Global Travel Managers: Dinosaurs Heading for Extinction

From Gadgetopia via the The International Herald Tribune: “Travel managers feel threat of extinction: Much like the Internet is slowly killing off the travel agent, it’s apparently going to do the same for the corporate travel manager.

“Two years ago, Akamai dumped the agency for an online travel management company, Expedia Corporate Travel, to set up a Web site. ‘It’s faster, cleaner and easier to use,’ he said. ‘I’ve only had to call an agent twice since it’s been up.'”

When I worked in an international ad agency in Dallas during the mid-1980s, they were booking tens of millions of dollars a year in revenue through American Airlines account. The creative and production teams were flying off to all corners of the globe every few weeks to film TV commercials in Europe, South America, the Caribbean and Asia.

The agency so desperatedly wanted to impress that account and others that they built a flashy, neon and chrome travel agency within the offices. We called it “The Travel Disco” and the secretary-turned-travel-agent booked our flights and hotels. She lost her job a few years later when everyone could do the same thing through the airlines directly or through computers.

Read the whole story: “International Travel Managers Feel Threat of Extinction.”

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