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Article Excerpt
Last year was another tough one for the business travel industry. Still reeling from the aftermath of 9/11, the travel business started 2003 with an ongoing war in Afghanistan and the gathering clouds of war in Iraq. Decisions made by executives inside our industry and in government influenced the course of the year that followed.
The 25 executives we name here are those who BTN editors determined as having exerted the greatest influence on the business travel industry in 2003, with input from readers and other sources, including BTN editorial board members.
No executive affected the course of the year more than the chief executive of the United States. President Bush made the decision to go to war with Iraq and when. The long-term results of that decision remain to be seen, but the impact it made on the business travel industry in 2003 was the stifling of a promising spring travel season and further weakening of a hobbled industry.
It wasn't war alone that kept people from going on the road, however. At about the same time the Iraq war began, the world was alerted to a mounting SARS epidemic, which began in Asia and spread to Canada before it was contained in June.
Corporate financial scandals also continued to rock the corporate travel world.
Officials distinguished themselves this year by rising to those occasions to increase air security, provide accurate health information and institute new accounting rules.
Efforts by the industry to come to terms with the power of the Internet as an airline and hotel distribution channel, and particularly to address its influence on pricing, dominate this list, with related actions contributing to the naming of eight of the 25. The success and impact of flow-cost air carriers accounted for four more. Another six were named as a result of a perennial list-making activity: industry consolidation. Significant purchases or mergers last year recognized here include a ground-breaking international airline deal, a transaction between mega agencies, a major car rental company buy and strategic purchases of an extended stay lodging company and a meetings technology company. One more made the list for raising the bar for ground transportation reporting arm service delivery.
Returning to the list with new accomplishments was Orbitz chairman Jeff Katz, who now has been recognized for his industry influence by BTN five times. Other returnees are four-timer American Express Global Corporate Services global president Ed Gilligan, three-timer Northwest Airlines vice president of e-commerce and distribution Al Lenza, and two-timers U.S. President George W. Bush, BostonCoach CEO Russell Cooke, Sabre Holdings chairman William Hannigan, JetBlue Airways CEO David Neeleman, StarCite CEO John Pino and Air France chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta.
ERIK BLACHFORD
President and CEO
Expedia Inc.
During 2003, Internet travel agencies aggressively vied for a piece of the corporate market, seeing managed travel as the inevitable next step in building marketshare and solidifying their brand identity.
Erik Blachford--who late in the year also was named president and CEO of IAC Travel, the division of InterActiveCorp that encompasses Expedia, Hotels.com and several others--separated Expedia Corporate Travel from the online competition, particularly in the hotel portion of its site, which included both market rates and discount merchant model rates that it termed Expedia Special Rate program.
Blachford and his team's influence, however, extended into hotels' own marketing efforts. One milestone came in April when Expedia announced a landmark agreement with Hilton Hotels Corp. "We collaborated with Hilton at every step to ensure that the solution we implemented would maximize efficiencies and result in cost savings for all parties," Blachford said.
The direct connectivity platform is based on Open Travel Alliance standards. "By using Web services, tiffs technology provides us with the flexibility to connect to existing hotel inventory management systems and provide enhanced access to our yield and rate management tools," he said. "It also allows us to manage software, hardware and networking issues in a lower-cost environment. The next step is to allow Hilton hotels to upload inventory and rates directly from their property management systems into our database."
Expedia Corporate Travel now has similar relationships in place with Hyatt Hotels Corp. The firm expects to finalize agreements with other hotel companies as well, Blachford said. "We've publicly discussed direct connectivity with these companies and Outrigger Hotels. You'll see more of these announcements throughout the year."
ECT late in the year took steps to ease concerns that the rates on merchant model sites carry too many restrictions, particularly cancellation provisions. "Business travelers have different needs than leisure travelers," he said. "Chief among them is flexibility. At the end of 2003, we made some changes to our Expedia Special Rate program on the corporate side to address this."
In working with a corporate account, Expedia customizes its site to incorporate provisions from the client's travel policy, if the travel manager so chooses. "Our hotel display on the corporate side shows a company's negotiated rate for a specific property instead of our merchant rate," Blachford said. "On the other hand, we've found that showing negotiated rates alongside our merchant rates--for properties where a client doesn't have negotiated rates--enables the travel manager and traveler to see the widest possible view of the marketplace, while still enforcing the client's particular travel policy."
During the year, Expedia Corporate Travel also improved the richness of its content. Content upgrades include virtual tours of guest rooms, for example, so travelers can see the layout of work desks. The intention was to give users the same depth of display they were used to on the leisure site.
GRO HARLEM BRUNDTLAND
Director-General
World Health Organization
On March 12, 2003, the World Health Organization was the first to alert the world of a mysterious respiratory illness spreading throughout Asia. Since then, severe acute respiratory syndrome has infected thousands of people across the continents, kicking at the crutches of an already crippled travel industry. Without the aid of WHO, the damage could have been compounded.
Under the guidance of Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland, WHO's timely and relevant dissemination of information on the outbreak influenced travel managers to form policies halting travel to affected regions. At the height of the outbreak, WHO kept daily tabs on the number of infected and issued travel advisories to regions considered unfit for travel.
Using WHO numbers, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention followed suit, issuing travel alerts and keeping U.S.-based companies abreast of SARS activities--and companies paid heed.
At the height of SARS transmissions in the Asia/Pacific region, the National Business Travel Association conducted a survey of 240 travel managers, finding that 55 percent had decreased travel directly in response to the epidemic. Now, corporate travel departments are allowing travelers to return to such SARS-infected areas as southern China, Vietnam, Singapore and Canada.
WHO's vigilance also informed the public of preventative measures to help ward off the ailment and prevent its spread, without which the malady could have proliferated further. WHO, along with CDC, encouraged screening at airports and isolating those who had been infected or showed symptoms.
After diligently tracking the disease and keeping the public informed, Brundtland in June said SARS had been "stopped dead in its tracks," as WHO lifted its last advisory and deemed safe again all areas that the organization once advised travelers to avoid for nonessential trips.
Although the proclamation was not an indication that SARS was never to be feared (or heard from) again--as evidenced by recent, sporadic activity--it told the world that the worst was over, and the disease's high-risk level had been contained. After all WHO and CDC restrictions were lifted, business travel to SARS-infected regions began to rebound as corporate travel departments lifted their limitations and many Asia/Pacific, European and U.S. carriers restored service to affected regions.
GEORGE J. BUSH
President
United States of America
President Bush's decision to go to war with Iraq in March 2003 proved dire for the travel industry, and the business travel sector in particular.
Bush previously was named among BTN's 25 Most influential Executives of 2001--the first time a nation's president had received the distinction. In that year, he was chosen for his efforts to prevent strikes at the large airlines, as well as for his leadership in spurring recovery of the travel industry in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
This year, however, his action that BTN is recognizing had a negative effect on the industry. The timing of the war dealt a significant blow to an already suffering airline industry. What particularly was devastating was that the war began during the critical opening weeks of the spring 2003 business travel season, which suffered as a result.
"The level of security imposed upon the entire travel industry only increased the efforts employed from Sept. 11," said Carol Ann Salcito, president of Management Alternatives. In addition to hindering overseas travel by apprehensive Americans--"Business travelers became more reluctant to leave the country, because we were at war," Salcito said--the war alienated the United States within the world community. International travelers became reluctant to travel to the United States, further hurting the airline, hotel and car rental markets.
According to a survey of 240 corporate travel managers conducted in April 2003 by the National Business Travel Association, 67 percent of respondents said travel had decreased in their companies in response to the war, and 73 percent of those travel managers said their travelers had expressed concerns about traveling since the war began.
Salcito said the decision to go to war further hurt an industry that already had started to suffer in mid-2001--even before the events of Sept. 11. Airlines further cut capacity in response to fewer travelers and reduced revenue and, by extension, hotel companies suffered as well, she said.
The International Air Transport Association in its forecast for 2003 released in September 2002 had projected an increase in traffic following the sharp downturn in passenger traffic volumes that started in 2001. "However, this recovery has not materialized even if the beginning of 2003 showed some early signs of recovery," IATA reported.
Further, the Administration's continued use of general terror alerts rather than those targeted to law enforcement and security personnel continue to undermine the confidence and security of the U.S. transportation system.
Yet, in response to a lagging travel climate, the Bush Administration last year did help to create the U.S. Travel and Tourism Promotion Advisory Board, to which $50 million was appropriated for an international destination marketing campaign to bring travelers to the United States.
RUSSELL COOKE
CEO and President
BostonCoach
As CEO and president, Russell Cooke this year brought to fruition efforts that raised the standard of service for BostonCoach and helped to pave the way for increased service levels throughout the ground transportation industry. The most visible milestones of 2003 were rollouts of new technology tools that provide travel buyers with advanced reporting and BostonCoach with better control of its fleet. As noteworthy was recognition by customers and suppliers that Cooke had led his company to achieve a level of sophistication and consistency that firmly established BostonCoach as a dynamic competitor for significant national corporate contracts.
As a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments, BostonCoach started out with a certain cache. Cooke, who joined BostonCoach shortly after its inception in 1986, called the level of quality and recognition that carries over from its Fidelity...
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