6th September 2010:
Telepresence is going to have a big impact on business travel; travel agents are advised to use recent developments that enable business to book a Telepresence meeting instead of travel

6 Septmber 2010. Telepresence is going to have a huge impact on business travel. The likelihood that Telepresence will replace a good part of air travel was drawn to the attention of travel agents in a recent article published on www.travelmarketreport.com. In particular, the article noted these recent developments pointing in this direction which we have covered in recent issues:

- Marriott International and Starwood Hotels & Resorts, have begun offering Telepresence suites in hotels in business centres worldwide, such as Chicago and Hong Kong.

- The large travel management companies  American Express and Carlson Wagonlit have begun to act as “aggregators” of Telepresence facilities.

- Sabre Travel Network is partnering with Cisco Telepresence. Sabre will contribute its expertise in reservations and distribution, while Cisco brings its experience with Telepresence. Users of the distribution platform will be able to view Telepresence meeting room availability in real time, book meetings and review applicable rates and restrictions.

- On the new web portals GetThere and Sabre Red that serve travel agents, those planning travel will be able to view the cost of collaboration options as well as the travel options (which they might replace).

These developmentas are likely to accelerate the use of Telepresence meetings by business worldwide. They will be part of the action that makes the bold forecasts made by Bernstein Research six months ago achievable over the next 5 to 10 years. They will do so by helping business employees overcome their hesitation to use Telepresence. Such inertia was a major cause of the slower pace of adoption of videoconferencing in the past.

Bernstein Research (the research arm of Wall Street’s Sanford C. Bernstein) stated in a March 2010 report that “technical advances in video conferencing have moved the capability to an entirely new level over the last 18 months, so that it now has the potential to fundamentally impact business travel.”

Based on the success of Telepresence among early adopters, Bernstein Research made the prediction that:  70% of internal travel and 10% of external travel could be replaced by Telepresence and videoconferencing over the next 10 to 15 years, resulting in an aggregate reduction of 21% in corporate travel spending.

Bernstein Research said that about 30% of the estimated 6 million to 8 million conference rooms in the United States  will be Telepresence-enabled over the next five years. And $30 billion will be spent in the United States on Telepresence over the next 10 to 15 years. They estimated that 46% of that expenditure will come from small companies.

Chris Kroeger, senior vice president of Sabre Travel Network, noted that although travel remains the principal method of collaboration, corporations have been “tightening their belts in a variety of ways” since the economic downturn. New methods of collaboration have grown in popularity.

Suzanne Neufang, general manager of GetThere, said users of GetThere and Sabre Red, the new portals for travel agents will enable users to view the costs of travel and various collaboration options. They will see, for example, the total air fare for meeting participants compared with the costs of renting telepresence suites. The comparisons will provide “visual guilt” to keep costs down, she said.

Travel Market Report concludes by advising that Telepresence suites in hotels generally cost about $500 per hour for up to six participants. They are not yet ubiquitous, so companies may need to fly their employees to a location enabled for Telepresence.

It is now up to the collaboration industry to make Telepresence meeting rooms available in as many locations worldwide as possible.

Source: Article “Agents soon to offer Telepresence to clients” in Travel market Report issue of
19 August 2010.