Travel Buyers Temper Negative Attitudes
LAST YEAR’S SALARY & ATTITUDE Survey showed that an unprecedented wave of pessimism had crashed over the corporate travel industry, as negative perceptions of future professional op- portunities and earning potential blos- somed while the recession blanketed the market. This year, those perceptions have softened, and though they’re not close to pre-downturn levels, there seems to be growing confidence in the industry’s professional viability. Perhaps most notably, last year, 20 per- cent of respondents thought industry salaries would decline in the following 12 months—they would not—a figure that not only quintupled the 4 percent who thought so in 2008, but also more than doubled any such figure in the pre- vious decade. This year, it’s back down to its customary 4 percent. On the whole, 33 percent of respon- dents expect salaries to be higher by this time next year, while 63 percent project hey’ll hold flat. Those figures are very similar to those posted in the 2008 sur- vey, another indicator that last year’s pes- simism was confined to 2009. Travel vice presidents and directors— the one group in this survey whose aver- age compensation was lower than it was last year—were both more optimistic and pessimistic than their lower-level brethren, as 46 percent of them expect industry salaries to increase in the next 12 months, but 7 percent project a de- crease. Conversely, only 28 percent of non-managers—including travel coor- dinators and procurement managers— think salaries will be higher next year, as
do 31 percent of all female respondents.
Also moderating somewhat was buyers’ attitudes about the employment opportunities that are available in corporate travel management when compared
with two years prior. Though the 19 percent of respondents who said those opportunities are more abundant today are
close to the 17 percent who said so last
year, those who believe opportunities
have significantly decreased dropped
from 21 percent to 12 percent. Still, that
12 percent remains solidly higher than
the single-digit percentages in 2008 and
2007. The results were consistent across
all subcategories.
Meanwhile, respondents seem at least
2010
46%
47%
TRAVEL MANAGEMENT INDUSTRY
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES VS. 2008
2010
2009
2008
2007
Significantly increased
6%
4%
5%
5%
Somewhat increased
13%
13%
23%
27%
No change
25%
22%
39%
40%
Somewhat decreased
44%
40%
27%
24%
Significantly decreased
12%
21%
6%
3%
Salary Predictions For The Coming Year
Will increase
Will stay the same
Will decrease
2010
2009
4%
33%
63%
20% 13% 67%
2008
2007
4%
3%
35%
50%
47%
62%
BUYERS’ EXPECTATIONS IN TWO YEARS
2010 2009 2008 2007
In two years, will be in the same
position with the same employer
47%
48%
50%
35%
Will be in a more advanced travel-
related position
31%
25%
27%
29%
Will be in a largely non-travel-related
position 7%
9%
7%
11%
Have different level or type of
position with a different employer
6%
9%
9%
13%
Have the same type of position with a
different employer
6%
5%
4%
8%
Be unemployed/retired
2%
4%
4%
4%
More recognition
Less recognition
Same
2009
2008
2007
58%
57%
50%
34%
40%
42%
8%
3%
slightly more confident of their futures
in corporate travel management—or,
arguably, resigned that the current job
market affords them little opportunity
outside of their own firm. More than 85
percent of all respondents expect they
still will be employed at their current
company in two years, and about 36 percent of them anticipate that they will be
in a more advanced position. The 14 percent who expect to leave the company is
the lowest in several years. In 2007, for
example, one-quarter of all respondents
expected they would leave their company in two years.
This year, vice presidents and directors
see a higher level of mobility than their
non-managerial peers, as 18 percent predict they’ll be with a different employer
in 2012. Of the 82 percent who anticipate remaining with their current employers, only 69 percent see themselves
in the same job. Only about 11 percent
of those respondents who hold the title
of travel manager expect to find greener
pastures outside their companies, and
of the remainder fully 42 percent expect
to be in more advanced positions, perhaps even replacing those directors and
vice presidents who leave the company.
Even those projections of upward mobility don’t match those of non-managerial
buyers, however, as 49 percent of them
expect to receive a promotion between
now and 2012—more than the 43 percent who expect to be in the same spot.
Respondents, though, see the eye of
senior management on their profession
perhaps beginning to ease. The 7 percent
who said there’s less recognition of travel
management by senior executives is actually a shade lower than last year’s total,
but the 47 percent who see more such
recognition represent the lowest such
total since 2006. While this may seem
counterintuitive, given the extremely
high priority many executives placed on
travel cost control in 2008 and 2009, it’s
difficult to think there could be increased
attention this year.
Interestingly, not a single non-managerial respondent thought there is less
attention from senior management this
year. About 11 percent of travel vice
presidents and directors did, though, as
did 10 percent of those respondents who
hold the title of travel manager. ■
2006
35%
57%
