Having already welcomed meeting planners and government travel buyers into its ranks of corporate travel members, the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) has again expanded its reach by launching a sports travel task force representing sports travel professionals.

Including individuals from Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, the National Football League, the National Football League Players Association, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the University of Texas at Austin, Anderson University and DePauw University, as well as NBTA, the 11-member task force met recently at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis to discuss its mission, which will include sharing best practices, forming an NBTA community of sports travel leaders, and developing educational and certification programs in sports travel management and purchasing.

"NBTA has added corporate meeting managers and government travel managers to compliment our traditional corporate travel buyers over the past few years," NBTA Executive Director and COO Bill Connors, CTC, said in a statement. "Bringing on sports travel management is a natural and exciting next step for the association."

Added NBTA President and CEO Kevin Maguire, CCTE, GLP, who is also manager of travel for athletics for the University of Texas at Austin, "I'm so pleased to see the great turnout for our initial meeting. Sports travel management is a major sector of travel spend in this country, and we are happy to have such a high level of interest from this community of travel managers in joining the NBTA family." This page is protected by Copyright laws. Do Not Copy