Business Travel Executive, Dec 2020/Jan 2021

8 Business Travel Executive askBTE com December 2020 January 2021 PEOPLE Sonesta International Hotels Corp has appointed Vera Manoukian chief operating officer She most recently served as global head of the Hilton brand at Hilton Worldwide Holdings She has also served as senior vice president of operations for Starwood Hotels Resorts Alaska Air Group announced that Brad Tilden will retire as CEO on March 31 to be succeeded by Ben Minicucci currently president of Alaska Airlines Minicucci has been with the company for 16 years becoming president of Alaska Airlines in 2016 and CEO of Virgin America when Alaska acquired that airline He served as COO of Alaska Airlines from 2009 to 2016 Partnership Travel Consulting has named Carol Randall founder of Sage Travel Consulting in the UK as a strategic partner She has over 30 years experience in the business travel industry the last 10 years in consulting PTC has also added a strategic partner in India Suresh Makhija chief strategist with W2H Consulting in Mumbai Prior to entering the travel industry Makhija had 20 years of experience in advertising journalism and vocational training Choice Hotels International announced three executive appointments Jonathan Mills has been named CEO for Choice Hotels Europe joining Choice from Wyndham Destinations Choice has also named Olivier Macpherson regional finance director for Choice Hotels Europe He most recently served as regional finance director for Michael Page International in Northern Europe and Germany And Neerav Dudhwala who is now head of the Ascend Hotel Collection brand comes to Choice following 19 years with Wyndham Hotels Resorts BCD Meetings Events has named Christine Erickson as senior vice president industry relations Currently senior vice president US Events Solutions BCD Sports which she will continue to lead She has been part of the executive team for the last five years Average airfares in the US are at historic lows but it still pays to consider when you book and when you fly according to the 2021 Travel Trends Report from Airlines Reporting Corp in collaboration with Expedia com Even though year over year airfares were 25 percent to 35 percent lower between May and October they are still were following the usual seasonality curve ARCs global airline sales data reveals that US travelers who booked flights on Sunday saved on both domestic and international airfares Scheduling a Friday departure for domestic trips or on a Thursday for international trips when fares are typically lower saves even more While in 2019 the average US traveler booked flights around 35 days in advance travelers are now purchasing flights just 29 days out In 2020 average daily hotel rates for refundable bookings were 20 percent cheaper compared with 2019 according to Expedia com lodging data Given more affordable booking flexibility US travelers booked refundable rates 10 percent more often this year compared with 2019 n IN INDUSTRY NEWS AIRFARES MAY BE LOW BUT BOOKING ON SUNDAY STILL SAVES LOWER BUDGETS MORE VIRTUAL AND HYBRID EVENTS AHEAD IN 2021 Meetings in 2021 will see reduced budgets and a greater reliance on virtual events and hybrid events a combination of in person and virtual according to the 2021 Global Meetings and Events Forecast from American Express Meetings Events The report broke out small and simple meetings as a separate category for the first time and responding meeting professionals said these would be the most common type of meetings held in 2021 in all formats in person hybrid and virtual at 21 percent followed by internal meetings at 18 percent For meetings in general respondents expect to see a drop in activity levels ranging from decreases of 13 percent for internal meetings to 44 percent for conferences and trade shows Overall meeting spend is estimated to drop by 37 percent globally