The not-for-profit sector comes out top in several aspects of travel policy management and duty of care, according to new figures released today by leading travel management company and charity specialists, Key Travel, from its annual customer survey.

Furthermore travel booking confidence for the next year is strong with nearly a third (30.72%) expecting travel bookings to increase over the next 12 months – up from 27% last year.

Nearly two thirds (62.6%) expected it to stay the same. Just 6.6% of respondents expected bookings to decrease.

Key findings include:

Travel policy awareness – improving year on year
Responses to travel policy awareness reveal that 76.3 per cent of charity clients have a travel policy - up by five per cent on last year - and 94.5 per cent of these know of their organisation’s current travel policy, compared with 91 per cent last year. Less than one per cent did not understand the content of their travel policy and how it applies to them, and an encouraging 84.7 per cent always follow it.

Risk management – responsible attitudes ahead of other sectors
On risk management, charities are well ahead in awareness of the need to give destination training and briefings before they travel, with 58.9 per cent of respondents affirming that they provide these, compared with an average of only 42.5 per cent from the broader non-profit sector overall.

Similarly, an encouraging 84.8 per cent have an agreed way of communicating in the case of an emergency compared with an overall percentage of 77.0 per cent. Established procedures for situational updates and news of what to do in such a situation again was ahead at 57.9 per cent compared with an overall percentage of 47.5 per cent.

A higher than average number had also been overseas when a serious incident has occurred in a location in which they were travelling – 27.1 per cent compared with 24.3 per cent overall.

Preferred methods of booking – email and telephone
When asked by which method charities preferred to book their travel, email was the most popular (49.8%) followed closely by telephone (41.1%).

Steve Summers, CEO of Key Travel, said: “This is the fifth year we have conducted this survey and it is very interesting to see the trends evolve.

"We are heartened by the level of engagement and commitment of our customers in providing us with their insights and experiences, so that we are able to continually adapt and develop as their needs change.

"However, there is always room for improvement and we will continue to seek client input so that we can better respond to their needs.”

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