The Business of Travel

Last year, GBTA released our flagship report—the Business Travel Index or BTI—in partnership with HRS. The BTI estimates business travel spend around the world and forecasts spending five years into the future. With a new BTI set for release at the GBTA Convention in August 2022, and a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) world that brought some more unforeseeable events that happened since, we wanted to reflect back on last year's release and examine where the industry stands today and discuss some of the key trends and issues that will likely drive the updated forecast. Join Tatila Downing, Vice President of Pay & Stay for HRS and Chris Ely, research director for GBTA for an insightful podcast discussion on business travel spend, sustainability, pricing, staffing, and recovery in North America and around the globe. Hear more about the new paradigm in corporate travel in terms of how we work today and how we pay. In addition, learn how data and metrics can be used to help travelers and procurement departments make better decisions.

A trio of leaders from Direct Travel – Brian Robertson, President; Darryl Hoover, Chief Technology Officer; and Donna Brokowski, Executive Vice President, Global Supplier Management and Consulting step into GBTA's virtual podcast booth for a chat with Debbie Iannaci, head of Communications and Research for GBTA. They share their expert insights and outlooks on innovation across topics from customer engagement and experience improvements, to ESG and sustainability in business travel, to how corporate travel and policies are recovering and adapting from COVID-19.

Last year, GBTA released our flagship report—the Business Travel Index or BTI—in partnership with HRS. The BTI estimates business travel spend around the world and forecasts spending five years into the future. With a new BTI set for release at the GBTA Convention in August 2022, and a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) world that brought some more unforeseeable events that happened since, we wanted to reflect back on last year's release and examine where the industry stands today and discuss some of the key trends and issues that will likely drive the updated forecast. Join Jason Long, SVP Global Business Development for HRS and Chris Ely, research director for GBTA for an insightful podcast discussion on business travel spend, sustainability, pricing, staffing, and recovery in Europe and around the globe.

In July 2021, The EU Commission introduced ETS (Emission Trading Scheme) as part of the Fit for 55 Package, to reduce and manage EU emissions. This podcast gives a simple explanation of ETS, why it is important for the business travel sector and what GBTA is doing to ensure the industry is represented. Catherine Logan, Region VP EMEA – GBTA is joined by Monika Patriarchea of Grayling, GBTA's public affairs agency.

Last year, GBTA released our flagship report—the Business Travel Index or BTI—in partnership with HRS. The BTI estimates business travel spend around the world and forecasts spending five years into the future. With a new BTI set for release at the GBTA Convention in August 2022, and a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) world that brought some more unforeseeable events that happened since, we wanted to reflect back on last year's release and examine where the industry stands today and discuss some of the key trends and issues that will likely drive the updated forecast. Join Aline Bueno, managing director – Latin America for HRS and Chris Ely, research director for GBTA for an insightful podcast discussion on business travel spend in Latin America.

As the business travel industry continues to recover, business travel itself is changing. What types of trips are travelers taking and are there different processes for booking and payment? Hear from Darin Peterson, sales manager for Roomex, and Chris Ely, research director at GBTA discuss some key findings from a recent poll GBTA conducted in partnership with Roomex. Some key topics include: Project-based business travel: How typical/frequent is project-based travel at companies? ​ Travel frequency: How frequent to employees travel for work? How do they travel? How is travel booked and what are the pain points for travel managers? ​ Payments: How are payments made by business travelers while on the road? How satisfied are travel managers with the booking and payment process?

On episode 3 of this 4-part series we learn how travel can turn to Gold. Hosts Amy Thiessen and Greg Bell chat with 3-time Gold-medal winning coach of the US Women's Water Polo team, Adam Krikorian. Adam has a nearly perfect record with the team, and we learn that travel, particularly transformational travel, has been a key ingredient to his success - especially a team retreat to Colorado with 7-days of silence! Adam Krikorian has been coaching the Senior National US Women's Water Polo Team since 2009 and has been just about perfect. Team USA has competed in 23 major FINA Championships since his arrival and has come away with Gold in 20 of them. This includes the last 3 Olympic Games, the last 4 FINA World Championships, the 2010, 2014, and 2018 FINA World Cups, and 10 FINA World League Super Final crowns. As Head coach at UCLA, Krikorian earned National Women's Water Polo Coach of the Year honors five times. He also received National Men's Coach of the Year honors in 2004 after leading the UCLA men's program to its eighth overall NCAA championship. He guided the women's team to eight national championships, including a string of five consecutive titles. GBTA's Sports, Media & Entertainment committee (SME) currently has 20 committee members from high-level positions within the travel community. Our buyers represent many of the leading sports, media and companies in the world, from professional sports teams and leagues, players associations, movie studios, film production companies, music labels, and so on. On the supplier side we also have top reps from the major travel companies from the airlines, lodging, ground transportation. The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) is the world's largest professional association representing the $1.4 trillion business travel industry. Our global membership includes 9,000-plus business travel professionals from every continent. Collectively, our members directly control more than $345 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually, and also represent every facet of the global travel industry marketplace. The goal of the SME podcast is to leave you with up to date insights and relevant, actionable guidance.

As travel restrictions start to open up there are now different disruptions the travel industry is facing. This podcast explores the issues the industry encountered during the pandemic and the new challenges with releasing restrictions and travelers who are now on the move. We welcome Ben Barrocas (IATA - Country Manager – USA & Canada) and Janik Reigate (GTAA-Director Strategic Customer Relationships) to the podcast to share their experiences, challenges and future opportunities. Their insights help to understand these post-pandemic times and how all of these lessons learned will fuel future improvements in the travel industry.

Joanna Baskin, Corporate Business Travel and Consortia Director at Posadas Group / Fiesta Americana Hotels & Resorts joined us at the GBTA Conference 2022 – Toronto Podcast Booth to discuss current COVID protocols and their sustainability policies with Debbie Iannaci, head of Global Communications, PR and Research at GBTA.