UBTA March Newsletter 
President's Report
Dear UBTA Membership,
It’s March and Spring is in the air! Maybe a little luck o' the Irish? We consider ourselfs lucky to have such a great GBTA Chapter!
We are very fortunate to belong to a healthy, strong and progressive chapter of GBTA and it is because of all of you that our chapter is what it is today. We appreciate all of you that participate on a monthly and often weekly basis to help keep our chapter growing and meaningful. We would like to encourage everyone to send us your ideas of what you would like to be educated on during one of our monthly luncheon meetings. Even though we like to socialize and network with our industry friends the key component of our meeting is to be educated, learn and walk away with action items that we can apply to our own travel programs. Our last meeting on Travel Trends and the prior meeting on Travel Policies were outstanding and very informative.
Topic ideasfor possible consideration:
- What it means to show potential savings with data that is “water under the bridge”
- Why is one hotel, car or airline program better than another or are they
- Traveler tracking and risk management
- Internal traveler rewards savings programs and do they work
- Improving the traveler experience and motivating them to do the “right thing”
- Which comes first customer service or innovative technology
- And More
It is our goal as a board to make sure you get the best bang for your buck with regards to our Utah Chapter. If you have topic ideas please contact Brent Elliott – Programs and Education at [email protected] or any of the board members.
From our hearts, thank you for your participation in our Chapter. Our success truly depends on you.
Greg Ross
Chair VP
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Member Highlight
This month we are very pleased to hightlight our Chapter President, Elizabeth Mulder!
Name, company and title: Elizabeth Mulder- Account Executive- Woodbury Corporation
Years in current position: 6 ½
Years in industry: 17
Years in UBTA: 6+
Short Professional Bio:
Elizabeth has been in the hotel industry for half her life! She has worked various positions both in Operations (everything from Front Desk to General Manager) and then moved over to Sales & Marketing. She has also worked with both select service and full-service properties, and has received multiple awards and recognitions from Marriott as well as her franchise ownership groups and professional associations. She currently serves on two professional Boards of Directors (GBTA- Utah Chapter and Draper Area Chamber of Commerce). She graduated Magna Cum Laude with her B.S. in Psychology from Boise State University.
Family: Two daughters (Amanda, 19 and Avalon, 7) and my fiancé, Mason (getting married in August)
Hobbies or talents:
- Cooking (have done live food demos and competitions)
- Music- listening and playing (piano)
- Kickboxing- my new hobby- love it! Also trained in MMA (Mixed Martial Arts)
- Animals- I currently only have one cat, Figgy, but would have like 15 dogs if money and schedule weren’t an issue!
- Philanthropy- my biggest hobby! I currently serve on two charitable Board of Directors (U-SA Cares for Life and Distinguished Young Women), and also do work with The One Ummah Foundation and Utah Foster Care- check them out!
Something people may not know about you: I’m an aspiring TV Chef! (don’t worry- it’s a ways down the road!)
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PAC Challenge
I personally challenge you to be a part of the solution by participating at some level in the Government Relations Challenge for 2017/2018
What is PAC? NBTA PAC is a non-partisan federal political committee that supports those elected officials who support the Business Travel Community in these areas:
- Lower Travel Taxes
- Create Better Infrastructure
- Defend Passenger Rights
- Encourage Travel
Why should I support PAC as a UBTA member? To help the mission of the Government Relations Committee to review, research and make recommendations on legislation and policies that IMPACT the business travel community and to help determine GBTA’s legislative action. This is your way to be an ADVOCATE for Travel in our local area.
Who is it that I’m supporting? GBTA Government Relations Committee promotes the interests of the business traveler and the their organizations through advocacy on legislative issues and other government relations initiatives designed to maintain a transparent, competitive and frictionless business travel community that minimizes adverse impacts to the business travel.
UBTA needs each member to support in one or more ways to make the overall goal of UBTA being at the top of the Small Chapter Government Relations Challengeissued by GBTA
UBTA’s GOAL is to rise above and keep the MOMENTUM going!
How can YOU make a difference?
a. Read more about the program on the GBTA Utah Chapter website
b. Donate as little as $10.00 per person as a member through the UBTA website using your member login. Click on the PAC Banner - “NBTAPAC” to submit your donation. DEADLINE for donations is July 27, 2018
c. Attend the Legislative Summit, June 4-6, 2018 in Washington DC
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Last Months Meeting Recap
The March UBTA luncheon was another great success! Our friends at the Provo Marriott hosted us in their newly renovated meeting space. They also offered tours to those interested to see the rest of the hotel including some guest rooms. They were also gracious enough to provided a delisious lunch!
Bill Tate with Goldspring Consulting gave an informitive and entertaining talk on travel trends. If you missed it, or would like to reivew the information he shared, the document is attached.
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Travel in the news
John Rowley | Getty Images
How do companies encourage employees from veering from the company travel policy? More often than not: guilt. Corporate travel start-up TripActions is trying Amazon gift cards.
The Palo Alto, California-based company created a corporate travel platform that aims to keep businesses' costs down by rewarding employees with gift cards and other perks for saving their employers money.
The company has raised $51 million in series B funding to help fuel a global expansion, TripActions announced Wednesday. The funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Zeev Ventures brings investment in the company to a little bit under $80 million.
CEO Ariel Cohen said he and co-founder Ilan Twig came up with the idea after selling a previous start-up and working for another company. They realized they were booking corporate travel based on their own preferences, not their employer's.
"The company dime simply ceased to matter to us," said Cohen.
TripActions, available in a web-based version or an app, gives employees a goal, a "price to beat" for the average hotel costs in that city. Over the last six months, nearly three-quarters of TripActions' users have booked a trip below the "price to beat" for that city, Cohen said.
Employees who meet the goal are rewarded with gift cards or credit toward a vacation if they succeed. Each booking costs $20 and the company also gets commissions for selling hotel inventory and other products. Its hotel-price data come from Booking Holdings, formerly known as the Priceline Group, and other sites.
It's a different approach than most travel managers. Nearly 90 percent of corporate travel managers surveyed by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives said they use "visual guilt," these cues to remind travelers they're about to veer from the company policy, by booking a certain airline, accommodation or price.
Less than a fifth said they use monetary rewards, a tool that other corporate travel companies like competitor Rocketrip use.
TripActions and other smaller corporate travel companies face tough competition from growing corporate travel giants that dominate company business travel such as Carlson Wagonlit and American Express Global Business Travel. The latter may soon get even bigger: Last month it said it would purchase British travel management company Hogg Robinson Group.
But TripActions is growing its client list, which includes online storage company Box Inc. and location-tracking platform Foursquare. On its side is the growth in business travel spending. Globally, business travel spending in 2016 was near $1.3 trillion, according to the Global Business Travel Association. The group estimates that figure grew by more than 5 percent last year and will increase 6 percent this year.
TripActions has 100 employees and plans to triple that this year. Cohen said he wants to open offices in New York, London, Tokyo and possibly other cities.
Cohen said he has no plans to sell the company.
Correction: This story has been revised to reflect TripActions' CEO said he was ruling out the company being acquired, not an IPO.
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