Airlines and Hotels to Customers: Stay Home and Use Videoconferencing Despite Pandemic Reopening

VIENNA, Austria, April 1 — On the opening day of its annual meeting, the American Society and Service of Corporate Ambulatory Managers (ASSCAM) at the Palais Hansen Kempinski Vienna announced findings of a research report that, among other things, said that its members should encourage their best customers to stay home more and use videoconferencing, continuing practices begun during the pandemic.
ASSCAM is the largest association of corporate travel managers executives in the galaxy.
The study, conducted by the independent research firm Takë Shortcutti, surveyed 4 executives from ASSCAM’s vast membership and asked them to identify their companies’ best practices with respect to meetings and conferences.
“After three years of pandemic, we’ve found our employees only want to travel to get away from work, not travel for work,” said Erwin Smithers, a former ASSTIC executive who is now director of corporate travel for Amalgamated Companies, Ltd., the world’s premier widget supplier.
Smithers commented that the savings that will accrue will more than make up for the pajamas with corporate logos that they will have to purchase for at-home conference attendees.
“We believe that our best employees feel somewhat over entitled,” said Manfred Muster, who heads up the group’s logo merchandise wing.  “This will be a great relief to hotel employees who won’t have to deal with our overly entitled employees who demand they bow and scrape to them.”
The group identified several key objectives, including lowering energy costs, which will be easily achievable if members follow the study’s advice.  “It’s clear that our employees will enjoy an improved lifestyle if they stay home more and meet with their colleagues and prospects virtually,” said Cynthia Jones, ASSCAM’s executive director emeritus.  “We believe that we’re onto something here and that other industries will follow our lead.”
“We fully support the findings from the Takë Shortcutti survey,” said George Willis, CEO of World Global Airlines and an ASSCAM industry member.  “We plan to begin to implement some of the firm’s recommendations as soon as it is practical to do so.”
(Photo: Accura Media Group)