Provision of travel management services for the United Nations Office at Geneva and other UN entities

The overall ticket expenditure of the UN organizations was approximately CHF 110 million in 2019, issuing around 90,000 tickets.

The UN organizations are responsible for arranging the travel of their own staff members and consultants, but also for meeting participants. As a result, travel can originate from any country in the world and the service provider have to provide worldwide ticketing.

Although sharing similar principles, each UN organization has an individual travel policy and administrates its travel budget independently. Travel related procedures as well as supporting information systems are also specific to each organization. The potential service provider should therefore have the experience and capacity to implement systems and processes ensuring the delivery of the most cost-effective travel solutions adapted to each organization.

The Contract resulting from this tender exercise shall be all-inclusive. The service provider shall be responsible for providing all the necessary personnel, supervision, transport, any other equipment, material, consumables, supplies, and all necessary arrangements, to ensure the fulfilment of its obligations of the Contract for its entire duration.

The proposed contract for travel management services shall cover:

• airline reservations and ticketing, including issuance/delivery, revalidation, re-routing, reissuance, reconfirmation, processing refunds and cancellations, and preparation of suitable itineraries (including alternative routings, departures and arrivals) at most direct and lowest cost for organization staff members and consultants, and participants attending meetings on official business for the Organizations,
• rail,
• hotel bookings, – car rental, and – visa services

The UN is looking for a service provider offering innovative solutions using the best available technology to ensure the highest quality of service and efficiency. The service provider should have thorough knowledge of the current travel industry trends and excellent reporting tools. Prior experience in the management of complex travel services in the public sector is an asset. The company should have very qualified client- oriented personnel with a capability to provide travel related services in multiple languages.

Required Experience (the required experience is an indication of the type of vendor the UN is looking for, it is not a prequalification criterion):

1. Extensive expertise in business travel and especially demonstrated experience in the management of complex travel services with several large international accounts.
2. Capacity in the provision and implementation of both, offline and online travel services solutions.
3. Demonstrated capacity for making worldwide travel arrangements with access to the best available fares, including local market fares.
4. Operational capacity to provide visa processing services for travels departing from Geneva / Switzerland.