The Beat's readers named Southwest Airlines the 2009 Supplier Of The Year, ProMedia.travel announced Wednesday during The Beat
Live.
Polled this summer, readers of
The Beat were asked which company in each of six supplier segments they "most admire for its policies, management style and service for business clients." Those who voted for their own company were disqualified.
Other winners included:
• American Express for most admired payment system
• Hertz for most admired car rental company
• Marriott International for most admired hotel company
• Concur as most admired technology provider
• Continental Airlines as most admired airline
• BCD Travel as the most admired travel management company
(from left) ProMedia.travel CEO Tim Reid, Southwest Airlines corporate sales and distribution director Rob Brown and The Beat founder Jay Campbell
(from left) The Beat founder Jay Campbell, Concur director of travel and industry relations Suzanne Fletcher and ProMedia.travel CEO Tim Reid
Continental Airlines has joined
BCD Travel in urging ACTE and NBTA to reconsider a merger. Here's the Continental letter to the boards of the associations, in its entirety:
BCD Travel launched a series of podcasts based on its
Insight on Corporate Travel publication and hosted by free podcast hosting company PodBean.com. The broadcasts also are on iTunes.
They start out with a commercial for BCD and its publication, but eventually (about one minute in) offer a variety of BCD's and Advito's comments on industry issues. The questions sound canned--coming from a radio voice which is presented as belonging to an interviewer who isn't identified--but the answers are more natural, though obviously prepared.
[EDIT: The investment grew again, to about 21 percent.]
[EDIT: The investment grew again, to 16.15 percent.]
As you may also read elsewhere, an investment affiliate of BCD Travel's owner has again increased its stake in Hogg Robinson Group, this time to 14.63 percent.
This sort of information typically leads one (okay, me) to start calling people and asking them how strategic it is and whether BCD would be making a bigger move on HRG. But I've been in no rush to do that. Why does this "story" bore me? Anyone?
