Stephen Swift is travel manager EMEA & APAC at Ford Motor Company and is speaking in two sessions at Business Travel Show Europe
Apart from the obvious, or perhaps including the obvious, what’s the biggest challenge facing you as a buyer right now and why?
Compliance – keeping up to date with the variety of immigration, tax and social tax requirements that is impacting business travel and developing a working solution for the business to use that is lean and has a minimal impact on the traveller.
Do you expect your business travel activity to resume to pre-pandemic levels and, if so, when?
We will begin to travel from September in greater numbers, but we expect the majority to be an increase in domestic travel. International travel will be at much lower levels to pre-pandemic levels – around 25 per cent of previous volumes.
What support would you like to see from governments to get us all back on the road?
We need a coordinated approach at airports to provide consistent processes that enable the smooth transit of travellers through the airport. We need the adoption of a common technology for sending and presenting Covid information to reduce delays at borders and make business travel as straight forward as possible.
What are you doing to make your travel programme more sustainable and why is this important?
My company is fully focused on changing our product range to be all electric by the middle of the decade. We are focussing our travel programme on sustainable travel choices to support this. This includes hotels with clear and published green policies, and choosing modern, more fuel-efficient airline fleets where possible, and also ride-sharing where possible.
Why are you looking forward to attending Business Travel Show Europe and meeting face-to-face once more?
I have really missed the interactions with my friends and colleagues in the industry. We are a socialable bunch, and we have all been through such a tough and challenging time. I think it might even be a bit emotional to reconnect with people we haven’t seen for so long and catch up on their experiences over the past 18 months.
Tell us in 20 words or fewer why buyers should attend your sessions at the show?
Immigration and tax compliance is the next big challenge for buyers to address post-Brexit.
• Stephen Swift is taking part in two sessions at Business Travel Show Europe: Covid, Brexit, tax and A1/Posted Workers Directive – Why mobility compliance is European travel managers’ new challenge AND new opportunity and Beef up pre-trip approval for you and your travellers. Business Travel Show Europe takes place on September 30 and October 1 at ExCeL London. Click here to register for the free two-day event.