wikipedia bcd travel

About BCD Travel

BCD Travel helps companies travel smart and achieve more. We drive program adoption, cost savings and talent retention through digital experiences that simplify business travel. Our 15,000+ dedicated team members service clients in 170+ countries as we shape a sustainable future for business travel. BCD’s leading meetings and events management and global consultancy services complete our comprehensive suite of solutions for all aspects of corporate travel. In 2023, BCD achieved US$20.3 billion in sales. For more information, visit www.bcdtravel.com .

SME corporate travel management

Media and entertainment travel management

Meetings and event management

Sports travel and events

Travel management consultancy

BCD Travel (Q19594594)

Identifiers, wikipedia (3 entries).

• dawiki BCD Travel
• enwiki BCD Travel
• frwiki BCD Travel

Wikibooks (0 entries)

Wikinews (0 entries), wikiquote (0 entries), wikisource (0 entries), wikiversity (0 entries), wikivoyage (0 entries), wiktionary (0 entries), multilingual sites (0 entries).

Navigation menu

Get to Know Advito

The leading global corporate travel consultancy, committed to elevating corporate travel programs.

We work with the world’s largest companies to transform their travel programs – optimizing spend and creating engaging traveler experiences.

We arm travel managers, procurement leaders, and other key stakeholders with the tools to create safe, sustainable, and future-fit travel programs.

We strive to:

• Simplify complexities
• Reduce travel’s environmental footprint
• Drive return on investment
• Increase traveler satisfaction

OUR HISTORY

Advito was founded in 2006 as the consulting arm of the global travel management company, BCD Travel. We were born out of a desire from clients for valuable, independent advice to help their organizations streamline and optimize the increasingly complex sphere of corporate travel.

Since then, we have continuously delivered objective consulting services and a highly customized approach. As the innovators of cutting-edge offerings like Dynamic Performance Management TM and Traveler Engagement TM , we are committed to helping clients prove the value of travel and elevate their business travel programs.

For more than 15 years, Advito has served the world’s leading companies across a diverse range of industries including technology, life sciences, finance, business consulting, manufacturing, apparel, aerospace, FMCG, and more.

• 300+ annual client engagements
• 97% client retention rate
• 10x return on investment (avg)
• $4B in annual managed air spend
• $3B in annual managed hotel spend
• 78  consultants and analysts from around the world

April Bridgeman

Managing director and senior vice president, hotel solutions.

April Bridgeman is the SVP, Hotel Solutions, and the Managing Director of Advito. She leads the team behind the company’s hotel offering—Stay by BCD Travel™.

Read full bio

Her team develops innovative client solutions that deliver significant incremental hotel savings. She breaks traditional thought around the value of resource-intensive sourcing projects with fresh approaches focused on spend management and program adoption using consumer- and behavior-based strategies. Her team’s solutions are client-proven to drive more savings for less effort.

Olivier Benoit

 principal & senior vice president, global.

As Senior Vice President for Advito, Olivier Benoit leads the global team of business travel, business intelligence and sustainability experts.

He focuses on the strategy development and implementation of Advito’s dynamic performance management framework for a diverse range of clients to deliver savings, increase traveler satisfaction and reduce the environmental impact of travel. Olivier’s previous roles include global sales director and regional commercial director positions at Air France KLM in France, Singapore, Poland and Sweden. He is currently based in Montpellier, France. He focuses on the strategy development and implementation of  Advito’s  dynamic  performance management framework for a diverse range of clients to deliver savings,  increase traveler satisfaction and reduce the environmental impact of travel.

Karen Lewis

Vice president, revenue and resource optimization.

As Vice President of Revenue & Resource Optimization, Karen oversees Advito’s client assignments, understanding and aligning each engagement with the right consulting team.

A member of the leadership team, she’s responsible for internal training programs, keeping consultants up to speed on the latest tools and technology so they’re always prepared to provide exceptional client value. With more than 25 years of experience in the travel industry, Karen’s previous roles include leadership positions in audit, controlling, client pricing, and financial analysis.

Julien Etchanchu

Senior director, sustainable collaboration.

Julien Etchanchu is the Senior Director of Advito’s Sustainable Collaboration practice, helping global clients define strategy, target & path towards CO2 decrease, across all travel categories (Air, Hotel, Rail, Car).

His previous experience includes eight years at Air France-KLM, with six years in revenue management and pricing, and two years in e-commerce. He then moved to the hotel industry to lead a team of revenue managers for Radisson hotels in Frankfurt. Julien joined Advito in 2015 as a Managing Consultant for Air and Hotel and has diverse profile of consulting projects. He is also currently teaching tourism sustainability in a French Business School.

Ambra Christie

Vice president, hotel spend management and customer success.

Ambra Christie is Vice President, Customer Success which includes hotel spend management services. She leads a global team of customer success managers and consultants in the delivery of successful data-driven outcomes that add value to client hotel programs.

Ambra, and the teams under her leadership, deliver innovative solutions that leverage technology, data analytics and behavioral economics to modernize and enhance client hotel programs. With over 25 years of corporate travel experience with BCD Travel and Advito, she has spent the majority of her career in program management, managing client relationships and delivering strategic support to key customers.

Matthew Patterson

Senior director, client relationship management.

Matthew Patterson is the Senior Director of Client Relationship Management for Advito, responsible for overseeing key engagements with clients and prospects.

Matthew oversees the delivery of Advito solutions and fosters client relationships. He has over 30 years of travel industry experience, including 18 years in consulting. Before joining Advito, Matthew held client leadership and consulting positions at Accenture, American Express, and Carlson Wagonlit Travel.  He resides in Colorado Springs, CO.

Shelley Fletcher-Bryant

Vice president, client relationship management.

As a Vice President of Client Management for Advito, Shelley oversees engagements with clients and prospects that help deliver ROI and optimize travel programs.

In addition to fostering long-term relationships, Shelley develops new business opportunities across EMEA, APAC, and North America. Shelley has direct client management experience, having worked as a Managing Consultant in Advito’s successful Traveler Engagement practice for three years before moving to her current role. Prior to joining Advito, Shelley spent 20 years working in destination, leisure, and retail marketing and sales roles.

Kelly Ellis

Global practice area lead, engage.

As the Engage Practice Leader, Kelly works with companies to identify program opportunities and develop innovative marketing strategies.

She develops robust digital marketing and communication strategies which lead to improved cost savings, compliance, and satisfaction. Kelly’s employee engagement strategies are tailored to meet client needs and follow company brand guidelines and tone of voice. Her strong customer service background has allowed her to reinforce the standards and commitment to marketing quality products through consistency and knowledge in each of the industries she has worked.

Vice President, Global Technology I&A

As the Vice President and Global Practice Leader for Intelligence & Analytics, John orchestrates the development of our internal and customer-facing applications.

John oversees a team of developers, optimizing our AWS technology stack, and involving customers in our product development roadmaps. He focuses on the consolidation of multiple data sources and utilizes enterprise-caliber business intelligence tools to highlight opportunities for Advito’s customers. Prior to joining Advito, John held product leadership roles within multiple companies where he focused on Agile development methodologies and speed to market.

David Frangeul

Senior director, global air and ground practices.

David Frangeul joined Advito in July 2014 as a Managing Consultant. In his current role, David leads the global air and ground practices.

Managing a team of airline and business travel experts, he develops strategy and implements Advito’s air, rail and car projects across a diverse range of global clients. He focuses on the strategy development and implementation of Advito’s dynamic performance management framework for a diverse range of clients to deliver savings, increase traveler satisfaction and reduce the environmental impact of travel.​

Previously, David worked for Air France KLM for almost 15 years mainly in pricing, commercial and global corporate sales positions. He has a Master of Business Administration from NEOMA business school in France. David is currently based in Paris, France.​

Speak with an Expert

Whether your goal is to understand your air travel footprint, build the optimal ground supplier portfolio, discover your hotel negotiation leverage, develop a communications plan, or to decrease carbon emissions – Advito is here to help you succeed.

BCD Travel reveals 2024 travel outlook

Q4 travel market report predicts 0.8% drop in global airfares and 6.8% increase in hotel rates.

UTRECHT, The Netherlands, November 30, 2023 – Leading travel management company BCD Travel published the fourth edition of its quarterly Travel Market Report. The Q4 report, dedicated to presenting an outlook for 2024, provides travel managers and buyers with insights on economic prospects, key risks, projected prices for air, hotel and car rental, sustainable travel trends, and more.

Some highlights from the report that corporate travel programs need to consider:

The world economy has managed to confound most forecasters during 2023. But the foundations for future growth may not be as stable as they seem. Even if the economy continues to defy concerns, specific risks that could undermine or derail growth include persistent high interest rates, bond market developments and geopolitical issues.

In addition to these macro risks, BCD’s Global Crisis Management team has outlined several key risks that may impact business travel, such as climate change, cybersecurity, geopolitics, health, polarized politics and rising crime. As part of their Travel Risk Management program, travel managers should not only monitor risks, but also stay abreast of any changes to legislation that might directly affect their travelers.

Recovery in air travel isn’t synchronized around the world. As a result, the factors driving changes to airfares in 2024 will vary by market. In some cases, demand or capacity haven’t yet returned to pre-pandemic levels; in others, the initial rebound may have ended, allowing more normal market conditions to resurface.

Globally, average ticket prices (ATPs) are expected to decrease by 0.8% in 2024. Regional fares should fall by 0.9% and intercontinental fares by 0.5%. At 1.2%, the forecasted fall in global business fares should be steeper than the 0.8% easing expected for economy tickets.

Asia, Europe, Latin America and Southwest Pacific can expect to see ATPs fall by more than 2%. Higher average airfares are only likely in Africa and North America, but the increase in ATPs in these two markets is estimated to be less than 1%.

“Over the past two years, airfares have increased significantly,” said Jorge Cruz, executive vice president of Global Sales & Marketing at BCD. “As a result, using savings as a performance measure has been almost impossible for travel buyers. We advise companies to review their travel policies and their travelers’ booking behaviors to lower the overall cost of their travel programs.”

Hotel rates

Global hotel rates are expected to rise by 6.8% on average in 2024. Even as the pace of recovery shows signs of slowing, demand will continue to outpace available supply in many markets. Although numerous projects are underway to increase the number of hotel rooms, these will take time to come online, and development will vary greatly by market. In addition, hoteliers’ concerns about occupancy have given way to a sharper focus on average daily rates and revenue per available room.

Instead of trying to fill every room, hotels seem more willing to accept lower occupancy, limiting availability and then charging higher rates. With inflation so high in many countries, this change in priorities has the added benefit of lowering hotels’ operating costs. Lower occupancy should allow for lower housekeeping costs, for example.

“Hotels have adopted more sophisticated techniques for revenue and yield management in recent years,” Cruz said. “Available rooms at preferred rates have been increasingly more difficult for business travelers to find. While it’s important for travel buyers to negotiate good rates , it’s equally important for those rates to be available when needed. Otherwise, they end up paying market rates, which will increase the cost of their hotel programs in 2024.”

Sustainability

Two-thirds of travel buyers consider environmentally sustainable travel to be very or extremely important. And almost half have formal goals in place to make corporate travel more sustainable. But travel managers will need to do more. Particularly in light of sustainability developments expected for 2024, like new emissions regulations.

“The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive will come into effect in 2024, expanding on existing corporate sustainability disclosures,” Cruz added. “With the U.K., Australia and possibly the U.S. likely to follow, travel suppliers and their corporate clients should anticipate greater demands for data and transparency around their emissions.”

For more details from the 2024 outlook, download the full Travel Market Report .

About BCD Travel

BCD Travel helps companies travel smart and achieve more. We drive program adoption, cost savings and talent retention through digital experiences that simplify business travel. Our 15,000+ dedicated team members service clients in 170+ countries as we shape a sustainable future for business travel. BCD’s leading meetings and events management and global consultancy services complete our comprehensive suite of solutions for all aspects of corporate travel. In 2023, BCD achieved US$20.3 billion in sales. For more information, visit www.bcdtravel.com .

BCD Travel announces new leadership in Japan

November 6, 2023

Ávoris Corporación Empresarial and BCD Travel sign partnership agreement for Portugal

December 4, 2023

Meet your experts in meetings and events management

Meetings management, event solutions.

Strategic meetings management,  corporate events, attendee management, venue sourcing or beyond, BCD M&E has it covered.

Creative and unforgettable experiences for every event, from start to finish. From pre-event strategy, post-event communications and everything in between.

Whether it’s the travel logistics of an entire sports team or building relationships through the power of athletics, our experts know success is in the details.

Global reach, with a local twist

BCD Meetings & Events are experts at creating experiences that connect organizations with the people that matter most.

With 2,000+ passionate people servicing clients in 60+ countries around the world, we offer services across event design, brand experience, meetings management, production and content, venue search and sports travel and hospitality.

For more information, visit www.bcdme.com . BCD Meetings & Events is a division of BCD Travel Group.

Contact Sales

Solutions for every business travel program

Solutions by topic.

• Travel services
• Connect by BCD Travel
• Meetings and event management
• Travel consulting services (Advito)
• BCD Invite – Guest Traveler Services
• T&E Spend Management BCD Pay
• DecisionSource
• New Distribution Capability (NDC)
• Cost savings
• Hotel Price Assurance
• Hotel savings
• Data and intelligence
• Travel Risk Management (TRM)
• Duty of care
• Payment solutions
• Shopping and booking
• Travel policy compliance
• Travel experience
• Trip authorization

Solutions by function

• Human Resources
• Procurement
• Senior Management
• Travel Arrangers
• Travel Managers

Solutions by industry

• Aerospace & Defense ↗
• Energy, Resources, and Marine ↗
• Life Sciences ↗
• Media & Entertainment ↗

Specific solutions by company size

• GetGoing ↗
• BCD Travel Direct (Europe) ↗
• Small and mid-sized companies (US) ↗