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Execs more in the travel loop.

Article Excerpt
Corporate travel professionals often cite senior management support as among the most crucial components of a successful travel program. Senior managers put teeth into policy, control the budgetary framework under which travel programs operate and, by example or overtly, have the power to support or subvert any corporate travel initiative.

The degree of C-level participation in business travel programs runs the gamut from hands-off to directly involved, from those who solely exercise veto power to those whose interaction with the travel department comes on a daily basis.

While involvement levels are as varied as corporate travel programs, many travel buyers in recent years have noted higher senior management awareness of and participation in corporate travel programs. Traveler safety in a post-9/11 world, Sarbanes-Oxley accountability, preparedness for potential calamities and the ongoing cost-consciousness of Corporate America all are driving C-level managers to heighten their involvement in corporate travel operations, said buyers, executives and consultants.

Of those polled by Business Travel News, 54 percent of senior executives and 44 percent of travel buyers said that the top brass has increased its involvement in corporate travel policies and procedures in the past year. Many expect the increasing level of involvement to continue.

While the topmost senior managers concern themselves primarily with driving revenue, they also seek to contain costs--and as one travel buyer put it, "travel is targeted as a good place for that." Travel's place on the balance sheet--it is the second or third most controllable expense at most companies--for years has been among the strongest drivers of visibility into T&E programs.

Scholastic travel manager Susan Story said...