Increasing the Efficiency of Corporate Travel Management through Macro Benchmarking

This article demonstrates a macro benchmarking methodology to estimate the potential of a corporate travel department to reduce its business travel costs, with no change in its travel demands or operating environments. Results indicate that with a large enough pool of corporations appropriate benchmarking partners can be identified that match the volume and complexity of the firm's multidimensional travel demands, as well as the firm's operating environment. Targets are also provided for the different types of support costs, as well as sensitivity analyses related to changes in service levels and travel demands.