Alexandria, VA (June 27, 2012)-The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), the voice of the business travel industry, today announced the general availability of GBTA Hub, its online collaboration tool featuring business travel research, discussions, news, and alerts now available to all GBTA members. GBTA Hub was developed in direct response to GBTA members? need for a way to connect with other global business travel professionals who share their professional interests. Previously, a select number of GBTA members had access to GBTA Hub in a private beta environment designed to solicit thoughts and ideas from members. With the transition to general availability, all GBTA members will now have access to over 800 business travel reports, whitepapers, RFPs, a number of specialized discussion groups and travel industry news feeds.
?Online networking has become one of the key methods for professionals to interact and learn, and GBTA can now offer our members their own online community focused exclusively on business travel issues,? said Michael W. McCormick, GBTA?s executive director and COO. ?GBTA Hub provides a secure place for business travel professionals to connect with and find resources that help them achieve their specific business travel objectives.?
GBTA Hub is the product of an intense collaborative effort between GBTA staff and its business travel members who manage more than $300 billion in annual corporate travel expenditures.
Since its initial launch, GBTA Hub has seen member activity increase by 30 percent and community discussions grow by 150 percent each month. GBTA members are building connections at an ever increasing rate with average contact requests sent increasing by 20 percent monthly. Members are rapidly increasing their engagement with the highly specialized information contained within GBTA Hub, and adoption rates are improving by the day. With over hundreds of downloads each week from the GBTA Resource Library, GBTA members have taken full advantage of the breadth of business travel resources at their disposal.
?As an early adopter of the GBTA Hub I am really impressed with the wealth of information available in one central place, especially the Resource Library,? said GBTA member, Michelle DeCosta. ?It has quickly become a go-to tool for me and enables me to quickly find answers when pressed by executive leadership on trends, benchmarking, or best practice.?
?GBTA Hub is great place for members to collaborate and network with each other. The Buyers Only group is a favorite group for the direct members where buyers are able to pose questions about their program to their peers and learn from each other,? said Karoline Mayr, GBTA Member.
Sponsors of the GBTA Hub include Enterprise Holdings, Starcite, Visa, Concur, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, and American Express Business Travel.
?In this rapidly evolving social and digital environment, bringing forward a platform that allows our industry professionals to network and share ideas delivers benefits to everyone,? said Alicia Tillman, vice president, American Express Business Travel. ?We are proud to sponsor this effort and look forward to further evolving it to suit the needs of the GBTA members.?
?Concur is a proud sponsor of GBTA Hub. The GBTA Hub platform is a great place for industry insiders to interact about new research and news within the business traveler community?, said Michael Hilton, Concur?s co-founder and executive vice president, Worldwide Marketing.
?We?re pleased to contribute to GBTA Hub and look forward to continuing our work with the organization on the Business Travel Quarterly Outlook, webinars, and industry announcements. For Visa, GBTA Hub is critical to centralizing content and connections in travel payment,? said Tad Fordyce, Head of Global Commercial Products, Visa, Inc.
GBTA Hub is fully accessible to members of GBTA. To learn more about GBTA membership, and gain access to GBTA Hub, visit gbta.org/membership.
CONTACT: ?Meghan Henning, +1 703-236-1133, [email protected] ? ?Rebecca Carriero, +1 212-446-1897, [email protected]
[box type=”info”]About the Global Business Travel Association
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) is the world?s premier business travel and meetings organization. Collectively, GBTA?s 5,000-plus members manage over $340 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually. GBTA provides its network of 17,000 business and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers, with networking events, news, education & professional development, research, and advocacy. For more information, visit gbta.org[/box]