What's the real cost of your travel?
It’s Euro 2020 year, and for 24 football teams across Europe that means a collective 36 matches across 12 destinations. Not to mention the additional games both home and away for those that make it through to knock-out round and finals.
In travel terms, that means secure air and ground transport for approximately 40 people per team, at least 14 hotel nights in minimum 3* accommodation and F&B allowances for the duration of the trips. This excludes the wider travelling party of families, sponsors and executives.
After a quick calculation, it’s not surprising that the sport travel industry is worth USD$600 billion globally1.
With travel playing such a significant role for athletes and their spectators, managers need to consider the impacts this may have on their bottom line. Furthermore, they need to understand that spend alone isn’t the only cost of team travel. The time it takes to source the best rates, the energy required to negotiate with suppliers and the stress of managing complex itineraries all come at a cost.
Whether you’re self-managing your travel or partnered with a Travel Management Company (TMC) that’s not hitting the mark, the real cost of inefficient travel management could be more than you think.
Cost: Mismanaged time
Years of industry knowledge tells us that most “travel bookers” are usually employed for other administrative tasks, most commonly within the roles of the roles of Club Secretary or Operational Assistant. If this is relevant to your organisation, the time they spend on searching, comparing and booking travel could result in a large cost to their efficiency.
Introducing a TMC and an online booking tool such as CTM’s Lightning could reduce your employee’s booking time from over half an hour to under three minutes. That’s a 90% increase in productivity.
For one CTM client, this saved their PAs over 3,000 hours annually. How much time could your bookers save?
Cost: Lost Supplier Value
How can you be sure you are getting the best value with flights, hotels and ground transport? Booking on consumer websites or direct may mean your organisation is not receiving the best rates and add-ons.
Working with a TMC, such as CTM, allows you to take advantage of their global buying power as well as specially negotiated rates and add-ons that are unavailable to the general public.
For teams with multiple travelling parties, that could mean hundreds of pounds saved on breakfast food alone.
Cost: Non-compliant Duty of Care
How seriously do you and your travellers take duty of care while on the road? The Travel Risk Outlook for 2020 lists ‘High profile Duty of Care legal cases’ as one of the top risks expected to increase this year, and sport travel is one industry with plenty of high-profile travellers.
Dealing with VIPs or large supporter groups requires expertise in organising discreet transport methods and managing high volumes of traffic. While negotiating rates with key suppliers can keep costs low, implementing a strict travel policy is essential in ensuring safety remains a priority throughout the entire travel process.
This may include, vetting accommodation suppliers for safe locations, tracking traveller movements in real-time or planning itineraries to ensure there’s enough downtime to rest and recover pre- and post-game.
The cost of not taking these measures could result in poor-performance from travellers, million-pound legal battles, bad PR or worst case, serious harm or injury.
The answers, or lack thereof, to these three considerations, may indicate the perfect time to engage with a TMC for one or a multiple of reasons.
Now you know the costs associated with ineffective travel management, how does this compare to the cost of implementing a TMC? Contact Sport Travel Management by CTM to find out more about our cost-effective travel management solutions.
For a competitive travel solution that puts your team on top, contact our expert team today.