Enquirer Consulting Group

Reachable Buyer Map

Prepared for Ivan Imana · World Travel · August 2026
Ivan, here is the map. The market for a managed travel program is not short of companies, it is short of moments: most employers already have something in place and only reconsider it when something forces the question. This page covers where those companies sit, who signs inside them, and roughly how many there are. It describes the market rather than your business, and there is nothing to buy at the end of it.
Mid-market employers, 250 to 999 people
The band that is large enough to carry real travel spend and a duty of care obligation, and small enough that one conversation with the finance leader settles it. Rarely large enough to justify a full time travel manager, which is exactly why a managed program wins here. The largest band on this page that a public register will count cleanly.
Who signs: chief financial officer or controller, head of procurement or indirect sourcing, the HR leader who owns duty of care, and the office of the chief operating officer.
27,000 to 28,000
US employers in this workforce band
Large employers, 1,000 people and up
Where travel is a named category with an owner, a written policy and an incumbent under contract. Longer to sell into and more competitive, and the only reliable way in is to be present when the contract comes up for air rather than when you happen to call.
Who signs: category manager for travel and expense, corporate travel manager, vice president of indirect procurement, chief procurement officer.
11,000 to 11,500
US employers at 1,000 people or more
Growing employers, 100 to 249 people
The largest layer by count and the least likely to have a managed program at all. This group is buying its first program rather than switching out of one, which is a shorter and friendlier conversation. It is also the layer that becomes the band above it in three years.
Who signs: the chief financial officer or controller, the office manager or executive assistant who books it today, and the head of people.
Tens of thousands
of US employers; this band is not published as a clean cut in the registry data, so it is described rather than counted
Meetings and events buyers, inside those same companies
Meetings, incentives and conferences are almost never owned by the person who owns the travel program. That budget sits with marketing, sales operations, human resources or the executive office, and it moves on a calendar rather than on a contract cycle.
Who signs: vice president of marketing or field marketing, head of events, sales operations lead, learning and development lead, and the executive assistant to the C-suite.
A second buyer in every account above
no public register enumerates this seat, so it is described rather than counted
Travel intensive sectors
Life sciences, engineering and construction, professional services and financial services. Spend per head runs highest here and the itineraries are the least standard, which is the clearest argument for a managed service over a booking tool.
Who signs: the same finance and procurement seats, plus the operations leader who owns field teams and the compliance lead where regulated travel is in scope.
Several thousand employers
across these sectors at 250 people or more; sector codes are self reported, so this is a guide to scale rather than a precise cut

Where the openings are

1
Renewal is a moment, not a market. There are tens of thousands of employers above, and in any given month only a small fraction of them can change anything. The trigger is a new finance leader, a merger, an office opening, a policy failure or a duty of care incident. Watching several thousand named companies for that moment is mechanical work. A referral channel hears about it after the decision is made.
2
Two buyers, one account. In this category the established route runs to the finance and procurement seat. The meetings and events budget sits with a different person in the same building, usually one no travel provider has ever spoken to, and winning the first does not get you the second. Two named audiences inside one account list is a reach problem, not a positioning one.
3
The under 250 layer buys rather than switches. It is the biggest group by count and the only one where you are not displacing an incumbent. It is also the group that turns into the mid-market band later, which makes reaching it early materially cheaper than reaching it late. Nobody sells into it at scale because it takes volume to work, and volume is a machine problem.
Built from public registries covering US employers that file a benefit plan, current to the 2024 filing year. Counts are banded deliberately. Workforce bands use plan participants as a headcount proxy, so they indicate scale rather than an exact staff count. Owner only and very small employers are not published in this data. Sector codes are self reported. The meetings and events seat is not covered by any public register and is described rather than counted.
ENQUIRER CONSULTING GROUP
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