BCD Travel expands to SL with new wholly-owned service centre

BCD Travel Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Global Network President Greg O’Neil

BCD Group BCD Travel CEO and President Stephan Baars

BCD ASC Executive Director Pradeep Kumar

BCD Travel ASC Director of Operations Dinuka Sumithrarachchi

 BCD Travel Sri Lanka workspace

By Divya Thotawatte

BCD Travel, the global travel management (TMC) company, has recently expanded to Sri Lanka with a new wholly-owned Asia-Pacific Service Centre (ASC) in Colombo with expectations to create more career opportunities by promoting the country’s name in the arena of business tourism.

The service centre was set up early this year at Level 15 of the One Galle Face Office Tower and currently provides employment for 225 local members. The employees offer round-the-clock support to ensure efficient program deployment for clients in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. The ASC also extends assistance to corporate travellers worldwide, providing front-line services during respective out-of-office hours in different destinations.

Explaining the work done by the company, BCD Group BCD Travel CEO and President Stephan Baars said: “Our mission as BCD Travel is to help people, companies, and corporations travel around the world. We are not a leisure company, but a corporate travel company. We optimise travel for big corporations around the world. For many industries, corporate travel is the engine behind them. Enabling corporate travel means enabling companies to meet new clients to open new markets and to be there for their customers as well.”

He noted that corporate travel was essential for most economies of the world. BCD Travel, therefore, serves bigger corporations rather than leisure or private trips. The services done by the TMC includes air tickets, hotels, car rentals, 24/7 support at their service centres, visa and passport services, meetings and incentives trips, etc.

“We have what we call the traveller experience. We are putting the traveller in the middle of our service. We make sure the traveller is safe wherever they go. We make sure the traveller gets information on the country before he travels such as the rules of the country, the needs and procedures for travelling to that country. We take the human factor in the middle of what we are doing,” Baars explained. 

Why Sri Lanka?

Sri Lanka is a resilient country and it is full of opportunity, said BCD Travel Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Global Network President Greg O’Neil

“This country is known for its culture. It is the home of the warmest service talent. Travel and hospitality are at the heart of everything that happens in Sri Lanka. Whether it be hotels, unexplored sites or restaurants, the humbleness, the duty of care and welcome are what we have always experienced. We wanted our customers to experience that too.”

He said that when the clients of BCD Travel experience the duty of care and hospitality of Sri Lankan service centre employees, the country would be recognised for it. Therefore, there were also training programs within the company as a further investment on the service talent of Sri Lanka.

However, as much as it was an opportunity, there was also a risk, added O’Neil. The risk was that while Sri Lanka was new to corporate travel management, the work of BCD Travel in Sri Lanka might attract other rival businesses to the country, which would benefit the country but also a threat to the organisation. Additionally, the people with skills were leaving the country to work overseas. Therefore, it was necessary to also perceive an opportunity within it and create a sustainable model that would attract people back to the country.

One of the main goals of the sustainability model was the selection of the Shangri-La Office Tower to establish the service centre. “At this stage, this is the safest location from the entirety of Colombo with the mall security, the parking security, the office security, etc. It was vital that we presented a single area that we could transport people to, that they would feel safe in and where we could bring our global customers to and provide opportunities in this market,” he explained.

Moreover, BCD Travel also aims to work together with the Government as they invest and expand the business in the country. So far, the Government has been of great help in establishing the centre in Sri Lanka, O’Neil said.

BCD ASC Executive Director Pradeep Kumar said that in building the wholly-owned service centre in Colombo, the company focused on creating a workspace that was full of opportunity for the employees. “We want to bring the opportunity into Sri Lanka, we want to set up an organisation that allows people the access to global opportunities that they would only have if they go overseas.”

The main focus areas regarding the ASC workspace include– creating a competitive remuneration structure, creating an interesting learning environment, creating an environment that embraces cultural diversity, the well-being of the employees, and creating leaders. Benefits for employees include healthcare, transportation and employee engagement, training etc.

BCD Travel ASC Director of Operations Dinuka Sumithrarachchi said: “The concept of a TMC is fairly new to Sri Lanka. But BCD Travel is here now and in the process of establishing our presence and our brand name. It is an opportunity for Sri Lanka to showcase its talent and our capacity to take Sri Lanka’s brand to the global stage and become a global service leader. Sri Lanka will benefit in more than one way through this initiative.”