expense? This happens all the time, and it’s a problem. So are lost receipts, incomplete expense claims, and incorrect types of expenses .

The back-and-forth that comes as a result of all this is annoying and distracts your team from its real work. This is also where a good collaborative project management tool can help.

Making corporate travel less painful

The best way to ensure that team members don’t follow the rules is to make the rules a drag to follow. For most staff, booking travel isn’t a core part of their job description. And they’re really trying to find the easiest way to get through it so they can get on with what they’re supposed to be doing.

So if your travel process is irksome, your teams are going to find a way around it .

What you want to avoid:

Too many rules (especially where they’re confusing)

A high number of touches (including extra emails to managers for approval)

Lots of manual steps (like filing printed documents and receipts)

Unclear processes

Ideally, you want a travel booking process or system that walks employees through each step. Where the rules are built in, so they don’t have to decipher them on their own .

We’ll look at some good examples of this shortly. But what would such a system even look like?

What is a travel management system?

As the name suggests, these systems help companies manage travel. They can be purpose-built tools from third parties (see below), or some large companies even build their own.

In the pre-SaaS (software-as-a-service) days, the latter option made sense. But now business travel management tools are available out of the box, for relatively low cost, and it just doesn’t make sense to build something from scratch.

See below for tool suggestions.

The point of these systems is to “oversee, regulate, and coordinate the travel activities and expenses of a company's employees.” These are largely manual tasks that would normally be done by office administrators , or perhaps by a dedicated travel manager in a company.

With a travel management system, this work can be streamlined or automated altogether. The goal is to free up staff for more valuable work than monitoring others’ travel plans.

Why automation is crucial

Many of the issues we saw above touch on two themes: time and effort. Every extra touch that you ask team members to perform takes time. And often the biggest time killer is at the very beginning, when employees have to figure out what the travel policy is in the first place .

Every question eats up time (for managers and staff), and every mistake multiplies it.

And that’s what hurts effort. The more time-consuming and tedious these tasks, the less likely that team members will actually want to do them. They skip steps, ignore certain rules, and now your shiny travel policy is just a memory.

Unless you automate it. You can build your travel policy into a travel management system, and then nobody has to actually remember it or ask questions. They simply follow the process from step to step, all the while doing what’s required of them.

It’s like a video game - you can’t get to the next level until you’ve finished this one.

The result is travel bookings with fewer errors (if any), and an administrative team that’s free to do more important work . Plus, if employees can book trips themselves, they can plan the trip that works best for them.

You can still include any rules or restrictions you prefer. You can limit budgets to appropriate amounts (automatically), and even restrict the available suppliers if that really matters.

It’s basically as flexible and user-friendly as you want it to be.

So if you don’t want to build this all from scratch, what options do you have?

Great travel management tools

We’ve written another whole post on our favorite travel management software .

TravelPerk is fast becoming the name to know for business travel. The platform takes the convenience of the personal travel booking sites you love , and adds more security and oversight. Employees can serve themselves and create the itinerary they prefer, while the company can add any restrictions it needs.

It’s also much easier to manage budgets because every purchase is made in the same place. So finance teams have an immediate overview of all travel bookings, without having to beg staff constantly for updates.

TravelPerk helps you save money thanks to its low-cost inventory. Your teams can still choose great, inexpensive options for flights and hotels in that same central dashboard .

The heart of TravelBank works the same as TravelPerk - your teams can book their own travel directly within the platform. Again, everything is carefully tracked, so you can keep spending under control.

The tool also includes some expense management features which can be very helpful . When an employee uses their own money to make a purchase, they can upload the receipt to TravelBank. An expense report is created, and the company can begin the process of reimbursement.

This saves a lot of time on expense reports, which really hurt businesses each month. It also cuts down on simple errors like lost receipts , which will keep the finance team happy.

Spendesk is less of a travel management tool, but focuses more on the issue of work spending in general. That’s incredibly valuable for travel though, because the biggest challenges usually revolve around tracking spending , both during the booking process and on the road.

Like the other tools, Spendesk tracks all of your bookings and payments in one place by letting you pay with its virtual and prepaid cards. When you need to book flights or accommodation online, you use a virtual card generated by the platform. When you’re on the road, you have a physical, prepaid credit card to use. So employees never have to pay for anything with their own money .

This means no more sharing around the company credit card, and no more expense reports.

The beauty of this is that you may not even need a travel management system (as explained above). Your team can use any website or supplier they like, and you’re still going to know exactly what they’ve spent. Manager approval can be given in advance or in real time , and every purchase lines up with the right budget.

And then the best part: you can use the exact same system for all your other expenses , whether they’re travel related or not.

This highlights one of the main recurring issues with company travel: the real problem is how businesses handle expenses.

Travel and expense management

We mostly think of travel expenses as being the things you pay for while on the road. For most employees, this is drilled into their heads thanks to the painful expense report process that comes at the end of the trip.

But of course, travel spending begins from the first booking . This is usually flights, trains, or car travel - however you get from here to there. And when managed well, it’s easy to marry this spending with the costs that come later.

But most companies fall down at “managed well.” Each trip should be taken as a whole, with any on-the-go spending added to flights and accommodation. This gives the true cost of your excursion , which can then be marked against team budgets and overall company spending.

Why is this difficult?

The majority of companies have the same issues with managing spend:

There is no clear, observed spending policy

Each cost is considered unique, and not taken as part of the whole

They rely on a small handful of company cards

When the company card isn’t available (often), employees are forced to spend their own money.

3 and 4 are the reasons why tracking company spending can be so difficult. If everybody shares the same few company credit cards, it’s immediately unclear who’s spent what, and why. It’s almost impossible to monitor approvals at this point .

You have to have an impeccable spending policy - and a very diligent finance team - for this to work long-term.

And as we know, asking employees to pay out of pocket is recipe for disaster. You save a small amount of hassle at the beginning (because you don’t have to set up a better solution), but the trade-off is that it’s very hard to monitor, creates more paperwork each month, and employees hate it !

If you’re able to fix the above issues, you’ve pretty much solved your travel management headaches. All of the worst parts come down to expenses and spending. And they’re usually because these processes haven’t been set up intentionally .

As businesses grow, they tend to add processes piece-by-piece. At the beginning, when a business only has 5 team members, one corporate card is usually fine. The founder/CEO knows what needs to be spent and can make most of the payments themselves.

But as the team grows, more options get added to the mix. You go from one card to three, and there’s constant confusion as to who has which one.

When that becomes unworkable, you start asking staff to file expense reports. But still half of your payments come on the company cards, so lining up all these expenses becomes a chore .

And by the time you have a dedicated finance team and CFO, there are so many different ways of spending at work that the whole thing is a mess.

The solution to your travel-induced headaches

As is hopefully abundantly clear, the best way to fix your travel issues is to fix company spending. The more ad hoc, DIY processes you have in place, the harder it is to stay on top of everything.

Instead, you need a purpose-built expense management approach .

Your best option is to use payment methods designed for businesses. Because corporate cards and expense reports are really just a Band Aid.

The better choice is prepaid expense cards . These have customized spending limits, and because they’re not connected to the full bank account, they’re very low-risk. Plus, you can have as many as you need - one for every traveling employee.

Combine prepaid cards with virtual credit cards to pay online . These are generated every time you need to book flights or accommodation. Each is unique, so you won’t have to share the same credit card details all over the web.

Both of these payment methods include pre-approvals (logged, so you can always see who authorized an expense), and every charge is assigned to the right spender and their team.

Which means you don’t have to “track” payments at all . It’s already done.

If this is what your business is missing, now’s the time to get started. It’s easy to begin, and you’ll make your travel management (and company spending overall) safe, secure, and painless.

Take a tour of Spendesk today.

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Corporate Travel Management Limited Porter Five Forces Analysis

Posted by Ewan Murphy on Nov-20-2018

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

A model was put forward by Michael. E. Porter in an article in the Harvard Business Review in 1979. This model, known as Porter's Five Forces Model is a strategic management tool that helps determine the competitive landscape of an industry. Each of the five forces mentioned in the model and their strengths help strategic planners understand the inherent profit potential within an industry. The strengths of these forces vary across the industry to industry, which means that every industry is different regarding the profitability and attractiveness. The structure of an industry, even though it is stable, can change over time. These Porter’s five forces are as follows:

Threat of New Entrants

Bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute products or services, rivalry among existing firms.

The Porter’s Five Forces model can be used to analyse the industry in which Corporate Travel Management Limited operates, in terms of attractiveness through inherent profit potential. The information analysed using the model can be used by strategic planners for Corporate Travel Management Limited to make strategic decisions.

Corporate Travel Management Limited Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

This section analyses Corporate Travel Management Limited using each of the five forces of Porter’s model.

• The economies of scale is fairly difficult to achieve in the industry in which Corporate Travel Management Limited operates. This makes it easier for those producing large capacitates to have a cost advantage. It also makes production costlier for new entrants. This makes the threats of new entrants a weaker force.
• The product differentiation is strong within the industry, where firms in the industry sell differentiated products rather a standardised product. Customers also look for differentiated products. There is a strong emphasis on advertising and customer services as well. All of these factors make the threat of new entrants a weak force within this industry.
• The capital requirements within the industry are high, therefore, making it difficult for new entrants to set up businesses as high expenditures need to be incurred. Capital expenditure is also high because of high Research and Development costs. All of these factors make the threat of new entrants a weaker force within this industry.
• The access to distribution networks is easy for new entrants, which can easily set up their distribution channels and come into the business. With only a few retail outlets selling the product type, it is easy for any new entrant to get its product on the shelves. All of these factors make the threat of new entrants a strong force within this industry.
• The government policies within the industry require strict licensing and legal requirements to be fulfilled before a company can start selling. This makes it difficult for new entrants to join the industry, therefore, making the threat of new entrants a weak force.

How Corporate Travel Management Limited can tackle the Threat of New Entrants?

• Corporate Travel Management Limited can take advantage of the economies of scale it has within the industry, fighting off new entrants through its cost advantage.
• Corporate Travel Management Limited can focus on innovation to differentiate its products from that of new entrants. It can spend on marketing to build strong brand identification. This will help it retain its customers rather than losing them to new entrants.
• The number of suppliers in the industry in which Corporate Travel Management Limited operates is a lot compared to the buyers. This means that the suppliers have less control over prices and this makes the bargaining power of suppliers a weak force.
• The product that these suppliers provide are fairly standardised, less differentiated and have low switching costs. This makes it easier for buyers like Corporate Travel Management Limited to switch suppliers. This makes the bargaining power of suppliers a weaker force.
• The suppliers do not contend with other products within this industry. This means that there are no other substitutes for the product other than the ones that the suppliers provide. This makes the bargaining power of suppliers a stronger force within the industry.
• The suppliers do not provide a credible threat for forward integration into the industry in which Corporate Travel Management Limited operates. This makes the bargaining power of suppliers a weaker force within the industry.
• The industry in which Corporate Travel Management Limited operates is an important customer for its suppliers. This means that the industry’s profits are closely tied to that of the suppliers. These suppliers, therefore, have to provide reasonable pricing. This makes the bargaining power of suppliers a weaker force within the industry.

How Corporate Travel Management Limited can tackle the Bargaining Power of Suppliers?

• Corporate Travel Management Limited can purchase raw materials from its suppliers at a low cost. If the costs or products are not suitable for Corporate Travel Management Limited, it can then switch its suppliers because switching costs are low.
• It can have multiple suppliers within its supply chain. For example, Corporate Travel Management Limited can have different suppliers for its different geographic locations. This way it can ensure efficiency within its supply chain.
• As the industry is an important customer for its suppliers, Corporate Travel Management Limited can benefit from developing close relationships with its suppliers where both of them benefit.
• The number of suppliers in the industry in which Corporate Travel Management Limited operates is a lot more than the number of firms producing the products. This means that the buyers have a few firms to choose from, and therefore, do not have much control over prices. This makes the bargaining power of buyers a weaker force within the industry.
• The product differentiation within the industry is high, which means that the buyers are not able to find alternative firms producing a particular product. This difficulty in switching makes the bargaining power of buyers a weaker force within the industry.
• The income of the buyers within the industry is low. This means that there is pressure to purchase at low prices, making the buyers more price sensitive. This makes the buying power of buyers a weaker force within the industry.
• The quality of the products is important to the buyers, and these buyers make frequent purchases. This means that the buyers in the industry are less price sensitive. This makes the bargaining power of buyers a weaker force within the industry.
• There is no significant threat to the buyers to integrate backwards. This makes the bargaining threat of buyers a weaker force within the industry.

How Corporate Travel Management Limited can tackle the Bargaining Power of Buyers?

• Corporate Travel Management Limited can focus on innovation and differentiation to attract more buyers. Product differentiation and quality of products are important to buyers within the industry, and Corporate Travel Management Limited can attract a large number of customers by focusing on these.
• Corporate Travel Management Limited needs to build a large customer base, as the bargaining power of buyers is weak. It can do this through marketing efforts aimed at building brand loyalty.
• Corporate Travel Management Limited can take advantage of its economies of scale to develop a cost advantage and sell at low prices to the low-income buyers of the industry. This way it will be able to attract a large number of buyers.
• There are very few substitutes available for the products that are produced in the industry in which Corporate Travel Management Limited operates. The very few substitutes that are available are also produced by low profit earning industries. This means that there is no ceiling on the maximum profit that firms can earn in the industry in which Corporate Travel Management Limited operates. All of these factors make the threat of substitute products a weaker force within the industry.
• The very few substitutes available are of high quality but are way more expensive. Comparatively, firms producing within the industry in which Corporate Travel Management Limited operates sell at a lower price than substitutes, with adequate quality. This means that buyers are less likely to switch to substitute products. This means that the threat of substitute products is weak within the industry.

How Corporate Travel Management Limited can tackle the Threat of Substitute Products?

• Corporate Travel Management Limited can focus on providing greater quality in its products. As a result, buyers would choose its products, which provide greater quality at a lower price as compared to substitute products that provide greater quality but at a higher price.
• Corporate Travel Management Limited can focus on differentiating its products. This will ensure that buyers see its products as unique and do not shift easily to substitute products that do not provide these unique benefits. It can provide such unique benefits to its customers by better understanding their needs through market research, and providing what the customer wants.
• The number of competitors in the industry in which Corporate Travel Management Limited operates are very few. Most of these are also large in size. This means that firms in the industry will not make moves without being unnoticed. This makes the rivalry among existing firms a weaker force within the industry.
• The very few competitors have a large market share. This means that these will engage in competitive actions to gain position and become market leaders. This makes the rivalry among existing firms a stronger force within the industry.
• The industry in which Corporate Travel Management Limited is growing every year and is expected to continue to do this for a few years ahead. A positive Industry growth means that competitors are less likely to engage in completive actions because they do not need to capture market share from each other. This makes the rivalry among existing firms a weaker force within the industry.
• The fixed costs are high within the industry in which Corporate Travel Management Limited operates. This makes the companies within the industry to push to full capacity. This also means these companies to reduce their prices when demand slackens. This makes the rivalry among existing firms a stronger force within the industry.
• The products produced within the industry in which Corporate Travel Management Limited operates are highly differentiated. As a result, it is difficult for competing firms to win the customers of each other because of each of their products in unique. This makes the rivalry among existing firms a weaker force within the industry.
• The production of products within the industry requires an increase in capacity by large increments. This makes the industry prone to disruptions in the supply-demand balance, often leading to overproduction. Overproduction means that companies have to cut down prices to ensure that its products sell. This makes the rivalry among existing firms a stronger force within the industry.
• The exit barriers within the industry are particularly high due to high investment required in capital and assets to operate. The exit barriers are also high due to government regulations and restrictions. This makes firms within the industry reluctant to leave the business, and these continue to produce even at low profits. This makes the rivalry among existing firms a stronger force within the industry.
• The strategies of the firms within the industry are diverse, which means they are unique to each other in terms of strategy. This results in them running head-on into each other regarding strategy. This makes the rivalry among existing firms a strong force within the industry.

How Corporate Travel Management Limited can tackle the Rivalry Among Existing Firms?

• Corporate Travel Management Limited needs to focus on differentiating its products so that the actions of competitors will have less effect on its customers that seek its unique products.
• As the industry is growing, Corporate Travel Management Limited can focus on new customers rather than winning the ones from existing companies.
• Corporate Travel Management Limited can conduct market research to understand the supply-demand situation within the industry and prevent overproduction.

Implications of Porter Five Forces on Corporate Travel Management Limited

By using the information in Corporate Travel Management Limited five forces analysis, strategic planners will be able to understand how different factors under each of the five forces affect the profitability of the industry. A stronger force means lower profitability, and a weaker force means greater profitability. Based on this a judgement of the industry's profitability can be made and used in strategic planning.

Warning! This article is only an example and cannot be used for research or reference purposes. If you need help with something similar, please submit your details here .

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Title: New Travel Management Company and Uber for Business

Dear Colleagues,

As we approach commencement and the start of summer term, Georgetown Travel Services has two updates to share: the transition to World Travel Service as our provider for travel agents and Concur management, and our new partnership with Uber for Business.

New Travel Management Company: World Travel Service

Effective today, World Travel Services is replacing Corporate Travel Planners as our travel management partner. This change is the result of critical feedback from the Georgetown community and an extensive search for a provider that can meet our unique higher education travel needs. The Georgetown Travel Services Advisory Committee and Working Group were engaged on these important changes, and I appreciate their input and perspective. 

Using World Travel Services provides many benefits, including: 

• Full-service travel planning, including an easy-to use booking platform;
• Service agents to assist Georgetown employees with every aspect of their travel arrangements; and,
• F ull advantage of university negotiated discounts with our partner airlines, hotels and rental car companies.

Travelers and travel coordinators will continue to be able to use the online booking tool, Concur . Our World Travel agents are available on Mondays-Fridays from 8am-6pm for direct booking assistance, and can be reached at: 

[email protected]

771-208-4753

Georgetown Travel Services is also hosting weekly training and Q&A sessions on Thursdays at 1 p.m. through the fall. Please register on our Booking Travel with GTS website.

Uber for Business

We have also entered into a relationship with Uber for Business , which not only allows GU Employees to toggle between personal and procards more efficiently, but also enables departments to provide Uber vouchers for non-employees. Benefits of using Uber for Business include:

• Using our tax-exempt status to reduce costs;
• Toggling between their personal and business profiles, for ease of traveling;
• Departmental access to a customized dashboard for coordinating rideshare and Uber eats vouchers; and,
• The ability for departments to “call in” ride requests for travelers who do not have access to the Uber app.

For a limited time, employees who sign up for Uber for Business will receive a $20 credit to use in the next 30 days

For more information and to register for Uber for Business, please visit our website . For any other travel inquiries, please feel free to contact Georgetown Travel Service .

Sincerely, 

Sheyna Arthur

Interim Chief Procurement Officer and Director of Procurement

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