‘Video killed the passenger numbers’ declared a headline in The Scotsman newspaper recently. It’s enough to send a shudder down the spine of any business travel agent.
The check-in queues at Scotland’s three biggest airports – Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen – shortened earlier this year as business travellers cut back on flights. And for the first time, technology was cited as one of the reasons for the decline.
“Airlines have been reducing capacity…and the increasing use of video conferencing technology to replace taking flights to meetings has definitely occurred as a result of the credit crunch,” BAA spokesman Donald Morrison told the newspaper.
Rising fuel prices, economic pressures, airport delays and green issues are all conspiring against that corporate trip. “UK businesses need to wake up to the fact that unnecessary meetings and business travel reduce employee productivity, increase stress levels and damage the environment,” said Bert van der Zwan, vice-president EMEA for Cisco WebEx, an online web conferencing firm.
Over the past few years the technology for video and web conferencing has got its act together – no longer does it freeze or crash as soon as you overload the data line, as it did in the early 1990s. Now travel management companies are predicting an increase in its usage over the next two years.
“I was impressed with the technology. You don’t have to take time out of the office to travel. [It also means] you can have a bigger team present at the meeting,” said James Allen, director of travel at public relations firm McCluskey International. The company recently used video conferencing facilities in London to win a pitch to the Illinois Bureau of Tourism in Chicago. “The key is to use professional facilities. However, it is still expensive to hire the room and equipment,” he said.
Some companies are already using video conferencing extensively in a bid to cut travel and go green. Vodafone, for instance, has been saving more than 13,500 flights
per year since committing to the technology and has reduced carbon emissions by more than 5,000 tonnes annually, according to video conferencing firm Eyenetwork.
“It really comes down to how much business flying is discretional – how much do we fly because we want to, as opposed to really needing to, in order to get the job done?” said Future Foundation director of research Karen Elton.
The latest round of innovation comes from Hewlett-Packard, with its Halo product, and Cisco’s telepresence technology. Both innovations enable people around the globe to meet in an environment that looks, sounds and feels as if they’re sitting across the same table.
Participants see each other as life-sized images projected on to high-definition LCD screens. Their conference table starts where yours finishes. The lighting, sound and camera coverage have been enhanced so you see and hear each other clearly. If you move around, so does your voice – and you can share documents as well as digital presentations.
The technology has also helped reduce HP’s global travel by 43%. Other customers include AstraZeneca, Toshiba and Novartis. Consultancy Frost and Sullivan says the market for telepresence in Europe alone could reach more than £200 million by 2013. Microsoft is also in on the act with its Roundtable product and then there’s Teliris’s GlobalTable.
In the travel business the big move has come from Marriott International, which is installing telepresence suites for public use in a number of its hotels across the globe. Collaborative software has also come of age. Many firms with multiple locations and fast connections are collaborating using software such as Cisco WebEx, Microsoft’s NetMeeting or Adobe’s Acrobat Connect. The question is whether the new technology is threatening travel programmes.
“Travel management companies are not in competition with virtual meetings. Carlson Wagonlit Travel makes use of a combined programme of travel when it is necessary, and webinars when they provide a logical way of connecting lots of people quickly,” said UK marketing director Helen Cahill.
Advances in technology are infiltrating other areas of the industry – global distribution systems are also keeping up with the pace of change. They are becoming more efficient and the amount of information available through the GDS is growing, along with faster download speeds. More content is now allowing agents and consultants to receive more travel information through one source and connect to more travel providers.
As FCm Travel Solutions director of sales David Thomas said: “There is now greater connectivity to the low-cost market, so it is easier to use with more sophisticated approval and reporting platforms.”
Can video conferencing replace business travel?
The briefest glance around any airport gives proof enough that business travel is here to stay.
“The benefits of face-to-face interaction are indispensable. However we are seeing our clients apply a more rigorous approach to travel in general,” said Air France-KLM head of business sales in the UK Tom Reeves.
Most people in the industry agree that, when it comes to rolling out new deals, nothing can replace old fashioned, face-to-face meetings. It is human instinct to want to shake the hand of someone you are doing business with and look them in the eye.
“Recent independent research shows travel agents feel strongly that they are in a ‘people business’ and client relationships are very important,” said Amadeus UK director of marketing Elaine Seeto. “The social element is important to success. Remote meetings hinder the opportunities to network.”
If TMCs want a reason to sell a business trip, they need only mention how important it is to establish a personal rapport, take the client for dinner, enjoy banter and small talk – these things can not be developed through video conferencing or collaborative software.
“A colleague summed it up perfectly when she said video conferencing is to face-to-face meetings what Facebook friends are to real friends,” explained Business Travel Show event director of David Chapple.