Press Release

For Immediate Release
14 September 2006

ACTE Africa Events highlight varying perceptions amongst industry sectors

Alexandria, VA -- The Association of Corporate Travel Executives hosted two phenomenally successful and well attended events in South Africa in August.

These events ‘Streamlining Corporate Travel’ were held on 22 and 23 August in Johannesburg and Cape Town respectively and were attended by over 270 travel industry professionals from across the African Region. The events also received a record attendance of over 80 Corporate Procurement specialists.

Sessions included presentations from both the supplier and corporate perspectives on the effective implementation and use of Self Booking Tools and the development of efficient Pre-approval Systems. The agenda also included a Hotel and Airline presentation on Revenue and Yield Management in relation to Corporate Deals.

The highlight of the event was most certainly the separate Corporate and Supplier Round Table sessions on Corporate Deals.

This session posed questions to both sectors such as whether in today’s Dynamically Priced market, delegates felt that there is still a financial benefit to supplier negotiated Corporate deals, or whether it is better to go with “best price on the day.” Delegates were also asked if they felt that their relationship with their supplier or client would suffer a loss of value-added benefits if no Corporate Agreement was in place and which sector should be responsible for identifying the need and then implementing a Corporate Deal.

Possibly one of the most interesting questions for debate in Johannesburg was when delegates were asked to rate, in order of importance, what they felt should be factored into the choice of a preferred supplier, looking at Product, Schedule, Availability, Price/Rate, BEE Policy and Relationship.
Interestingly, the Corporate and Supplier feedback differed quite dramatically with Corporate buyers rating the most important aspect being Availability at 86%, with Product and Price rating at 41% and 48% respectively. Suppliers however felt that Product and Price rated the highest in importance at 81% and 68% respectively.

In Cape Town, one of the most interesting results was when the audience was asked whether they felt their relationship with their supplier/client would suffer a loss of value add if no corporate deal was in place. In this region, only 53% of Corporate buyers felt that their relationship would suffer, with 100% of the suppliers feeling that the relationship would be impacted!
Billy Leisegang, Procurement Leader of New Clicks SA said, “This was a stimulating and thought provoking interaction with fellow Travel Buyers, Travel Suppliers and Travel Management Companies, which exposed many challenges and opportunities.”

This event certainly highlighted the differences in perceptions between the sectors and thus aided in all parties being able to get a better insight and understanding into opposing views.

The full results of these Round Table sessions will shortly be available to ACTE Members at ‘www.acte.org’, along with all the event presentations.

For further information regarding this event, feel free to contact Jo Lloyd, ACTE EMEA Regional Director at ‘[email protected]’, or Monique Savage, ACTE Africa Regional Manager at ‘[email protected]’.


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For more information, contact:
Debbie Flynn
CEO
Brighter Group
The Pod, London's Vertical Gateway
Bridges Wharf, Battersea
London SW11 3BE England
T: 020 7326 9880
F: 020 7326 9890
E: [email protected]
W: www.brightergroup.com