Travel Manager Salaries Rise as Roles Expand

For some travel managers, 2022 was like waking up to a strange new world. Many old faces, reliable contacts and long-time colleagues had moved on, leaving them with new responsibilities to tackle on their own. Many have had to adjust to new bosses as they merged into other departments, such as procurement, human resources or meetings and events. Others have had to onboard groups of new, fresh-faced employees, some who never used a travel agency before.

“I am reeducating travelers how to travel,” said one. Some younger travelers, used to booking personal travel directly with suppliers or online travel agencies, also need an education on what their travel program (and travel management company) can offer. “Due to attrition, a new, younger employee base needs to understand a managed travel program,” explained another respondent.

What else has gained travel managers’ attention? Considering corporations’ sharpened focus on the environment, 37 percent of travel managers have put more emphasis on sustainability. And as Zoom, Teams and other tools for some have proved acceptable replacements for certain types of meetings, one-third of travel managers have increased their focus on virtual conferencing technology management.

How Am I Doing?

Perhaps one of the biggest differences since past studies is the way that travel manager performance is evaluated. Despite their strategic significance to the company, six in 10 travel managers still cited savings and cost avoidance as the No. 1 criterion as it relates to their performance measurement. But while that benchmark ranked at the top, it was down significantly in importance from the 2019 survey, when savings was chosen by 73 percent of respondents, indicating that there’s more to success than just cost-cutting. How else then are managers evaluated?

Nearly half (48 percent) said performance is measured by the travel department’s strategic contribution to the organization, intimating they are valued more for their participation in overall corporate decision-making, especially during times of crisis.

“I am being viewed as a more strategic partner within the organization, and having a voice outside my immediate manager,” wrote one respondent. Another said a recent positive outcome is “Having leadership understand what my role is and the value I contribute to the organization.” Travel management expert Maria Chevalier, who runs industry career growth group CTME Search Party, agreed that travel managers are getting their due. “The complexity of their jobs surfaced since Covid, and it became more apparent to management to how difficult it was,” she said.

Also in the top three performance criteria is traveler satisfaction, chosen by 47 percent of respondents. After two years of overseeing traveler health and safety, and considering the overall talent shortage, it is not surprising that keeping employees’ happy is high on the list.

With fewer bodies and more dependency on data, technology prowess also rose in importance. Roughly one-third called out program innovation as a key performance metric, and three in 10 selected technology implementation as an important factor in how their performance is evaluated.