Travel buyers taking on planning functions
Travel buyer duties increasingly are taking on roles outside the usual with almost half of travel buyers also planning meetings, according to a new National Business Travel Association Foundation (NBTA) survey.
The survey also found that 23 percent were handling employee relocation services and another 20 percent were handling emergency evacuation procedures.
“Even with an expansion of job responsibilities in the past year, however, average travel buyer compensation packages have taken a hit as some companies reacting to the receding economy froze salaries, issued pay cuts and restricted benefits,” according to the survey, the 2009 Travel Management Compensation and Benefits Survey.
A significant number of travel buyers found themselves doing more with less in 2009 as they added responsibilities outside of travel, and also lost staff within their own departments.
According to the NBTA survey, 22 percent of respondents said their departments had been downsized in the last 10 months. Just under half of respondents said their departments have not been affected by job cuts.
At least 90 percent of respondents said they managed such core strategic travel management functions as negotiating, administering policy and program strategy planning.
By David Wilkening
David
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