Bertrand Lacotte is a board member of the French
Association of Travel Management (AFTM)
Travel budgets are changing in France, but not in ways you might expect. Bertrand Lacotte, board member and deputy to the vice-president for international at the French Association of Travel Management (AFTM), sees three major shifts: monetary budgets straining under inflationary pressure, the broader rollout of carbon budgets and, in the era of hybrid work, the introduction of mobility budgets – all of which will underscore the critical role of the travel manager.
“Due to the growing sensitivity around carbon emissions and the safety and security of travellers, the travel manager will have an increasingly important role to play,” says Lacotte.
“Travel managers may not yet have a seat at the table, but I've seen that each crisis brings the travel manager a little bit closer to the middle of the playground,” he adds.
In France, travel volumes have recovered to 70-80 per cent of 2019 levels, according to AFTM, which expects volumes will exceed pre-pandemic levels by 2025.
A recent survey of AFTM members, all of whom are travel buyers, revealed that 60 per cent plan to maintain travel spend moving forward, while 30 per cent plan to reduce travel budgets. Among the latter, one third of corporates will slash budgets by 20-30 per cent, while 20 per cent of respondents plan a 10-20 per cent reduction in travel spending.
“We need to be careful because, due to inflation, the same spend actually means less travel,” Lacotte warns, explaining that the cost of flights and hotels have typically increased by 15-20 per cent.
“I think when companies set their [travel] budgets they weren’t necessarily planning on inflation… so we could face some nasty surprises as we enter into Q3 and Q4 as companies may need to stop [travel] completely… some companies have already decided to slow down,” he says.
Lacotte also believes the “catch-up effect” of meeting with clients and colleagues after years of pandemic-induced travel restrictions will soon level off, making it even more difficult to predict longer-term recovery and spending trends.
As well as rising costs, increased pressure to meet corporate ESG goals may also spur changes to travel policy, particularly in relation to the frequency and length of business trips.
“There is a willingness to travel smarter – and maybe even travel less – by adding several stops or including a leisure component in order to make one trip as efficient as possible,” says Lacotte.
But is this willingness translating to action? Sixty per cent of AFTM members reported their company has incorporated travel and mobility into its wider ESG strategy. However, only 20 per cent reported having “clear objectives” related to sustainable business travel, while the remaining 40 per cent “don't have any specific objectives”.
For Lacotte, this could reflect the association’s regional presence and the fact that 50 per cent of members are mid-sized companies with between 250 and 5,000 employees.
“Smaller companies have fewer objectives and even less ability to tackle the topic,” Lacotte explains, adding that large corporates, which make up 42 per cent of members, are likely focused on reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions and will “progressively” move to address Scope 3 emissions, which cover business travel.
“We are still in the early stages of ESG transformation because for many companies travel is not the main contributor to carbon emissions,” he says.
One of the few ways to really make an impact, according to Lacotte, will be to introduce and enforce carbon budgets. “In the next two to three years, I think the way we measure our carbon footprint will translate into dollars or euros. And then companies will understand that they have to reduce it… unfortunately this is likely the only way we will enforce the actual reduction [of travel-related emissions].”
Another way to move the needle, says Lacotte, will be tax reform to encourage the greening of mobility. “We hear more and more people talking about scrapping the company car and instead offering employees a mobility budget,” he explains.
“So, if you need to take a train, you take a train. If you need to catch a plane, you catch a plane. If you need to meet in a hybrid format, you can. However you move to connect [and conduct business] you can do it with a mobility budget,” Lacotte adds.
“Typically in France, [companies] have some tax exemption if they provide a company car. So it's beneficial for the company – and cheaper – to provide a car as part of a benefits package, [but given the move to hybrid and remote work] we would be happy to see a specific tax system to unlock this mobility envelope for the employee; allowing them to work within the ecosystem of the company to engage with clients, colleagues or suppliers,” he says.
Such reform is “in front of the house” and Lacotte says there is “discussion around it”, but that change will be “at the speed of the administration… so it may take time”.
In the meantime, AFTM will continue to advocate for greener mobility and the business travel sector at large. The association, which is one of 13 founding members of BT4Europe, currently has 400 members and maintains a strong focus on local training and certification.
In 2014, ‘travel manager’ was included in the Operational Directory of Professions and Jobs (ROME) of France’s Pôle Emploi, a government agency, thanks to the work of the association.
Following this, in 2015, AFTM registered the Certificate of Aptitude for the Management of Professional Travel (CAGDP) with the National Commission for Professional Certification, which ensures its training programmes are certified. These are open to all travel management professionals – not just members.
“We are very proud to have been able to make travel management a recognised profession by the employment agency,” says Lacotte. “With all of the change we are witnessing [as an industry], we want to support a shift from travel management to mobility management and ensure the travel/mobility managers of tomorrow are represented.”