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For Immediate Release
09 February 2006
Number of Companies Supporting Registered Traveler Reimbursement is Up, But So Are Travel Manager PrivacyConcerns
Alexandria, Va (Feb. 9) -- The number of
companies willing to reimburse
business travelers for participating in a Registered Traveler
program is up,
but so is the number of business travel managers and procurement
specialists with growing concerns regarding privacy, identity
theft, and
other risks, according to the most recent industry poll conducted
by the
Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) . This is
in contrast to a
previous ACTE survey taken 18 months ago when an overwhelming
number of companies indicated that they would not reimburse
for a
Registered Traveler program. At that time, privacy concerns
for a
voluntary vetting program was not an issue.
"This shift indicates that industry perception of the
Registered Traveler
program has changed as the program has evolved from its initial
concept
to its present proposed form," said ACTE President Greeley
Koch. "The
Registered Traveler program is still the only security-related
process that
has met with public approval. Yet changes in the political
environment
over the time it has taken to formulate the final Registered
Travel
program has spawned more questions."
Sixty-eight percent of the survey's respondents indicated
their companies
would reimburse business travelers for annual enrollment in
a Registered
Traveler-type program -- but not every traveler would qualify.
Over 50
percent stated that their reimbursement policy would be based
on
frequency of travel. Of those companies indicating that they
would use
frequency of travel as the key criteria, 50 percent indicated
it would be
based on between 3 and 10 trips annually; compared to 21 percent
at 11-
20 trips, and 21 percent at more than 20 trips. Twenty-five
percent of
responding travel managers claimed they were still in the
process of
determining the most viable policy for Registered Traveler
reimbursement.
Some survey respondents have expressed a new concern that
rejected
employee applications to the Registered Traveler program could
have a
negative effect at their companies. Sixteen percent claimed
rejected
applications would raise questions about the employee, while
an 84
percent majority said it would not. In addition, 93 percent
stated that a
traveler's decision not to apply to the Registered Traveler
program would
have no impact on the employee. Seven percent declined to
state what
that impact might be.
"The purpose of the Registered Traveler program is to
accelerate the
travel process while freeing up other security resources to
focus on
potential terrorists. There is a difference between someone
who has been
flagged for a technical reason and another who may be truly
suspect. This
puts greater emphasis on a resolution process, which has yet
to be
demonstrated." said Koch.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents indicated concerns over
the collection
of this data with regard to privacy issues, the opportunity
for identity
theft and other possible risks related to these security background
checks. Koch added that concern for compromised commercial
data bases
and an increased incidence of identity theft are making the
traveling
public more wary about providing personal data that may be
shared with
third-party vendors. This was not an issue in a previous survey.
For more information, contact:
Jack Riepe
ACTE Global Communications Director
t: 610-719-8396
c: 610-256-0124
e: [email protected]
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