ASIAN corporate travel has hit the amber light as companies begin to scale back on trips in view of the global economic uncertainty, which caused stock markets to plunge again yesterday and Monday.
Corporate travel buyers interviewed at the show said while trips had not been completely red-lighted, they had definitely hit the amber light at this juncture.
The head of procurement Asia-Pacific of a Hong Kong-based financial firm told the Daily that his company had, since July, placed a “freeze” on all travel except essential ones.
“Although I can’t cite figures, the drop is significant,” said the manager, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to company policy.
The last time his company froze travel except essential ones, and even enforced economy class-only on essential travel, was in 2008, he said. “It would never come to no travel at all; there is no such thing. But, because of the lack of confidence in the market, we are getting prepared for the worst,” he said.
“If it gets worse, the next step is to enforce economy class-only on essential travel, as we did in 2008.”
The global category manager-travel global sourcing of a financial firm based in Singapore, who also requested anonymity, said: “I know for a fact that a lot of companies in the region are asking their employees to cut down on travel. Companies will be announcing their latest quarter results soon and you’ll see many are not meeting their numbers. Consequently, corporate travel will be affected. Internally, I know many have announced cuts, especially those in manufacturing, R&D, etc, which are not profit-driven sectors.”
Mediacorp Singapore assistant vice president-administration, Loong Chow Jin, said the broadcasting firm was cutting down on travel spend. The number of people sent for overseas training or meetings, for example, has been trimmed to 15 people, from 20 people, and fewer staff are going on overseas trips to acquire programmes.
“We started cutting back two months ago, but it has not come to the point when everyone – including the VPs (and higher-ranking staff) who travel business class for trips of more than seven hours – must travel on economy.”
– Read more in IT&CMA and CTW Asia-Pacific Official Daily – Day 2 issue
