BCD Travel recommends: London

Stately and quirky by turns

Vast, vibrant and truly multicultural, London is one of the world’s great cities. It is also an eminently walkable city – when it’s not raining and you’re wearing decent shoes. As you wander through its streets, you’ll realize that, in a city hailed for its ability to embrace modernity and change, the past is never far away: there are four UNESCO World Heritage sites in London (the Palace of Westminster, the Tower of London, Maritime Greenwich and Kew Gardens) and some 40,000 listed buildings and structures.

If walking’s not your thing, and you’re in London regularly, it’s well worth acquiring an Oyster card (a prepaid, refillable Underground card that automatically deducts your fare each time you swipe it at a turnstile); you’ll save not only time, but single fares are up to 35 percent cheaper). Credits don’t expire and cards can be purchased at most Tube station ticket offices.

Don’t miss: Checking out funky boutiques and funkier galleries in Spitalfields Having a pint in a neighborhood pub Strolling through history along the Thames Taking advantage of London’s stellar restaurant scene, from high-end to low-brow

In for a penny, in for a pound
Even with a weakening pound and a global economic slowdown, London is still über-expensive. But even so, browsing the city’s stores and boutiques is pure pleasure. Notting Hill is boasts a ridiculous per-capita quotient of celebrities (current residents include Bjork, Robbie Williams and Claudia Schiffer), and main thoroughfares Ladbroke Grove and Westbourne Grove are a shoppers’

paradise, particularly if your idea of heaven runs to charming and dizzily-priced boutiques. Thrifty visitors also flock to the antiques and flea market on the Portobello Road on Friday and Saturday.

In the heart of London’s East End, Spitalfields is home to thousands of immigrants and is where Jack the Ripper saw off many of his victims. Recently revived and revitalized, this trendy destination on the fringe of London’s financial district has more artists per square kilometer than anywhere else in Europe. Spitalfields is full of cool clubs, restaurants, bars, galleries, shops and markets selling new and vintage clothing, accessories, antiques, jewelry, cosmetics, home furnishings and gifts.

A South Bank stroll

Wandering along the South Bank of the Thames is a lovely way to spend a free day. Starting at London Bridge and heading west, duck first into Borough Market. The largest open-air farmers’ market in London, in impressive 19th-century digs next to Southwark Cathedral, Borough boasts all manner of delicacies, from artisanal ciders and free-range bacon and sausages to sparkling produce, honey and fresh-baked breads. Those with a nose for cheese can taste an extraordinary variety of British farmhouse cheeses at Neal’s Yard Dairy.

Continue on to two bastions of British culture: the Tate Modern museum and the Globe Theatre. Opened in 2000, the Tate Modern is regarded as a model of urban regeneration, with a disused Bankside power station transformed into an avant-garde space dedicated to 20th-century art.

The Globe, a brilliantly realized reconstruction of the theater built by William Shakespeare’s company in 1599, stages open-air productions of Shakespeare and his contemporaries from May to September.

The pub’s the thing

No visit to London would be complete without a pint or two of real ale. It’s hard to go more than a hundred meters without stumbling across a pub, but two neighborhood favorites include Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese (145 Fleet Street, Blackfriars tube) and the Charles Lamb (16 Elia Street, Angel tube). The first is haven of old dark wood, open fires and flagstones that’s been around since just after the Great Fire of 1666; the second is tucked into a quiet street in Islington, a newly popular residential area just north of the financial district. Don’t be surprised if pub dog Masha arrives at your table asking for a chin scratch.

Several ways to see the city

If your days are packed with meetings and conference calls, try an evening tour. London by Night offers nightly tours of the city starting at Victoria Rail Station and taking in Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square and St Paul’s Cathedral. Open-top buses are used, weather permitting. See london-by-night.net for a list of pick-up points.

If you’re a photo buff and have brought along your camera, London Photo Tours offers weekly walks focusing on views of Westminster Bridges, the London Eye and St Paul’s Cathedral. The tour goes at a slow pace to allow time to compose well-considered photos. londonphototours.co.uk.

Fancy a bit of grub?

English gastronomy is enjoying an extraordinary renaissance, fuelled on the one hand by a renewed interest in seasonal, local ingredients and by an influx of exciting culinary influences from abroad. You’ll be hard-pressed, for example, to find better Indian restaurants outside of Delhi and Mumbai (but stay away from the tourist traps on Brick Lane!). For many Brits, in fact, a good curry is a national staple! Classic English specialties include the “full English breakfast” or “fry-up” (with sausages, bacon, eggs, fried bread, baked beans and grilled tomatoes and mushrooms); smoked fish (from salmon to kippers); pies and Cornish pasties; and fish and chips. High tea, complete with scones and clotted cream, can still be enjoyed at many of London’s top hotels; the Dorchester is a classic afternoon destination.

Check out BCD Travel for more corporate travel tips.

The Global Recession Diet

Cutting travel program fat without compromising strategic objectives

The global economic downturn is hitting business travel where it hurts: According to a new survey by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), more than 70 percent of U.S. travel managers plan to spend less on corporate travel in 2009. The results represent a sharp shift from an earlier ACTE poll (Sept. 2008), which found that only 33 percent of U.S. travel managers were planning on cutting travel spend in the year to come.

While the ACTE survey may have focused on the U.S., the challenges faced by travel buyers and corporate travel managers cut across all sectors of the globe. From reducing travel to tightening travel policy, and from renegotiating with suppliers to adjusting travel behavior, travel program stakeholders are intent on cutting trips and curbing expenses.

The silver lining to the financial storm clouds, says Kathy Jackson, executive vice president

Story highlights: Travel buyers and managers now able to make changes that were impossible in the past New role for account managers in understanding and supporting client business drivers Changes to travel policy, approval process, traveler behavior are leading savings mechanisms for cost-conscious companies Demand management and online technologies are key supports

for Global Client Management at BCD Travel, is that the economy is enabling travel buyers and their respective teams to make changes that, quite frankly, have never been achievable in the past.

The challenge, adds Jackson, is to save on travel spend without compromising on business objectives: “As hard as it may be to foresee, the recession will not last forever. Companies will need to emerge from the downturn with plans for growth and solid business relationships in place– and travel is a crucial element in supporting growth and retention initiatives.”

Teri Miller, senior vice president for Global Client Management in the Americas for BCD Travel, sees a major opportunity for travel management company account managers in the current situation: “Account managers need a deep understanding of the customer’s business drivers to enable them to anticipate and add value, rather than react. As an example, if a client is closing manufacturing plants in three countries, our account manager will explain how travel patterns will shift as a result, illustrate what effect that may have on supplier contracts and provide a plan for optimizing potential impact.”

What steps are BCD Corporate Travel clients taking to combat the recession?

Companies need to look beyond the big-ticket items, says Jackson, and filter adjustments through every component of a trip. “It may be tempting to focus exclusively on air ticket costs, but for some programs, air may make up only as much as 20 percent of total T&E expenditure. Our account managers, often with the support of a consultative engagement from Advito [the independent consulting branch of BCD Travel], help clients focus on the total cost of trip, including hotel, ground transportation and even restaurant costs.”

A list of some of the decisions in which BCD Travel is supporting its clients’ recession-management travel strategies is below.

The choices and decisions being made represent a major opportunity for companies to make lasting beneficial changes to their travel programs, says Jackson: “As with any diet, success is incumbent on making change a way of life, not a 30-day wonder regime.”

Changes in travel policy

Growing corporate cost-consciousness is manifesting itself most prominently in the refinement and enactment of more stringent travel policies. Among the common cost-cutting elements BCD Travel is seeing: shifting from business class to coach class (variations include mandating coach class for all travelers regardless of hierarchical level and increasing the business-class flight-time threshold); down-tiering hotels (i.e., three-star instead of four-star); mandating the use of public transport rather than taxis; and retaining frequent flyer miles for business travel rather than personal travel.

BCD Travel is also seeing an increase in the use of rail and low-cost carriers within EMEA, says Felix Vezjak, senior vice president for Global Client Management in EMEA: “Companies are much more likely to accept what were formerly seen as inconveniences (i.e., secondary airports) in exchange for savings. However, particularly in the case of low-cost carriers, companies need to ensure that their travelers always use the preferred booking channels (online booking tool and agency) of choice to ensure adequate reporting and security tracking.”

For further suggestions on refining and enforcing travel policy, see our Feb. 2009 article “Reliance on compliance.”

Changes to travel approval process

Whether it’s instituting an official approval process where one might not have existed or – as is more common – making existing processes more restrictive, this cost-cutting method is winning wide-spread support among BCD Corporate Travel clients as an easy “quick win.”

As part of a concerted travel-cost reduction effort, one of BCD Travel’s global clients, which has over US$450 million in annual travel spend and more than 325,000 employees worldwide, changed its travel approval process radically to incorporate the following:

No travel unless approved by a vice president on a single trip basis (<150>

No last-minute travel (under seven days’ advance purchase) unless approved by an executive vice president (<15>

Demand management (travel reduction or travel freeze)

More and more companies today view demand management as one of the biggest opportunities they have to control or reduce costs without compromising their overall business goals and requirements.

Among the possible steps companies can take to reduce travel demand:

Eliminate all non-client-related travel

Freeze attendance at industry conventions and conferences

One BCD Travel client refers to internal meetings as the “mother of all travel,” and has implemented the following methods to reduce the travel they generate:

Prioritize video/web-conferencing for internal meetings

Reduce number of meeting participants (all participants must be on agenda)

Require meetings to be planned around travel, rather than vice versa

Eliminate hotel nights before and after the meetings

Choose meeting venues based on total cost, including travel and employee time spend

Travel management company as educational and staffing resource

BCD Travel has played an important role for several major clients in helping educate travelers and travel arrangers on a range of subjects in order to improve their ability to support the companies’ savings initiatives. For some clients, BCD Travel account management has provided workshop sessions for travel bookers; for others, the company has created “Tips and Tricks” documents for cost-savvy travel that clients have made available to all travelers.

Some clients have also had to face internal downsizing, resulting in the loss of key travel personnel. In one recent case, following the departure of the travel manager, BCD Travel has been able to dedicate a resource to that role. The account manager has also supported the client by conducting analyses to forecast further headcount reduction ahead of online adoption drive. This headcount reduction has been written into the budget for 2009.

Increased use of online booking tools

In order to save on transaction costs and streamline processes, companies are increasingly mandating that all domestic or point-to-point travel be booked online. Online tools can also play an important role in supporting changes to the travel policy and to traveler behavior, says Miller: “Companies can modify booking tools to ask travelers about the necessity of a trip or offer alternatives to the journey before proceeding to booking.”

Program consolidation

Finally, says Jackson, the economic downturn may present a significant “carrot” for companies that had been looking into consolidating their travel services regionally or globally: “Consolidation of multiple country services into a multinational service center, for example, can represent considerable savings in resource and process costs. However, companies must be sure that their organization is prepared to fully support consolidation in order to fully achieve the benefits. That means asking questions like, ‘Do we have a consistent travel policy in place that spans the markets involved? Are there language constraints that would be met by the service center?’”

Big & Small companies benefit from corporate travel management

Leading corporate travel agent, BCD Travel, says corporate travel management is appropriate for all business types and sizes that have a reasonably significant business travel spend.

Corporate travel management is an effective way of reducing and monitoring corporate travel costs, implementing internal corporate travel policies and enabling fast online bookings.

Among BCD Travel’s extensive client base are small businesses such as a prominent Sydney restaurant and large businesses such as several global multi-nationals.

BCD Travel tailors its corporate travel management services to suit each individual client, meaning small businesses can enjoy the benefits of business travel management in a cost-effective way.

Keeping you safe whilst you're flying

Corporate travellers are familiar with safety procedures on flights and know that the odds of them being involved in a crash or mid-air incident are low.

Aviation engineering is highly sophisticated these days but no matter how high-tech a plane gets, there’s not a lot that can be done when a huge flock of large birds flies into the path of a commercial jet, like the one that was forced to land in the Hudson River in New York on January 15 when both of its engines were knocked out due to bird strike.

Although the US Airways jetliner’s two CFM engines were built to withstand sucking in five 1.5-pound birds or a single 4-pound bird, it couldn’t withstand the impact of the large flock of birds, which are now thought to be Canada geese, that flew directly into its path.

The pilot, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who has been hailed a hero for safely landing the plane carrying 155 people with no loss of life, said his “windscreen was suddenly filled with birds” shortly after take-off from LaGuardia International Airport.

Birds have always been a threat to aircraft and in the US, federal aviation laws require airports to have programs to prevent collisions between birds and planes. Airports use hawks, snarling dogs, fireworks, shotguns and water cannons to keep the birds away. They also keep the grass short to make it less attractive to birds, but there is only so much they can do once a plane is in the air.

Some examples of individual airports’ techniques to scare away birds include:

• Florida’s Fort Myers airport has a border collie that roams its site and the Orlando airport strains fish out of its storm water run-off pools to eliminate any food source for birds
• Washington’s Sea-Tac Airport has a pond filled with black floating balls to discourage birds
• The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey uses guns, pyrotechnics and hunting hawks to kill and chase away birds in the marshes and tidal flats around its two major airports in Queens

The deadliest bird collision event occurred in Boston in 1960, when a flock of starlings caused an Eastern Airlines plane to crash into Boston Harbour, killing 62 people. This event prompted the beginnings of America’s collision-avoidance programs and aviation engine upgrades to withstand bird strikes.

Effective ways to reduce corporate travel costs

Leading corporate travel management company, BCD Travel, offers the following ideas for effectively reducing corporate travel expenses:

• Insist on second approvals or senior-level approvals for all corporate travel
• Eliminate first/business class on domestic flights for all corporate travellers, including senior managers
• Allow business class corporate travel only on international trips with 10-hour or longer segments
• Mandate that all domestic or point-to-point business travel be booked online through a corporate travel online booking engine
• Require staff to plan meetings around travel, rather than travel around meetings
• Avoid high rate hotel stays by avoiding corporate travel when major events are occurring at your destination. Post a calendar of major events in top cities on your corporate travel online booking engine
• Limit corporate travel to trips involving face-to-face client meetings and sales-related trips
• Ban full-service or high-rate hotel properties to lower your accommodation spend

Australian businesses seek help with corporate travel

In 2009, leading corporate travel management company (TMC), BCD Travel, is expecting to receive more enquiries from new business travel clients who are now realising the value in attaining professional business travel management for their companies.

The larger the company, the greater the benefit in professional corporate travel management services, especially for those companies with scores of offices nationwide and hundreds of employees.

The benefit of using a customised online booking system and being able to track which staff members are booking business travel is an invaluable first step in helping a company reduce its corporate travel outlay, according to BCD Travel Manager, Stephen Finlay.

Following this, there are a host of other long-term benefits that significantly outweigh the cost of outsourcing corporate travel management:
• Your company will have stronger controls on the business travel purchasing process
• Tailored technology tools such as BCD Travel’s business travel booking system means your company can customise its profile on the booking system and enforce restrictions
• Full reporting is available to managers so that staff bookings can be tracked
• Greater efficiency and ease when booking corporate travel and accommodation online
• BCD Travel is able to locate its corporate travel clients anywhere in the world at any time to provide immediate assistance in the event of a terrorist attack or similar crisis
• Spend tracking means business travel clients can negotiate better deals for themselves with their preferred suppliers, such as hotels, due to their documented corporate travel expenditure.

Corporate travel profile - Cherie Drummond, Operations manager

Originally from South Africa, Cherie has worked in the corporate travel industry for 10 years and has held several senior positions with renowned international business travel network, BCD Travel.

While based in BCD Travel’s South Africa office, Cherie worked with other BCD business travel staff in other African countries as well as those in the UK and US, and has travelled extensively in her job.

“Being part of a global travel management company offers a lot of opportunities,” Cherie says.

“It allows you to experience the many ways in which a corporate travel management company has to deal with local issues, as each country has their own set of restrictions and parameters.”

Now an Australian resident, Cherie began work at BCD Travel’s Sydney office as the NSW Operations Manager in late 2008. Her role is to ensure that operational standards are maintained. BCD Travel has three Australian offices – Sydney Business Travel, Brisbane Business Travel and Melbourne Business Travel.

Cherie has a personal passion for travelling and has seen many corners of the globe, including the Americas, Europe and Asia. At one point, she spent a whole year travelling throughout Australia.

“I love travelling and exploring different cultures. There are many places I have fallen in love with – my favourite place to chill out is Mauritius, my favourite place for food is Italy. I love New York for the shopping and my favourite city in the world is Venice. I am also an avid F1 racing fan, so I’m on a mission to see as many F1 races around the globe as possible!”

Cherie’s personal travel experience combined with a Bachelor of Communications (Marketing) and completion of an Australian Specialist Program run by Tourism Australia makes her amply qualified to work in corporate travel.

A strong team player with a business travel customer service focus, Cherie has a bright and outgoing personality while being extremely committed to her corporate travel work. In addition to travelling, Cherie enjoys cooking, cycling and making beaded jewellery.