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In August, Spotnana’s acquisition of TROOP signaled that the wall between business travel and meetings is falling. New research suggests that bricks are being removed from that wall at an accelerating pace.
A study released this week by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) in partnership with Cvent surveyed 270 travel managers across North America and Europe, and the findings show that 39% of travel buyers say travel and meetings are more integrated than they used to be, compared with just 7% who say they’re less integrated.
This goes well beyond travel and meetings teams collaborating more closely. More than half of travel programs are involved in meetings management (58%) and meetings sourcing (57%), and nearly one in four organizations (23%) have fully consolidated travel and meetings under the same team. Even where the functions remain separate, 55% of travel teams sometimes manage hotel room blocks for meetings and events, and 48% sometimes negotiate meeting space or group rates through their regular hotel RFP.
And travel buyers want more of it. Eighty-two percent say their organizations would benefit at least a little from closer integration, including 64% who expect to benefit somewhat or greatly. The reasons are simple: consolidated travel and meetings data (76%) and greater savings and discounts (74%).
The Capacity Problem
Here’s the complication: the teams taking on meetings are stretched thin. Sixty-two percent of travel managers describe their programs as understaffed, rising to 68% among programs with $30 million or more in annual travel spend. The average program has 4.9 full-time employees focused mostly on travel; the median is just three. And 45% say most of their staff are generalists juggling diverse responsibilities. The lack of human capital is a familiar problem on the meetings side, too, as teams work to balance overwhelming workloads while steering clear of burning out.
What It Means for Planners
The convergence is being driven by procurement logic: data visibility and leverage with hotels. That logic is hard to argue with when finance is asking for proof that meetings spend delivers real ROI. But a lean travel team optimizing for rates and room blocks may not be equipped to weigh what makes a meeting work. Their mandate is to secure enough rooms at the right price, not to master the nuances of program design, attendee experience, and the outcomes a gathering is supposed to produce.
That’s the opening for planners. If travel teams want consolidated data, planners can be the ones who connect that spend to results. If they want leverage, planners already hold it in group business. The question is no longer whether meetings and travel will share a platform. It’s who gets to define success once they do.
