OAG Travel News

The global financial crisis is forcing companies to cut travel.

A new survey by KDS said more than half (54%) planned to make reductions between now and the end of next March.

The Paris-based travel IT company said it had surveyed 100 of its clients from large organisations with 5,000 or more employees.

The bulk of the respondents were travel manager (47%) with 20% procurement directors and another 20% financial directors.

Most (73%) are based in Europe with 8% in the US and 19% in the rest of the world.

The poll found that 36% have already cancelled travel bookings while 33% said they had called off international meetings.

One financial director told KDS that since the financial crisis broke, his company had banned trips of under two days.

A large majority of the respondents (69%) said they expected stricter rules on travelling in the coming months.

But they did not expect the amount spent on authorised trips to be cut.

Corporates are also looking to make more use of web meetings and video-conferencing to cut the travel budget.

92% of the respondent said they were planning to use these two methods to save money.

But one financial director from a large American corporation took a different view to other CFOs.

“Travel cuts begun during the first quarter and have nothing to do with the current crisis. We have been asked to do more teleconference and to cut on international trips," he said.

Stanislas Berteloot, KDS’s marketing director, said: "The financial crisis is putting procurement and financial departments under pressure.

"Costs must go down. Cutting travel costs is relatively simple and has an immediate impact on the bottom line."

Source: www.abtn.co.uk