Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) today reported solid financial results for 2015 despite a continued challenging economic climate.
CWT increased its new business sales to US$1.7 billion. CWT's transactions were stable at 61.4 million. Overall sales volume reached US$24.2 billion, reflecting the significant curtailment in travel expenses by energy customers. Excluding the impact of the energy portfolio, transactions increased by 1.3 percent.
North American transactions increased by 1.1 percent. Transactions in Europe, Middle East and Africa declined by 1.2 percent while Latin America volume was off 7.8 percent due to the weight of the energy sector and the economic recession in Brazil. Asia Pacific volumes were stable.
CWT maintained its strong client satisfaction scores with travel manager satisfaction of 90 percent, combined with an 88 percent traveler satisfaction rating and a 94 percent retention rate.
2015 was another strong year for CWT's award-winning app CWT To Go, with a 62% growth in user registrations to 560,000. In early 2015, CWT launched fully integrated mobile hotel booking in 17 markets, achieving ~35k hotel bookings and $10 million in sales.
Douglas Anderson, president & CEO of CWT commented: "2015 was a challenging year for the industry overall given the continued sharp fall in energy prices and oil in particular. We nevertheless delivered solid results. We continued to focus on enhancing our technology offering, with the deployment of mobile hotel booking on CWT To Go and the global launch of CWT AnalytIQs, a powerful tool to report and manage travel data. Finally, we strengthened our growth platform in France with the acquisition of Ormès, a leader in Meetings and Events, and the sale of our leisure business Havas Voyages."
Business divisions
CWT's specialized business divisions recorded the following:
CWT Solutions Group
CWT's consulting arm maintained strong growth momentum. The group moved beyond traditional sourcing reporting and further expanded data reporting to include traveler engagement. Customer satisfaction reached 94 percent and CWT Solutions Group continued to publish innovative reports, such as the T&E Decision Tree.
CWT Energy, Resources & Marine
CWT Energy, Resources & Marine global sales volume was materially impacted by the sharp reduction in travel spend in the sector. In this economically challenged environment, CWT Energy, Resources & Marine achieved $265 million in new sales, and a strong retention rate of 95 percent.
CWT Meetings & Events
CWT Meetings & Events organized over 27,500 meetings and events around the world for more than 1.2 million delegates. CWT Meetings & Events also completed the acquisition of French events agency Ormès in 2015, creating one of the largest Meetings and Events agencies in France. CWT Meetings & Events saw 12% growth globally, which reflects the trend of global companies seeking new opportunities to consolidate, make effective use of their budget spend and improve their meeting and event delegate experience.
Anderson concluded, "Our solid results demonstrate our ongoing commitment to help our clients run cost effective travel programs and our travelers to safely reach their destination. In 2015, we introduced several significant innovations with CWT AnalytIQs and CWT To Go hotel booking, further enhancing customer value."
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Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) reported solid financial results for 2015 despite a continued challenging economic climate.
About Carlson Wagonlit Travel
Companies and governments rely on us to keep their people connected. We provide their travelers with a consumer-grade travel experience, combining innovative technology with our vast experience. Every day we look after enough travelers to fill almost 200 Boeing 747s and around 100,000 hotel rooms, and handle 95 corporate events. We have more than 18,000 people in nearly 150 countries, and in 2016 posted a total transaction volume of US$ 23 billion.