Amsterdam Executive Symposium - Building A Better World for Corporate Travel!

Taking the Regional Summit series a step further, the Executive Symposium in Amsterdam gave European members an opportunity to expand upon what should happen to revamp the business travel industry in lieu of 9/11. It facilitated roundtable discussions, where participants were charged with brainstorming viable ways of addressing the issues, identifying possible solutions or catalysts to effect change, and in defining ACTEÕs role. Subsequently, participants collaborated on developing recommendations for effectively sustaining business travel.

Recommendations from the roundtable discussions regarding the corporate role, revealed that the following steps should be taken:

1) Review Travel Policy
• Update or include specific instructions on traveller safety, define unnecessary travel
• Look at alternatives transportation such as corporate jets and surface travel
• Advise on alternatives to travel, include steps for co-ordination of tele/videoconferencing
• Ensure solution for determining the immediate location of all travellers; pre-trip reporting

2) Review Risk Management Policies

3) Restore traveller confidence through visible security (invite airline vendors and airport directors to speak to employees) and ongoing communication about safety/security.

Discussion of the responsibilities of aviation and the industry as a whole resulted in the agreement that there should be a collaborative effort to:

1) Standardise transborder security processes at airports, ID match names on tickets passports

2) Make airport and airline employee records available for inspection

3) Convene unbiased institute that evaluates airports/airlines on a global basis.

4) Publicise airlines that lose certification due to maintenance failures/accidents

5) Invest in security

6) Communicate to flying public how security measures effect costs

As for long term resolutions, there was general consensus among ACTE European participants that e-commerce and the stability of airlines is integral to industry revitalisation. Also, reoccurring throughout the roundtable discussions was the idea that all professionals involved in travel should avoid lapsing into a false sense of security.

All participants thought it essential that the European Commission play a central role in standardising security measures and ACTE should increasingly be the voice of the industry in relation to European business travel related issues. ACTE is using the headway achieved in the Executive Symposium to develop specific initiatives that will further analyse, and if feasible support the implementation of member recommendations. Through education programmes, Web based information, whitepapers, and the development of focus groups, ACTE will do whatever it takes to help the business travel community prosper again.