The ACTE (Assoc. Corp Travel Execs) Global Conference was held recently in Paris. Approx 1000 corporate travel buyers and suppliers from around the world (including several Aussies) attended the 3 day event to learn, share and network.
The central theme was ‘Learning from the GFC’, whereby many businesses during the GFC unfortunately reacted by severely cutting their travel budgets or just stopping their travel altogether; only to suffer even greater slow-down in their growth, lower profits or losses as a result.
With a recent study showing that for every $1 dollar spent on business travel, the average business sees $15 in increased profits, emphasis was therefore placed on actually increasing travel activity but only at a lower cost through smarter buying and extracting greater value from the travel dollar. Use of market experts such as consultancy firms to achieve this also proved to be a high return on investment. It was clearly demonstrated that success in creating an efficient and cost-effective travel programme positively affects both the bottom-line and the strategic growth of the business.
Pictured is Simon Dodd (QBT-Sales/Marketing Mgr) & Andrew Kelly (TMS Australia Consultancy) standing in front of the residence of French President Sarkosy at the official opening function.