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Article Excerpt
Orlando -- The ears of corporate travel professionals every where must have been ringing last month when more than 800 investors, analysts and travel techies gathered at PhoCusWright's Executive Conference to discuss, among other things, the demise of the corporate travel management company. Drowning out practiced protests from American Express and Carlson Wagonlit Travel, this latter-day Internet hype extolled a view that corporate travel is a "critical growth component" for Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity.
"Finally, corporate travel, the old guard sector of the industry that has never quite been so sexy, is actually hot," said Philip Wolf, president and CEO of conference host PhoCusWright, a Sherman, Conn.-based strategy and research firm.
When misinterpreted, this message parallels one with which Wall Street types and top managers of late have menaced corporate travel buying: "What do we need you for?"
One of the few corporate buyers in attendance was amazed by the way distribution vendors coddle the investment community, and said at least a few leading travel managers should attend simply to be aware of the hyperbole strewn about behind their backs.
In listing the "obvious" reasons on line corporate travel "is really happening now," Orbitz chairman, president and CEO Jeff Katz said, "Every employee in American business recognizes three or four online travel brands very well, and Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity are usually the first. Getting employees to book their business trips now on some custom, in-house software or other unrecognizable program is like asking them to stop doing their budgets on Excel and start doing them on some Brand X spreadsheet software. They'll resist it, they'll make mistakes and some won't do it at all. But if the boss says,...
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