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Study Shows Drop In Swedish Corporate Travel Agent Performance
By Seth Harris
SEPTEMBER 17, 2009 --
The four mega travel management companies and four largest Swedish corporate travel agencies all showed performance drops in an annual agent productivity and cost-savings study recently released by Swedish travel management consultancy TM Solutions Nordic.
The consulting company conducted the study in December 2008 and January 2009 by sending standard e-mail travel reservation requests from corporate clients of American Express Business Travel, BCD Travel, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, HRG and Swedish travel management companies Resia Travel, ScanWorld Travel Partner, Ticket Travel Group and Via Travel.
The fifth annual study required agents in Sweden to book a roundtrip from Stockholm to southeastern English town Milton Keynes for a corporate traveler on relatively the same date and at the same time, according to TM Solutions Nordic owner Lars Ericsson. There were 10 main flight and rail combination options.
Total trip cost and booking effectiveness were measured on a 100-point scale that took into account airfare, ground transportation, hotel rates, travel time and carbon emissions based on Sweden's Network for Transport methodology. The study also measured agent productivity and their knowledge of attributes including implementing corporate policy, reducing trip time, use of customer profiles and offering time and lower-cost alternatives to the traveler.
FCm Travel Solutions partner Ticket Travel Group received the highest rating, according to the report, garnering 67 points. Following Ticket were Radius travel management network partner Via Travel, American Express Business Travel, Resia, HRG, BCD, CWT and ScanWorld.
The average performance decline compared with last year's study was 10 points. ScanWorld dropped the furthest, losing 21 percentage points.
In applying traveler profiles and corporate policies to the reservation, all participating TMCs improved over last year except for Amex, which decreased its performance 9 percentage points. CWT and HRG posted the highest gains at 24 and 19 percentage points, respectively.
Sweden in recent years has been a market with considerable merger and acquisition activity as the mega TMCs have attempted to increase their stake in the Nordic region. In late 2007, CWT made a significant acquisition of Stockholm-based Ark Travel for 273 SEK ($42.7 million), which doubled CWT's size in the region (BTNonline, Oct. 30, 2007).
TM Solutions Nordic's Ericsson said some Swedish corporations, including global construction group Skanska and members of the Swedish Business Travel Association, are using the report for their TMC sourcing efforts.
Ericsson previously worked at Amex for 22 years in Sweden and the United Kingdom, where 15 offices reported into him as the Stockholm area manager.
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