Business travel is fast growing. The sector is estimated to reach US$1.6 trillion by 2020 according to the Global Business Travel Association, and by 2025 business travel spend in Asia Pacific will double and account for half of the world’s total. (See infographic below)
The challenge for business travel agencies is to meet the needs of today’s tech-savvy and always-connected travellers who want more choice, price transparency and personalisation as well as corporations that require better value from travel spend.
With technology exponentially evolving agents need to keep learning and updating themselves to better serve their clients. They must also adapt to this evolving environment and deliver a service that makes it easier for their clients get the most out of their business trips.
To help the industry navigate this space Spanish IT provider Amadeus has released a white paper – The Future of Business Travel (download it here) – where it identified five key technology trends impacting the sector.
1. Customise business travel
Business travellers, like their leisure counterparts, want personalised journeys as part of their overall package. Travel agencies must equip their clients with access to the information and tools that allow them to enjoy stress-free and efficient journeys, from booking and beyond.
As content is aggregated agencies are now able to offer more choice to the individual traveller and allow corporations to control what the traveller sees. This will create a tailored experience from booking through to trip and manage costs for the company.
2. Transparency at every touch point
Some travel companies have embraced blockchain, the technology that shows every single transaction in business travel such as. buyer, fleet operator, vehicle, driver, rider, location, routes, feedback and pricing. Its adopton will allow agents to have insight into a corporate traveller’s complete journey – data vital in creating a tailored experience. It also means that corporations will have a record of every journey and be able to use this data for reporting, forecasting and identifying trends.
Michael Chase-Smith, executive director at Orbit World Travel, commented that some booking platforms the company is using through the global distribution system and traditional online booking tools would change over time. “It’s starting to happen now. How it’s going to look in five years’ time I’m not exactly sure, but I do know there will be a travel environment of more open booking channels. The trick will be managing the access to these new booking channels and the change in workflow processes in a way that ensures how travellers shop, book and play is streamlined and simplified.”
(Image credit: Thissatan/Getty Images)
3. Business and leisure travel
As reported by Phocuswire, new research from Expedia Media Solutions shows that bleisure (business and leisure) travel is thriving, with more than 60% of business trips in the past year including a leisure portion.
Millennials, who are making up a growing part of the workforce, will contribute significantly to the bleisure spend. To tap this and other market segment agents need to work with corporations to create bleisure trips that meet their expectations incorporating flexibility on dates and other travel preferences.
4. Harness mobile technology
Business travellers with hectic and tight schedules want to be able to communicate issues and manage travel plans at their fingertips. Agencies’ mobile platform must be fully optimised and connected, with apps making personalisation, gathering and using data and sending targeted information.
Jitender Arora, co-founder of MindYourFleet, opined that technology is “the only pill that will save business travel agencies from extinction”, as it brings both cost efficiencies (discovery and operating costs) and opportunities to enhance revenues. “Business travel agencies need to foster the culture of innovation and accept technology before their competitor does.”
5. Greater aggregation across the industry
As travel content becomes aggregated and centralised, agents are able to access it more efficiently without changing platforms. This will increase further with IATA’s NDC ((New Distribution Capability) because it gives agencies access to the individual’s profile (including needs and preferences) and allows them to control what the traveller sees, creating a tailored experience from inspiration to trip.
Commenting on this trend Renaud Nicolle, Amadeus’ APAC VP business travel for travel channels, said: “At the moment business travel agencies have to navigate their way through mountains of fragmented content across several platforms. But as part of Amadeus’ evolution from a global distribution system to a Live Travel Space we’ll be able to offer one platform of choice with huge amounts of content for travel distributors and providers. It will transform how business travel agencies work and allow comparisons and bookings to happen in a uniform and transparent way.”
• Featured image credit: Rawpixel/Getty Images
