GTMC United Kingdom

‘BUSINESS TRAVEL MANAGEMENT’
It is now 37 years since six business travel agents, feeling themselves insufficiently represented by their existing national association, founded the Guild of Business Travel Agents. In that time, the GTMC (former GBTA) has changed beyond all recognition, extending its functions way beyond mere representation into active crusading on behalf of the business traveller community as a whole, at the same time creating the new profession of 'business travel management'.
Business travel management is now recognised as a career in its own right, with a professional qualification created by the GTMC - the 'Certificate in Business Travel' (CBT) - now guiding the next generation towards future leadership roles in the industry. With the Guild's membership now including all the leading multiples who handle business travel, most of the medium sized independent agencies and a number of smaller specialists, it is inevitable that this is where the industry's standards and trends are set.

'THE BUSINESS TRAVELLERS' CHAMPION'
It is the broad spread of agency membership that enables the GTMC collectively to dominate the business travel market, with some 80% of the share of agents' business air travel bookings. The combined turnover of the Guild totalled £6.9 billion in 2000. This marketplace dominance is one of the reasons why the GTMC has the 'muscle' to tackle key issues on behalf of the business traveller. The other vital factor is the sheer experience of the Guild leadership and its Secretariat, enabling it to speak with knowledge and authority across the whole spectrum of travel topics. And it is the statesmanlike manner in which it has tackled controversies and disputes that has won it wide respect from Government, European and regulatory authorities, so much so that it is now routinely consulted by them.

'BUYING POWER'
Like all other cost items, business travel comes under tight scrutiny and the GTMC has taken positive steps to ensure that its members cannot be undersold in the provision of quality travel and accommodation for corporate travellers. Its own low fares unit, 'Guildfare', accessible only to Guild
member agencies, provides some of the lowest fares available on leading airlines; the GTMC Hotel Guide offers special rates at an extensive range of hotels worldwide; whilst exceptional value-for-money prices are offered through Guild agencies by car rental partner Avis.

'THE LEADING EDGE OF TECHNOLOGY'
Technology has played a major role in increasing the cost-efficiency of business travel management, and the GTMC has kept pace with this by combining the expertise within its membership into an active and farsighted Technology Working Party. Hence Guild agencies are kept up-to-the minute with the rapid application of technology, as ATB's succeed air tickets, as ticketless travel becomes a reality, and as the Internet develops into a usable tool for business travel management. Given the massive complexity of travel routings and prices, plus the increasing congestion on the world's trunk routes, technology in the expert hands of professional business travel agents is clearly the only effective way of achieving cost-effective travel planning in the modern age.

'TRAINED AND QUALIFIED'
A number of years ago, the GTMC recognised that recruiting and developing business travel agency staff could not be left to chance; that, like other job functions requiring specialist skills, business travel needed clearly defined standards of expertise at each level of the task, plus training courses to
achieve these. Thus was conceived the CBT as the foundation of what has now become a four-level
qualification - Introductory, Consultant, Supervisory and Management - for business travel agency operatives. Eventually it is hoped that an 'MBA in Business Travel' will complete the range, ensuring a place for 'business travel management' amongst the professions.

'A CATALYST FOR CHANGE'
In its intermediary role between the users of business travel and the providers of the travel/accommodation products, the Guild of Travel Management Companies is often able to bring about changes which will benefit customer and producer alike. For example it has long been apparent that there is a need for more uniform standards in relation to hotel bookings. It was natural for each hotel group to develop its own procedures and documentation but these differences do not sit comfortably with the advent of reservations via the computerised Global Distribution Systems. The GTMC has played a leading role, in concert with its own specific hotel partners and the world-wide hotel industry as a whole, in developing consistent hotel booking procedures and standards and hence the increased efficiency of automated reservations.

'PAN-EUROPEAN GUILD'
As the European Union in Brussels began to exert increasing influence, the Guild of Travel Management Companies recognised that international influence would soon become essential if its voice was to be heeded. Accordingly, the British Guild initiated a long and patient process of encouragement and
persuasion resulting in the gradual creation of Guilds in other European countries, firstly Ireland and France, then Spain, Denmark, Italy, Holland, Belgium. Portugal Germany, Switzerland and more recently Romania. The Guild of European Business Travel Agents (GEBTA) acts through its lobbyists in Brussels to
tackle vital pan-European issues which affect the well-being of the business traveller.

'SEAL OF QUALITY'
The Guild of Travel Management Companies is far more than a mere association fighting for its own interests. It has become the industry's seal of quality, a guarantee of high standards whenever a Guild member agency is used. Indeed, it has become a force in its own right and a relentless champion of the cause of the business traveller.