GBTA released its latest GBTA Business Travel Index™ in 2022-2026 (made possible by MasterCard), which revealed that although the global business travel industry continues its progress towards getting back to pre-pandemic spending levels of USD 1.4 trillion, recovery has hit some headwinds.
Recognizing outstanding GBTA contributors.
GBTA named its annual award winners:
Direct Member of the Year Award: Holly McTague, Senior Manager North America Travel, Halliburton
Allied Member of the Year Award: Hank Benedetti, Global Head of Corporate Sales, American Airlines
President’s Award: Jenny Sabineu, Manager of Travel Services, Salesforce
Dave Hilfman Leadership Scholarship: Colleen Kearney, Global Corporate Travel Leader,
The event featured 300 speakers, including 90 educational sessions to provide attendees with information, insights and learnings across a wide-ranging number of topics, including “Managing Travel’s Carbon Footprint,” “The Workforce Revolution,” and “Accounting for Inclusion: DEI and Cultural Fit.” This was followed by insights from the latest McKinsey research in discussion with senior travel buyers from Cisco, Bank of America, and MGM (now an Amazon company) as they shared their views on industry-specific travel recovery, changing travel needs in an increasingly hybrid environment. The latest on new technology and tools in return for travel. Raytheon Technologies.
GBTA announces election results
Association bylaws up for review were approved, and three newly elected Board members who will begin to serve immediately for a two-year term are:
Direct Seat, Director-At-Large: Barbara Rose, Americas Travel, M&E Lead, Ernst and Young
Direct Seat, Director-At-Large: Sue Spear, Travel and Fleet Manager, Cengage Learning
Allied Seat, Director-At-Large: Kevin Sullivan, Senior Director of Sales, Southwest Airlines
A new study, “The Evolution of Travel Program Technology” from GBTA and FCM revealed the latest tech trends and how technology has impacted the travel manager’s role, the traveller experience, and the TMC business. The evolution of the global business travel industry, future of work, sustainability, diversity, equity, and inclusion were prominent topics as the industry moves forward post-pandemic.
“I’m delighted that we have brought the industry together at Convention to celebrate achievements, recognize our members and volunteers and build momentum for the future of business travel. The industry came together to “(Re)connect, (Re)Imagine, and (Re)Create,” with more than 4,600 registered attendees, including 1,020 travel buyers from more than 50 countries, 550 buyer companies and 250+ exhibitors.
Sustainability keynote, Ryan Panchadsaram, Technical Advisor to the Chairman, Kleiner Perkins and co-author of Speed & Scale, discussed climate change and efforts to improve sustainability practices for the business travel industry, focusing on what’s happening today and what’s on the horizon. During GBTA Media Day, 16 industry companies announced the news and industry firsts. The GBTA Broadcast Studio and Podcast Booth hosted 70 executive interviews from some of the leading and most innovative companies in business travel and beyond.
JoeBen Bevirt, CEO of Joby Aviation, explored the rapid advances in transportation innovation and how advances in aerial ridesharing could benefit the future of business travel and clean air travel. The GBTA-CWT Global Business Travel Forecast 2023 showed global travel pricing increases are set to continue in 2022 and 2023.
The global business travel industry is back and continues to move through recovery, as evidenced by the robust attendance and levels of interest and insights at GBTA Convention 2022, held this week at the San Diego Convention Center. The new logo and tagline “Many Voices, One Purpose” represent the collective, global and diverse voices of GBTA’s members coming together to shape the industry’s future.
This was followed by a CEO panel including Bob Jordan, CEO of Southwest Airlines, Chrissy Taylor, CEO and President, Enterprise Holdings and Scott Wayne, CEO of Envoy, for a deeper discussion around changes and trends that are influencing how the travel industry supports employees and customers, and the opportunities projected for the future.
Key highlights from GBTA Convention 2022:
GBTA unveiled its new brand on the Main Stage, including a new look and logo to represent the changes and future focus of the association.
Neufang reported on the newly released key data from the GBTA Business Travel Index™ and the 2023 Pricing Forecast, along with key trends to watch. In addition to other “going greener” efforts, GBTA offset all carbon emissions from the Convention event and related staff travel for an estimated 835 metric tons. The WINiT by GBTA Summit was a standing-room-only event that engaged, inspired and challenged industry professionals of all levels with the sole mission to positively ignite the careers and lives of women in travel-related industries.
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, sat down with Gehan Colliander, Global Head of Travel, Boston Consulting Group, to discuss his leadership in transforming Uber’s financial strategy, corporate culture, and social initiatives vision for sustainability and his priorities in future innovation. Changes to macroeconomic conditions are impacting the timing, trajectory and pace of business travel’s recovery, both globally and by region, pushing the forecast for full recovery into 2026 instead of 2024 as previously forecasted.
Main Stage Sessions:
National Geographic photographer, Dewitt Jones, shared his vision of “celebrating what’s right with the world,” inspiring the audience with his photos and words to be open to possibilities and reframing problems into opportunities. Fueled by a return to business travel, the event attracted significant numbers of first-ever attendees and new companies attending the convention.
Cynthia Marshall, CEO, Dallas Mavericks, took to the stage for an engaging session – “Leading with Heart” – about her life and role as Senior Vice President of HR and Chief Diversity Officer at AT&T, her move to the Mavericks, her strategy for values-based leadership, and why putting people first matters the most. Rising fuel prices, labour shortages, and inflationary pressures in raw material costs are the primary drivers of the expected price growth, according to the report, which uses anonymized data generated by CWT and GBTA, with publicly available industry information, and econometric and statistical modelling.
GBTA hosted its first-ever Sustainability Pavilion, presented engaging Green Talks on key sustainability topics, and featured sustainability experts in the Green Village exhibition space. Our industry is back after a few challenging years, and the value of the networking, collaboration and learnings gained from being together in person cannot be underestimated,” said Suzanne Neufang, CEO of GBTA.
A dozen chief sustainability officers from the industry’s largest supplier companies were among those educating, debating and networking. “And there’s more to look forward to with our other GBTA events coming up around the globe, including in Mexico City in October, Brussels in November and Bangkok in December.” The Future of Work session started with keynote speaker and workforce strategist Seth Mattison exploring the war for talent and the importance of attracting, developing, and retaining talent.
There’s still an opportunity to access the best GBTA Convention 2022 on-demand. Non-attendees can sign up for GBTA Convention Plus for on-demand viewing of the five Main Stage sessions, five Collaboratory Spotlights, and 15 education sessions. GBTA members can download the 2022 GBTA BTI* on the GBTA members-only hub.
Written by: Matthew Thomas
