In Latin America, the key word for online is growth

While business travel budgets have remained flat in many parts of the world, in Latin America business travel spending has grown at an annual rate of 7 percent. Brazil, which represents roughly 60 percent of total spend in the region, has grown at a significantly faster pace. Growth has been particularly pronounced as of late – 22 percent annually compounded over the last two years.

In large markets like Brazil and Mexico, this growth has signaled a shift in how corporations manage their travel programs and perceive technologies like GetThere. GetThere helps our customers optimize spend, keep rising costs from spiraling out of control and meet the needs of business travelers who value consumer tools.

Growth in Latin America is not without its challenges. The need for access to local content and local support are paramount. In these cases, GetThere has a number of competitive advantages. We provide access to strategic local content in Brazil, Mexico and throughout Latin America, as well as in-market account management, service delivery and product support.

That’s why we’ve continued our tremendous growth in Latin America – 31 percent YOY as of March 2012. Driving our sustained growth is the progress that GetThere continues making in Brazil. In the last 18 months, at least one new corporate customer per month has implemented GetThere in this market alone. We currently have active site customers in 15 Latin American countries and our adoption rates are above the regional industry average: 69 percent and more than 90 percent amongst our best-in-class customers.  

Find out how one of our global customers successfully spread its program in Latin America, achieving 76 percent average adoption in the region and saving more than 20 percent on service fees.

I’m personally excited to share more about our evolution in the region at the Latin America Summit, Aug. 6 in Sao Paulo. The Summit will feature educational speakers, peer networking, technology showcases and for the first time, an interactive workshop. Attendees will learn about our efficient and ever-improving access to local content, expense partnerships, mobile, profile and policy management, virtual meetings and traveler-focused solutions.

We’ll have guest speakers in the form of local business travel experts, industry stakeholders, expense partners, corporate customers and more. We hope you can join us Aug. 6 at the Sao Paulo Hyatt.