The Business Travel Association plans to become “extremely proactive” in promoting the value of the corporate travel sector and trying to “influence” the policies of the new UK government.
BTA chair Suzanne Horner, who is also CEO of Gray Dawes Group, said it was vital that the business travel industry worked together, as it did during the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We should never forget the power of the industry when we pull together,” said Horner during the Business Travel Association (BTA) overseas conference in Gibraltar on Monday (30 September).
“We want to grow awareness across government of the role that business travel plays in developing economic growth, particularly with the new UK government.”
She added that the BTA also wanted to “influence policy” to improve the business travel experience, while also emphasising the sector’s sustainability efforts, which are based around the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development ESG goals.
Horner said that TMCs had “all recovered and recovered well” since the pandemic. She added that there is now more interest from potential investors in the corporate travel sector.
“There’s huge interest in the corporate [travel] industry and we should all take confidence from that,” said Horner.
Clive Wratten, CEO of the BTA, said the association planned to concentrate on investing in events and lobbying in the coming year.
“We are reinvesting in growing our sector and talking about our sector,” added Wratten. “We want to keep the energy in the sector and keep the momentum moving forwards.”
Wratten identified the transformation of the UK rail sector as one of the current “big issues” for the BTA.
He also revealed that the BTA’s TMC members had collectively achieved £15 billion in TTV (total transaction value) during 2023, which put it ahead of pre-Covid levels.