Travel brands are busy preparing for the upcoming summer season, and travel demand is xpected to surpass pre-pandemic levels. What are the major trends for this summer?
25.03.2024 - 18:43 / skift.com / Justin Dawes / Paul Abbott
Executives of Amex GBT had an investor call Monday shortly after it announced plans to acquire CWT for $570 million.
Two of the largest travel agencies in the world, the combined company would have revenue of between $3.28 billion to $3.35 billion, according to Paul Abbott, CEO of Amex GBT.
Abbott and other executives used the call to outline key considerations.
Abbott has mentioned previously that acquisitions are part of Amex GBT’s strategy to grow in an industry where many companies still book business travel manually.
“Global business travel spend represents a large under-penetrated opportunity of $1.4 trillion in 2024,” Abbott said during the call. “So we see significant opportunity to continue to drive share gains and growth both organically and organically.”
CWT strengthens various parts of the business, he said. CWT has about 4,000 clients in industries including energy, resources and marine, media, entertainment and sports, life sciences, and defense and government.
“We also have a footprint in some of those, and it will give us sufficient volume in those industry segments to really create dedicated verticals for those specific industries,” he said. “And those are verticals we like. They’re verticals which have more complexity, more value, and tend to have high levels of customer retention and customer loyalty.”
About 35% of CWT’s business comes from small- and medium-sized companies. That’ll increase Amex GBT’s business in that area by about 35% and will increase sales by about $5 billion, Abbott said.
CWT also has a professional-services division for meetings and events as well as for consulting services, which Amex GBT plans to use to grow its footprint in that area.
Amex GBT acquired Hogg Robinson Group for $575 million in 2018, and acquired Egencia from Expedia in 2021. Each of those deals led to a 24% increase in incremental revenue, according to Karen Williams, chief financial officer, during the call.
Williams said Amex GBT has largely finished integrating Egencia. Now that team will turn their attention toward integrating CWT.
The combined entity achieve savings of about $155 million within three years, with about 35% of that amount expected in 2025, Amex GBT said.
Williams said about 80% of that is related to improved efficiency from consolidation, and the rest is related to vendor optimization.
The executives did not give more specific examples about where that efficiency will come from or if there are layoffs expected.
Both companies have been experimenting with integrating the latest advancements in AI.
Amex GBT said in February that it would be launching an internal AI initiative to increase focus on strengthening its products, and now the company is expected to benefit
Travel brands are busy preparing for the upcoming summer season, and travel demand is xpected to surpass pre-pandemic levels. What are the major trends for this summer?
Delta Air Lines is forecasting another busy summer travel season, buoyed by a sustained demand for leisure travel — not to mention a far more robust business travel sector that's been slow to improve in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The big players in the world of managing corporate travel are gearing up to get bigger: Amex GBT’s $570 million bid for CWT and the sale of Direct Travel to an investor consortium are two of the latest examples of the race to bulk up through mergers.
IHG Hotels & Resorts is planning to release a trip planning tool powered by artificial intelligence from Google.
Leading up to April 8, cities in the eclipse’s path of totality prepare for an influx of tourists. But, even with some extra traffic for airports and airlines, operations likely won’t look too different.
Leading travel money services provider to operate at five of Germany’s six busiest airports
Steve Singh, co-founder of Concur, and a group of firms have fully acquired the corporate travel agency Direct Travel. And they’re planning to release a new platform for customers later this year that combines several new technologies from Direct Travel and three other startups that Singh has a stake in.
Before I had children, my work as a research scientist meant frequent travel. I specialised in nature conservation and discovered that I was pregnant with my first child on a visit to an Ethiopian colleague’s field site in the Bale Mountains. The motherhood penalty in academia is high, and when my husband was offered a post in Shetland, I handed in my notice in the hope of finding a new job that would allow a better work-life balance.
United Airlines appointed Estee Lauder executive Michelle Freyre to its board of directors Monday, making her the second woman to join the carrier’s board this year.
Would you book your next vacation through the reservation platform of your bank credit card, such as Chase Travel or Capital One? Would you turn instead to online travel agencies like Expedia and Booking.com? Or would you book directly with airlines and hotels?
The first time that Eric Garcetti stayed at the U.S. Embassy in India was during his college years. A friend’s father had been appointed the U.S. Ambassador, and Garcetti was invited to join on a trip. He had no idea that the embassy would become his home years later.
While Baltimore is home to its fair share of world-class museums and historic landmarks, this storied Maryland city is also home to one of the east coast’s most stellar seafood scenes—a fact that local restaurateur Chef Jasmine Norton knows all too well. A Charm City native, Chef Norton’s deep affinity for the world of gastronomy has led to appearances on the Food Network’s Guy’s Grocery Games and Chopped, while 2024 saw a particularly exciting development with the grand debut of her first brick-and-mortar restaurant The Urban Oyster. Officially opened in February, this polished venue serves as the first Black woman-owned oyster bar in the nation, with a wide array of savory seafood dishes all gracing the menu.