Corporate self-booking levels ‘double’
Double the level of business travel is being self-booked by European company employees this year over 2003.
Figures from web-based corporate travel booking tool GetThere show that staff booked 105 per cent more travel through the system in the first three months of 2004 than the first quarter last year.
Online travel bookings by European companies rose by 204% in the first quarter of 2003 over the same period the previous year, while quarters two, three and four showed similar growth, according to Sabre-owned GetThere. The system is used by more than 500 organisations in Europe.
Sabre’s EMEA corporate vice president Floyd Widener said: “One company in particular has reported that more than half of all its travel each month is being booked on our system.”
Much of the growth is being driven by companies adopting compulsory use of an online booking system, GetThere says.
The system claims to achieve 15% average savings on ticket prices and 50% on travel management fees, reducing the cost of an average European business trip by up to £80.
Despite its ownership by Sabre, GetThere claims 53% of its 2.25 million worldwide bookings in the last quarter of 2003 were processed by other GDSs. In Europe, 73% of GetThere bookings came through Sabre, 14% through Amadeus and 13% through Galileo in the same period.
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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