How times have changed

It's incredible how the role of the travel manager/buyer has evolved across the 100 editions of this publication.

In the early days, travel management was highly people and paper intensive, with almost all transactions conducted by phone with trained operatives. Ticketing conditions and green screen jargon meant there was a mystique around those who fully understood the end-to-end complexities.

Travel managers tended to be former TMCS or 'business travel agents'.

Due to the open-ended nature of commissions and fixed sales and marketing agreements, the way TMCS earned their money was rather opaque. Making a few Concorde bookings in a week would transform a branch's performance.

In addition to perennial stakeholder and other internal stuff, travel managers would conduct a revolving door of monthly supplier meetings, focussed on driving down costs. Many of us are still struggling to forget those painfully attritional negotiations.

Efficiencies through tech have thankfully driven out the paperwork, native displays and delayed reporting, but in all other ways, travel management is a lot more complicated.

Buyers must now be experts in areas of carbon removal, neurodiversity, accessibility, equity and inclusion, duty of care, visas, retailing and distribution technologies.

In those early days, travel managers had to be smart with collaboration and relationship-building skills, vision and resilience. This would seem to be just as applicable today, albeit with each element supercharged.

Just to add to the fun, fundamental shifts in the commercial models and approaches from suppliers have meant money flows in the industry are once again rather confusing, complicated and opaque.

It would be nice to think that in another 100 editions this rather troublesome part of our industry will clarify and crystalise in a universally satisfactory way.

But, do I care? By then, I hope to be jetting away in retirement on whatever the successor to Concorde is... in my dreams!