INSIGHT
FROM JO LLOYD, Global Head of Customer
Management & Consulting
The Value Articulation Gap: Why travel programs struggle to prove their worth
The corporate travel industry faces a paradox. Travel programs consistently deliver significant value to their organisations, yet when asked to articulate that value in terms senior leadership understands, most travel managers struggle.
At ITM Springboard conference in April 2026, this challenge took centre stage. In a room of approximately 80 travel professionals, only a handful could confidently say they could walk into their CFO's office and explain their program's worth beyond cost metrics. This aligns with broader research: early findings from FCM Consulting’s Travel Impact Index reveal that 89% of travel programs are only in the "evolving" bracket when it comes to finance articulation. And it affects large, sophisticated programs as much as smaller operations.
Key Takeaways
- There’s a mismatch between what travel managers report, and what leadership needs to hear.
- It’s important for travel managers to understand stakeholder priorities, and tailor reporting and conversations to those concerns.
- Travel managers need to move outside of operational focuses and be more strategic.
Beyond activity reporting
The root of the articulation gap lies in a fundamental mismatch between what travel managers report and what leadership needs to hear.
Travel programs have traditionally measured success through operational metrics: service level agreements, booking volumes, average ticket prices, policy compliance rates. These metrics matter for program management, but they rarely resonate with C-suite stakeholders whose priorities centre on strategic objectives, risk mitigation, and return on investment.
During our ITM session, Sue Jones, Head of Groups, Meetings & Events at HSBC, articulated the challenge: "It's not just about communication - it's about having the right data and storytelling to reach different stakeholders in different ways."
When developing the Travel Impact Index, extensive consultation with travel managers revealed heavy reliance on TMC data as the primary source for program reporting. And while TMC data provides essential operational insights, it represents only a fraction of the value story.
What TMC data typically doesn't capture: business outcomes enabled by travel, risk mitigation effectiveness, impact on employee satisfaction, contribution to sustainability commitments, support for talent acquisition, or strategic supplier relationships. These elements are important to various stakeholders, yet they remain largely unquantified in standard reporting.
Understanding stakeholder priorities
Telling the managed travel value story well begins with understanding what different stakeholders consider valuable. The CFO, Chief People Officer, and Chief Commercial Officer each measure success differently, yet travel managers often present uniform reporting regardless of audience.
The pathway to better storytelling starts with a simple step: reading the annual report. Annual reports reveal leadership priorities, strategic initiatives, and the metrics by which the company measures progress.
Karen Hutchings, Partner at Kintela and former global travel leader, emphasised this during our discussion: "Take the overall objectives of the organisation you work for and show the impact you can have them."
This requires travel managers to connect program activities to broader business goals. If the organisation focuses on sustainability, the travel program's environmental initiatives become strategically relevant. If employer brand matters, the traveller experience contributes to that narrative. If market expansion is a priority, travel's enabling role becomes part of the value story.
Moving beyond operational comfort
Many travel managers gravitate toward operational tasks rather than strategic stakeholder engagement. The operational aspects offer tangible, immediate outcomes. Strategic work involves navigating organisational dynamics and influencing without direct authority.
As AI and automation increasingly replaces routine tasks, an operational focus puts the travel manager role at risk. You need to ask: what value do I create that technology can’t? AI excels processing transactions, generating reports, identifying policy exceptions. What it cannot replicate is business context, organisational knowledge, stakeholder relationships, and strategic judgment.
Take supplier relationships as an example. If you share your program objectives beyond cost reduction, the partnership dynamic is transformed. Then, suppliers can better anticipate data needs, frame insights in business terms, and help travel managers tell better stories. Without this strategic context, relationships default to transactional interactions.
And what if you get invited to present to leadership? It’s a great opportunity to tell the travel program value story. If you can show how travel supports business objectives and you have data to back it up, you’re seen as a strategic contributor. If you only focus on operational metrics, you may not get invited back.
Demonstrating value checklist
- Understand organisational priorities through annual reports, internal communications, and town halls.
- Expand data sources beyond TMC data to incorporate information from HR, finance, risk, and sales.
- Tailor communication by developing different narratives for different stakeholders.
- Map to business objectives by explicitly connecting travel program activities to priorities.
- Share objectives with partners to create supplier alignment.
- Embrace strategic work by shifting time from operational tasks to strategic value creation.
- Leverage available resources like FCM Consulting's Travel Impact Index.
Looking ahead
Nearly nine in 10 travel programs struggle to articulate financial value to leadership. Failure to improve will negatively impact program funding, strategic positioning, and the future of managed travel.
The good news: travel managers have a unique advantage. Travel touches every part of an organisation, providing a cross-functional platform that few other categories enjoy. The challenge lies in effectively using that platform - moving from activity reporting to value demonstration, using business language rather than travel terminology, and positioning programs as strategic enablers.
As automation and AI reshape expectations, this articulation capability becomes increasingly critical. The travel managers who master it will secure their programs' strategic positioning. Those who don't, risk marginalisation, as leadership questions managed travel's value.
The capability gap is real, but it's closeable. It requires intention, effort, and willingness to step outside operational comfort zones. Most importantly, it requires recognising that the words we use, the data we present, and the stories we tell fundamentally shape how others perceive the value we deliver.
Jo Lloyd is Global Head of Customer Management & Consulting at FCM Consulting. The FCM Consulting Travel Impact Index self-assessment tool is available now. Jo is also leading an ITM Platinum Pathway, providing additional resources throughout 2026.