Odete Pimenta da Silva is
managing director of the Netherlands Association for
Travel Management (NATM)
More rail capacity and a smoother airport experience are on Odete Pimenta da Silva’s wishlist for business travellers in 2023, while topping the agenda at NATM is a new long-term strategy for the business travel association.
And while business travel in the Netherlands continues to recover – in spite of the challenges Pimenta da Silva goes on to dissect – she prefers not to predict travel volumes for the year ahead.
“What business travel will look like in 2023 depends on who you talk to,” says Pimenta da Silva. “It’s too hard to say right now. There is some pent-up demand and people are catching up. You can’t really compare to the last three years. Businesses are obsessed with 2019 but we need to move on. If you’re an entrepreneur, a start-up or a fast-growing business, you don’t know what to expect each year or you’re starting from zero anyway.”
She notes that talk of a recession “is not the first thing you see when you open a newspaper” in the Netherlands but that rising costs remain a concern for companies, travel buyers and the general public alike. “Costs have been going up but the likes of increasing energy rates are out of our hands and I think companies accept that,” she says.
Challenges impacting travel management across many European nations last year were witnessed in the Netherlands too – principally rising rates, poor service levels and capacity shortages.
The last of these was perhaps more acute in the Netherlands than in many other countries. Capacity caps on passenger numbers were implemented at several major European hubs last summer – including Frankfurt and London Heathrow – as airports struggled to cope with the bounceback in travel, but it was Amsterdam Schiphol Airport that suffered most from staff shortages, congestion, long queues and flight cancellations.
“It was terrible during the summer, from May to September,” says Pimenta da Silva. “I travelled a few times and there were long queues before check-in and customs which we had never seen before. Luckily it wasn’t too bad for me as I have some privileges being a frequent traveller. It’s eased now.”
The airport’s capacity cap will be lifted at the start of aviation’s summer 2023 season in late March, but the chaotic summer saw the airport’s CEO Dick Benschop resign in September, whilst its COO departed this month amid a “difference of opinion” over the airport’s operational management.
But it wasn’t just air connectivity that suffered. The shift to rail, a trend observed in the Netherlands well before the pandemic, means trains are also under strain.
“It’s not certain whether there will be enough planes [back in service] to fulfil demand this year, but flying may not necessarily be the major problem – it’s catching a train. Trains were also removed from service and they weren’t ready to carry all the people that were switching from air to train because it’s more sustainable,” says Pimenta da Silva.
“Some travel policies require business travellers to use trains
[where possible] and [Dutch] business travellers are used to using rail
travel to Brussels and even the UK. It’s not in our mind anymore to take
a flight to Brussels.”
Designed in part to accelerate that shift is a new cap proposed by the Dutch government that could cut back the number of flights at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport – of which it is a majority stakeholder – in order to “strike a balance between the importance of having a large international airport – which is also good for the business community – and of a better, healthier living environment,” says the government. A potential cap of 440,000 flights annually represents a 12 per cent cut on pre-pandemic volumes and could be implemented in 2024.
As for train capacity, she says: “People want to move from air to train but it’s not always possible. It’s not that there’s fewer services, it’s just that there’s more people trying to use them. Moreover, booking a train ticket cross-border is complex as ticketing systems are not integrating booking, payment and ticketing processes across all forms of transportation, and each country has its own rail provider and ticketing system. Neither refunds processes nor service levels are comparable to what business travellers are used to when travelling by air.”
She continues: “What we are all waiting for is legislation from the EU to push for more cross-border travel service providers to align and that the industry moves forward, with booking tools bringing in all the rail operators and letting travellers see everything on one screen – do I go by train, by air, even by bus? We must be able to make those comparisons as soon as possible.” (See On the right track? for more on the subject)
It is among the key concerns repeatedly highlighted by BT4Europe, of which NATM is one of the founding members, ahead of the latest update from the EU’s Multimodal digital mobility services (MDMS) which is due in the second quarter of the year.
Pimenta da Silva is leading BT4Europe’s third position paper which will address business travel’s “hugely positive” impact on the economy.
Another area of concern for the travel management community, says Pimenta da Silva, is that of A1 certificates, a document that states in which country an employee's social insurance contributions are paid, thus ensuring they need not also make contributions when travelling to and working in another country.
“Through the BT4Europe position paper we urge the EU to exempt business travel from the mostly paper-based and bureaucratic A1 cross-border social security formalities and make use of digital transformation to facilitate an alternative solution. Until a digital solution is in place this regulation is more of a hurdle in the business travel process than a benefit for all involved.”
Like many markets, corporates in the Netherlands were at the mercy of understaffed suppliers and TMCs in 2022, but how are they faring now? With NATM open to both buyer and supplier members, Pimenta da Silva is diplomatic. “We saw the same issues witnessed by a lot of corporates around Europe. Some still have issues, some don’t, and some TMCs are more creative in the way they are addressing those issues. But not all of them are back to the level they need to be – and that applies to TMCs of all sizes.”
She continues: “What I am sometimes surprised about, however, is the number of corporates who are considering an RFP process. Some say ‘we’ve been through a tough time together and we’re going to reconnect with our suppliers’ but others are looking for their problems to be solved by another TMC.
“But if a lot of TMCs are still having problems, why move? Some corporates have gone off and had conversations with their existing TMC to discuss their expectations, some have gone to RFPs, and others are bringing in a new TMC alongside their existing one so they can compare the levels of service and quality.”
Meanwhile, NATM, which was founded in 1972, continues to grow its membership although the organisation strives to maintain equal numbers of buyers and suppliers aligned to its statutory rules. “The more buyers we have, the more suppliers can join our association,” explains Pimenta da Silva. “Our suppliers’ membership fees were increased in 2015 to ensure our prosperity and since then they are also able to vote.”
Looking ahead, NATM is formulating a new long-term strategy in 2023 – having last done so in 2015-16 – and has drafted in Herman Mensink to work alongside it on the project.
“We all know that Herman has huge experience in business travel at different levels and is very knowledgeable. Last time we worked on our strategy we partnered with a third-party organisation from outside the industry so this time I’m pleased to have Herman working with us.”
• The Benelux Corporate Travel Symposium 2023 takes place on 15 June in Breda, Netherlands.