Business travel consultancy Festive Road has launched a new framework, conceived with input from the buyer community, that is intended to reimagine the future of work and travel and aims to assign a value to different types of travel.
The framework, which the consultancy calls the ¡°purposeful travel model¡±, is intended to support travel managers and organisations to define the 'why' of business travel and reflect this in their managed travel and meetings programme.
The new model, which is available free of charge, follows on from the consultancy¡¯s permissible travel framework, a resource which was launched in 2020 and was described as ¡°the how¡± of returning to travel. Festive Road claims that framework was accessed by more than 8,000 companies.
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Festive Road¡¯s managing partner Caroline Strachan said, ¡±Organisations are grappling with re-imagining the future of work and travel managers the future of travel. We believe the two are fundamentally linked. Getting to the ¡®why¡¯ of travel is critical to ensure returning programmes can be more strategically aligned to their organisations¡¯ future success. So, we brought together a group of buyers to help define a model and have been testing this approach across our buyer network.¡±
The model defines three major categories of travel, with numerous subcategories, and a methodology to use with their stakeholders to assess the value of the travel types. It also provides travel managers with components to consider in travel programme operations, the downstream impact on the supply chain and guidance on how to engage senior stakeholders in the process.
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¡°The traditional view of business travel is that there¡¯s external and internal, and the latter can easily be cut. But the result of our listening exercise shows it is much more nuanced than that and that travel types sit across organisation, customer and people,¡± said Paul Tilstone, Strachan¡¯s co-partner in the consultancy.
¡°We¡¯re going to see some of these travel types decline and others grow as company and traveller behaviour changes, sustainability rises up the agenda and factors like competition, culture and client needs come into play.¡±