Why A Global Office Network Matters In Travel Management

If your business requires worldwide travel, then partnering with a travel management company with a global office network could be critical to your success.

A worldwide network of offices enables travel management companies to deliver a reliable service across regions while maintaining the local knowledge needed to navigate each market effectively. Your travellers will benefit from valuable local expertise, 24/7 travel support, and high duty of care standards maintained across the world. When unexpected travel disruptions arise, a global travel management company can take care of your travellers wherever they are and offer alternative options to help them arrive on time with minimal business disruption.

This article will explain the benefits of partnering with a TMC with global reach and local expertise.

The Challenge of Managing Global Travel Programmes

Managing employee travel and accommodation across multiple countries is complex. Businesses must navigate:

• Multiple currencies and payment systems
• Different visa and entry requirements
• Varying travel regulations including immigration policies and customs rules
• Language and cultural differences
• Time zone differences
• Unexpected travel disruptions and regional events

For organisations operating in specialist industries such as marine, energy, and mining, the challenges of coordinating international travel become even greater.

These sectors often require travel to remote locations, offshore installations or operational sites where transport options are limited and travel logistics must be carefully coordinated. Crew change rotations, project schedules and strict operational timelines can also make travel planning far more time-sensitive than traditional business trips.

Without the assistance of a global travel management company, organisations can face several challenges in coordinating global travel programmes. This includes:

• Difficulty delivering a consistent traveller experience across different regions and time zones
• Difficulty coordinating complex or multi-leg journeys, especially if they are time sensitive
• Challenges maintaining 24/7 travel support
• Limited visibility of traveller movements and global travel spend
• Reduced negotiating power with airlines and local hotels
• Challenges in upholding duty of care standards for employees working in high-risk environments, such as marine, mining or energy environments  

The Importance of a Global Office Network

A global network of offices enables travel management companies to deliver local travel support using regional teams that understand the nuances of their markets.

Local offices bring several advantages to global travel programmes.

Local market knowledge

Each travel market has unique characteristics. Airlines, rail providers, hotels, and ground transport options vary widely between regions.

Local teams understand:

• Regional supplier relationships
• Preferred routes and carriers
• Seasonal travel patterns
• Pricing structures within the local market

This knowledge allows global travel management companies to offer more efficient itineraries and negotiate better prices for travel and accommodation.

Regulatory and compliance expertise

Travel regulations differ significantly between countries, and keeping up with changing requirements can be challenging. Local travel teams can help businesses navigate these complexities with insight into:

• Local visa and entry requirements
• Immigration and border regulations
• Local health and safety requirements
• Local tax and invoicing requirements
• Changing government travel restrictions
• Industry-specific travel regulations, particularly in sectors such as marine, mining, and energy where crew movements and offshore travel may involve additional compliance considerations

Consistent 24/7 Worldwide Travel Support

One major advantage of partnering with a global travel management company is the benefit of 24/7 travel support. This ensures that employees travelling internationally can access support across all regions and time zones.

With 24/7 travel support, travellers can contact an experienced travel consultant to help them with issues such as:

• Itinerary changes and rebooking
• Travel disruptions and delays
• Emergency support
• Last-minute travel requests

For specialist industries including marine, mining and energy, operational success often depends on workers reaching remote work locations on time. 24/7 travel support is critical for reliable travel coordination and managing travel disruptions regardless of their complexity. Having regional teams who offer around-the-clock support ensures that travellers get to their destinations on time, and helps organisations protect both traveller wellbeing and business continuity.

Maintaining Traveller Duty of Care Standards

Duty of care is a major priority for organisations that require international travel, especially for those operating in specialist sectors such as marine, mining or energy. Travel disruptions are inevitable and can occur at any time. During these disruptions, companies have a duty to locate and assist their travellers to ensure their safety.

A global office network strengthens duty of care by enabling global travel management companies to coordinate responses quickly across regions.

Local teams can react quickly to:

• Regional travel disruptions
• Weather or natural events
• Political or security developments

Global travel management companies can also offer tools such as centralised traveller tracking and real-time travel notifications to help organisations keep track of all travellers and receive notifications about disruptions or emergencies. These tools, combined with a local office presence and 24/7 support, ensure that travellers are monitored and taken care of when challenges arise, so that excellent duty of care standards are maintained worldwide.

ATPI and Direct Travel: Delivering Global Reach and Local Expertise

A travel management company with a global office network can provide a mix of local market knowledge, regulatory expertise, consistent 24/7 travel support and excellent duty of care standards that form the basis of any successful global travel programme.

ATPI has a global office network with local offices across Europe, Asia, North America, Australia, Africa and the Middle East. As a Direct Travel brand, our unified global travel management company drives $6 billion in annual total travel volume and serves clients in 100 markets worldwide. Our combination of global reach and local expertise allows our clients across the corporate, marine, mining and energy sectors to benefit from valuable regional knowledge and supplier relationships combined with global buying power. This allows ATPI and Direct Travel to deliver consistent and reliable global travel programmes with a clear focus on personalised service, driving a 97% client retention rate.

If your business is interested in partnering with a global travel management company to manage international travel, then get in touch.