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Check-in with Suzanne

Hello Everyone,

Wow – it’s June! And with U.S. leisure travelers filling airports this past holiday weekend, and signs of European borders opening again soon for risk-mitigated travelers, at GBTA we are continuing to advocate for positive government approaches that support the recovery of safe business travel.

Our May poll results show that suppliers, corporate policies, and even travelers themselves are getting ready for non-essential business travel to begin again – and the poll confirms that most respondents believe that government holds the key to a successful restart. To that end, our own work on industry readiness is paying off:

Ready. Safe. Travel. Training Program a Huge Success: Nearly 600 people successfully graduated from this first-ever global training program last week and are now designated as “Ready. Safe. Travel. Specialists” after 4 weeks of learning and testing. Congratulations to all of you! And I’d like to thank GBTA’s Nancy Tudorache for spearheading this program and the many volunteers, committee leaders and other GBTA staff who made the program so successful.

Tomorrow, June 2 – Sustainability Collaboratory… the Road to Convention: The first session of our 2021 Collaboratory webinar series will feature some major opportunities within our industry to support sustainability. We will discuss advances within the aviation fuel space, offer ways to identify green hotel best practices and showcase efforts to shape traveler expectations. Register here and join me!

GBTA Convention Registration Opens Tomorrow, June 2: This year’s Convention will be unlike any other before it. We’re taking our program to the next level, with leading thinkers and change makers addressing the issues that matter most. Convention will be the most important gathering of business travel professionals since the onset of the pandemic. Be on the lookout for an email with a direct link to register.

Finally, when it comes to advocacy, that often means giving the industry point of view to mainstream media. Here are two recent outcomes of my speaking with reporters about the recovery of business travel within the U.S. market:

 

News to Know

More Remote Work Will Lead to More Business Travel: According to the new Back to Blue Skies report from American Express and American Express Global Business Travel, 7 in 10 (69%) decision makers surveyed believe increased remote work will lead to more business travel in the future and 85% said that business travel leads to higher profit. Click here to read more.

Europe Travel Updates: The UK will introduce electronic travel authorizations later this year requiring visitors who don’t currently need a visa for short stays, or who do not already have an immigration status prior to traveling, to get an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) as an additional security measure. Sweden announced it is lifting its advice against travel to several countries outside the EU beginning today, June 1. And in an additional sign of recovery, Frankfurt Airport’s terminal 2 will reopen today, June 1, after more than a year’s closure due to COVID, allowing 48 airlines to resume operations there.

LATAM Seeing Glimmers of Hope: Last week, Chile announced that Chileans fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will be allowed to move more freely within the country and Costa Rica reported higher numbers of international arrivals in April and May.

U.S. Call to Action for GBTA Members – Funding for the Aviation Screeners and Threat Elimination Restoration Act (FASTER): U.S. members, we need your support. GBTA has long opposed the current practice of taking money collected for funding TSA and diverting it to pay down the general deficit. The U.S. House has introduced bi-partisan legislation to end this practice and we need your members of Congress to support it. Please click here to send a message to your Member of Congress, asking them to support the FASTER legislation.

 

GBTA News & Reminders

Board Director Nominations – Next Steps: The call for GBTA Board Director nominations is now closed and candidates will be announced on June 14. Save the date for June 15, when we’ll be hosting a live virtual candidate forum for you to hear directly from all the candidates. Registration details for the forum will be coming soon, as well as how to access candidate platform statements online.

Next WINiTIn45 Session is June 9: Join two outstanding WINiT board members, Alison Taylor, chief customer officer for American Airlines and Beth Kinerk, senior vice president of sales at Avis Budget Group, as they share their experiences navigating from one industry to another, and how you can leverage your skills to do the same. Register here.

GBTA’s First Presentation at the Arabian Travel Market a Success: At last week’s event, GBTA delivered a half day virtual business travel conference, with experts discussing how to prepare for a safe return to business travel.

 

In closing, please remember to join us for tomorrow’s Collaboratory on Sustainability – and let us know about your interest in attending our Convention in November by registering early!

 

Have a great week,

Suzanne

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