Mandating where travellers should eat could prove lucrative for budget conscious travel managers, according to Ron di Leo, executive director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE).

A recent survey by ACTE revealed that nearly half (48.6%) of business travellers consume “more” or “significantly more” food and drink when away on business.

With food and drink spend a significant proportion of the total cost of a trip, there may be the opportunity for travel managers to have a closer eye on where their travellers choose.

“Most travel policies have paremeters on how much you can spend, which is how it’s been controlled in the past,” said di Leo.

But with new technology and social media, travellers could be guided to restaurants near their hotel that are offering deals such as 2 for 1 or 10% off.

Di Leo gave the example of using location-based social media site Foursquare on a recent trip to Paris: “I checked in and it gave me a list of all the restaurants nearby and there were three that had reviews on them.

“Using those as a guide, we tried a restaurant that turned to be a killer place and difficult to get into. The only reason w

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The folks at the Greater Toronto Airports Authority made a great show of things earlier this month, establishing a new logo and promising everything from new shops to posted wait times for security and baggage.

Those may come some day, but what people really want is improved service. And, so far, I dont see any signs of it.

I flew into Pearson Sunday night and the lineup at customs was terrible; snaking around and around. It took folks about 20 minutes to get down to the baggage carousel. Thats far too long to make people stand around waiting to declare they brought back three bottles of wine from the Napa Valley instead of the set limit of two.

Mind you, theres little point in getting through customs quickly when it simply means youll waste time standing around waiting for your luggage.

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Ian Sparks will take over as group chief executive at Expotel from July 4.

His focus at Expotel will be on accelerating its growth plans and evolving its position as a hotel booking agent into a strong travel management company (TMC).

Sparks joins the TMC from health services provider Firstassist Services, replacing Ian Burnley who left in June.

While managing director at the company, he oversaw Firstassist’s sale from Barclays Private Equity to Capita.

Before joining Barclays, Sparks was CEO of environmental services firm The Casella Group, CEO at Cendant’s European relocation and real estate business, and a general manager at Thomas Cook.

Expotel’s Chairman, Richard Lovell, said Sparks “has the business acumen, leadership qualities and experience to lead our company to the next level of growth and distinction as a leading TMC.”

The car radio pumped out Arab rap. It didn’t seem a natural fit with our middle-aged, suited driver but he turned it up, delighted. ‘It’s about Ben Ali, our ex-dictator,’ he marvelled, ‘on state radio!’

He drummed his fingers to the music as we hummed through the fertile farmland of Tunisia’s Mediterranean coast, breaking his rhythm only to point out spectacular storks’ nests crowning the telegraph poles.

Where is everyone? Jack, Wilf, Lucy and camel friend survey Tunisia’s deserted beaches

I tried to tell my children about Tunisia’s revolution but they weren’t remotely interested.

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