Travel industry group launches government division

A national travel group is creating a government division intended to attract agencies' travel managers to join its public-private forum.

The National Business Travel Association--a 2,500-member nonprofit organization--established its Government Travel Group Thursday and hopes to attract 100 government members by the end of the year. The membership fee for government employees is $245, which is $100 less than the corporate membership fee.

Bill Connors, the association's executive director and chief operating officer, said the group intends to provide government travel managers with a source for networking, information, education, news and research.

"The beauty of this whole relationship is putting the government travel managers with the corporate travel manager," Connors said. "The learning will go both ways…you put two like-minded groups together that work on similar issues and you get good results when you mix and mingle."

The travel association, started more than 35 years ago, includes corporations and travel service providers. Its membership includes people from about 70 percent of the Fortune 500 companies, representing about $170 billion in travel spending.

Its educational aspect includes a certification course for travel managers, offered in conjunction with the University of Houston's Conrad Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management, that costs about $3,600.

The government division will be led by an advisory board made up of government travel managers and industry partners. Becky Rhodes, the General Services Administration associate administrator in the Office of Governmentwide Policy's Office of Travel, Transportation and Asset Management, will serve as the board's chairwoman.

"I'm excited to play a role in establishing a new resource for government travel professionals," Rhodes said. "Government travel management has seen significant advancement in recent years, pioneering new best practices and establishing governmentwide standards."

Rhodes said membership in the group will give government travel managers access to industry best practices that will allow the government to provide quality management through the eTravel System. She said she would do her best to get agencies interested in joining the association's government division.

Rhodes said that for years government travel managers were administrators "who stayed in the basement." But since executives have realized how much is being spent on travel, this has changed, she said.

Other board members include Bill Tirrell, the Defense Department's Per Diem, Travel and Transportation Allowance Committee travel and transportation branch chief; Tim Burke, GSA's eTravel program manager; Society Of Government Travel Professionals President Marc Stec; and Kevin Maher, vice president of governmental affairs for the American Hotel and Lodging Association.

The mission of the association's government group overlaps some of the goals of the Society Of Government Travel Professionals, a 450-member industry group, but Stec said the primary purposes of the groups are separate.

"There might be some competition for members, yes," Stec said. "But competition isn't necessarily a bad thing."

He also serves as vice president for contracts and proposals at Navigant Sato Travel.