Special Supplement: Enhanced management key to maintaining development of travel industry

As the Chinese travel industry continues to develop, the companies involved should become more aware of the importance in business of travel management, tourism insiders have suggested.

Statistics from leading tourism management company CITS-American Express Business Travel show that China is one of the largest business travel markets in the world.

In today's fast-changing business world, travel has become an essential and critical part of operations in business as it helps organizations develop and expand by building relationships.

To build an effective travel management program, companies need to have broader insight on factors such as business imperatives, external environment impacting corporate travel, marketability of their travel program and key areas causing concerns amongst their key stakeholders.

For business travel planners and travel management companies, there are a number of key essentials to consider:

Prioritize and identify your goals

Designate a travel manager

Collect and analyze travel data

Identify key suppliers and establish a preferred program

Increase monitoring and tracking of policy compliance

Designate a travel management company

Utilize technology to drive process efficiencies and traveler satisfaction

Create and implement a formal travel policy

Following these key factors to establish an effective travel management strategy, companies can maintain control and optimize their investments in business travel so that they can maximize savings.

The organization should create a policy that provides clear and concise information regarding how to arrange travel to best suit the company's culture and business needs. Policy success is built on six fundamental considerations known as "the six Cs":

Culture - This is influenced by management goals, the company's industry, the regions in China and across the Asia Pacific region in which the organization operates and overall economic climate.

Content - The pace of technological change and the global environment in which we live dictates the range of topics that need to be addressed. This is a constantly evolving aspect of policy.

Comprehensiveness - This addresses the level of detail that needs to be provided under each topic.

A good rule of thumb for any policy is the 20-minute rule. That is, if a traveler is to commit 20 minutes to reading a policy, he or she should be able to answer the majority of questions likely to be posed in relation to travel management.

Communication - This addresses the way in which policy is distributed. Organizations need to measure the extent of the policies distribution, how the policy is distributed, how often it is updated and the level of traveler awareness and knowledge of the travel policy. Critical here, too, is that senior management is seen to actively endorse the policy being communicated.

Control - Here we look at the enforcement principles and penalties for non-compliance. Control measures the strength and effectiveness of the specific policy language, the methods in place for monitoring compliance and enforcement strategies used in dealing with non-compliance.

Compliance - This looks at how well travelers follow policy. It is important to remember that simply having a travel policy is not enough. Policies must be regularly reviewed, clearly communicated to employees and consistently enforced. Non-compliance frequently occurs because policies are not explicitly defined.

Putting the right travel management and policies in place, companies will be able to establish travel and entertainment authority and better control their travel spending.

(China Daily 10/27/2008 page8)