Travel buyers, with the help of their TMCs, will have to incorporate new COVID-19 conditions and procedures in their travel policies to promote a quick return to corporate travel and, says Paul Tilstone, managing partner of Festive Road consultancy, now is the opportune time to do it.
Speaking at a GBTA (SA) webinar on June 24, he said one way to do it is to start by mapping out country-specific guidelines based on COVID-19 safety protocols. Festive Road has developed a free tool for GBTA members, available for download on its website. This will help corporate travel procurement departments to create a new ‘permissible travel framework’ for the COVID-19 era, to incorporate into their travel policies.
During the webinar, Paul said global corporate travel was likely to be halved, but prices would, overall, increase. For corporates this would mean a cut in travel budgets, putting buyers and their TMCs in a difficult position in navigating COVID-19 market prices. “Currently, airlines need cash and pricing will be lower to draw people and demand back. When demand finally begins to trickle through, we can then expect a significant increase in pricing, because the airlines still have to maintain central operational expenses,” said Paul.
He assured the travel buyers at the webinar that they were not alone, as travel buyers across the world were facing the same difficulties as those in South Africa. When Festive Road polled 180 travel buyers over the last two weeks, it found that 80% of respondents across the US and UK were still not working on plans to resume travel, or were just starting to do so.
“The respondents came from across the UK and US, even though the US has officially opened up domestically. So, South Africa is not behind the curve,” he said.