The companies that comprise the 26th annual Business Travel News Corporate Travel
100 in 2012 generally increased their travel spending from 2011 levels, but a
fragile economy and concerns about U.S. government spending cuts could help
write a different chapter in 2013.
[Please click here to
view the digital edition of the 2013 Corporate Travel 100, featuring all
company rankings and listings, downloadable as a pdf.]
Of the following list of the biggest buyers of travel in the
United States, 25 companies shared with BTN
their companywide travel and entertainment spending figures for the previous
two years and also projected 2013 data. On average, those companies in 2012
spent 3.8 percent more on global T&E than in 2011, but projected their
companies to spend 4.7 percent less this year than in 2012.
Similarly, among the 45 companies that provided BTN their actual and projected
U.S.-booked air spending volumes for 2011, 2012 and 2013, the average
year-over-year increase in 2012 was 2.9 percent, but the average forecasted
change in 2013 is a 1.2 percent decline.
There are several reasons: U.S. government contractors must
contend with federal sequester spending cuts, while global economic recovery
remains at best scattershot. At the same time, mature travel programs are using
more sophisticated processes to stretch travel dollars.
Methodology
The CT100 is based on 2012 air tickets purchased at all U.S.
points of sale for domestic and international business travel. Most listed
organizations provided at least some information for use in their specific
listings.
Respondent organizations completed an online questionnaire;
some provided additional information during interviews conducted by BTN editors. For organizations that did
not participate, BTN used industry
sources, published reports and other intelligence.
Respondents to the online questionnaire were asked to list
their organization’s highest-volume and other preferred suppliers in the United
States and in other regions; their responses are included in the CT100 listings
in alphabetical order as "principal suppliers."
Seven firms not included last year qualified for this list,
including first-timers Amazon.com, eBay Inc. and the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints.
Those falling off include Booz Allen Hamilton, Boston
Scientific Group, Covidien, Daimler, Fluor, Johnson Controls, Kraft Foods and
Royal Philips Electronics.
This year’s Corporate Travel 100 floor of $45 million in
2012 U.S.-booked air spending is $2 million higher than in last year's report.
This report originally was published in the Sept. 23, 2013, edition of Business Travel News.