Travel professionals are playing an increasingly large and influential role in shaping and controlling business travel policy, aided by online booking tools and fueled by a growing focus on cost-saving efforts.

These are the results of a new report for Europe by the GBTA Foundation, the research arm of the Global Business Travel Association, and Egencia, the corporate travel arm of Expedia, Inc.

“Travel professionals play a vital role in balancing the need to get travellers on the road to make the face-to-face connections that strengthen business ties while also spending corporate dollars wisely,” said Paul Tilstone, managing director of GBTA Europe. “This study shows travel managers are gaining more control over budgets to help contain costs and ensure that road warriors can be as effective as possible.” 

This third annual study, “Travel Policy Trends: ‘Control’ – What Does it Mean and Who Has It”, surveyed nearly 1,500 travel professionals in Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America to determine, for the first time ever, what “control” over travel policy means to them and how travel professionals are adapting to new and evolving business travel requirements. The majority of travel professionals worldwide (60%) indicate that they have more control over travel policy compared to a few years ago.

“Our study shows that the impact of technology, such as mobile devices, is reshaping both the travellers’ experience and travel manager’s role in simultaneously supporting traveller needs and corporate objectives,” said Christophe Peymirat, Senior Vice President, Egencia EMEA & APAC. “We set out to understand how travel professionals can better manage travel policy to make sure their travellers have the important information they need to deal with travel details without losing site of policy compliance.”

Top 10 Most Important Definitions of Travel Policy Control

When travel professionals in Europe were asked to describe what “control” over travel policy means for them, three in five (64%) selected “driving savings and controlling costs.” In addition, the report revealed the top ten most important definitions of travel policy control, worldwide and across key regions:



Compared to a few years ago, large majorities of travel professionals in Europe agree they now have more control over travel spend data (76%), reporting (69%), and visibility in the organization (73%).  When asked why they have more control over travel policy, travel professionals said:

• Access to traveller profile information and data security (69%)
• Stronger support from C-level executives (65%)
• Having a broader role in their company (63%)

• Social media use amongst travellers is less prevalent, with only 35 percent using social media channels or mobile device apps in their daily travels to connect with other road warriors and quickly find information they need while on the road.
• This is a notably smaller percentage than in North America and Asia, where travellers reported using social media more actively (48 percent and 51 percent, respectively).

• Online booking tools (OBTs) have been instrumental to travel policy improvements. Travel managers in Europe report 71 percent of travellers use OBTs to book travel.
• Nearly half of travel professionals in Europe (51%) are integrating more information into OBTs to educate road warriors about staying within policy.