Last year Altour joined Direct Travel as a travel management service provider within the portfolio of group purchasing organization Omnia Partners. In October, Christopherson Business Travel contracted with the Inter-University Council Purchasing Group of Ohio. These TMCs see consortia as a way to get their feet in the door among networks of dozens or hundreds of small and midsized organizations.
Group buying lets members pool volumes to create leverage with suppliers. They share resources and best practices. GPOs haven't delved as deeply into travel as they have other categories, but there has been some activity over the years . . .
