SUPPLIERS of business travel services are not convinced that prices and rates are truly reflective of the value of their offerings. Corporate buyers share these sentiments except that they reside on the opposite ends of the rate debate.
Rates across the main supply categories of business travel have increased significantly in many Asia-Pacific markets and this has put pressure on the corporate buyer who has to meet the twin objectives of reducing cost and improving the value of their travel programmes.
The concept of value forms a complicated matrix that both the buyer and the supplier must understand.
Regardless of where one sits on the matrix, the focus is on getting the ‘best rate of the day’, ‘best price of the day’, and/or the ‘best fare of the day’. The travel buyer is no different. What they really want is the best value that makes travel a cost-effective enabler to achieve their organisations’ goals.
The theme of the 2007 ACTE Asia- Pacific Education Conference to be held on August 22-23 in Singapore, is Value- Based Relationships. The entire education programme revolves around how value can create positive relationships despite business conditions which may favour one side over the other.
The keynote speeches, travel management clinic, education breakout topics and ‘corporate chat’ roundtable discussions will tackle how to identify and deliver value throughout the conference programme. The conference has already registered over 100 attendees from more than 14 countries, including a growing number of procurement specialists from global and regional corporations.
A travel management clinic on August 22 on Value-Based Procurement underlines the importance of ACTE’s role in helping direct travel procurement/sourcing specialists and suppliers towards more dialogue on key issues such as yield-management, quality metrics and relationship management. For corporate buyers, ACTE has developed the buyer-empowered education sessions which are led by all-buyer presenters.
Participants of these sessions will hear invaluable best practices of travel buyers who hail from different companies, vertical industries, and markets.
The 2007 conference also provides attendees the opportunity to learn more about managed travel in China and Japan via the new North-east Asia Colloquium, which is a series of education sessions that address specific issues arising in these unique and powerful markets, including risk management, hotel rates and travel sourcing. Susan Gurley, ACTE’s Global Executive Director said, “Making value the basis on which positive relationships are built requires more than rhetoric; it needs careful analysis, honest discussions, knowledge of markets and relevant solutions.
The ACTE Asia-Pacific Education Conference offers that and much more.”
