Corporate travel management in the midst of the perfect storm
Travel managers and TMCs face a whole new set of challenges compared to 2020 and 2019. Business travel volumes are unpredictable. The landscape has become more complex than ever and the workforce is lean, as Pascal Benn, a partner at Focus Travel, analyzes in an article published by Phocus Wire.
The expert recalls that the Business Travel Association (BTA) predicts that 50% of business travel jobs are at risk. In addition, a recent survey by Phocus Wire of the SME sector notes that TMCs have laid off a third of their staff.
The complexity is accentuated by a «double whammy» of the effects caused by covid-19 and Brexit, in the case of UK-based companies. As Benn stresses, «you could call it a perfect storm. Complexity requires management, which provides an opportunity for travel agencies specializing in corporate. Here are the points he details in his analysis for this year:
Travel policy management
Travel policies will be more changeable in 2021 as companies react to the constantly shifting complexities of covid-19. Typically, changes come from the travel manager and are communicated by email or phone to the agency. The agency then filters the information to its teams and the online booking tool. The process can take days. That's why new technology tools are emerging to speed things up by updating systems in real time so that travel restrictions to countries, regions or cities are implemented immediately.
Duty of Care
Over the past six months there has been a steady stream of enhancements applied to existing technology. For example, risk management systems that track the whereabouts of travelers now incorporate the "covid risk" rating, while websites provide details on visa requirements and options for booking a test for the virus. These will still be useful in 2021.
API
Specialized information companies have enhanced their offerings in the form of new services, and some offer them through APIs. The protocol is very useful, as it can transmit consistent commands and information through additional channels. For a TMC working with travel managers via telephone and online self-booking tools, it is clearly beneficial for pandemic travel advisories to flow directly through this technology. It is important to keep the traveler abreast of changes in that information before and during travel.
Personalization
Covid-19 has had a marked impact on resources and the industry has had to adapt. One in three employees has been laid off in small and medium-sized travel agencies. As demand for travel returns and volumes increase, the quality of customer service may be compromised. Technology that aids personalization will be important. The ability to display previous trips a traveler has taken within the reservation system is useful: "I see you just returned from Paris, how was your stay at the Hilton? ?Would you like me to book the same hotel again?”…
Remarketing
With such a long period of low business volume, TMCs will be looking to maximize opportunities on each new booking. That will mean taking full advantage of negotiated rates and ancillary services. New technology companies are emerging that offer remarketing solutions. They work by generating new alerts on booking data to find out when certain services have not been booked. Machine learning will analyze the most successful method to tailor the offer to individuals. This means that artificial intelligence will know, for example, that for person X, a whatsapp message 24 hours before departure offering airport parking will be more effective compared to person Y, who will respond better to an email 48 hours before departure.
NDC
The New Distribution Capability protocol continues to advance, with many players vying for market share. While the three major global distribution systems are failing to reach commercial agreements with airlines, new entrants are growing and adding more operators and more functionality. The GDSs are finally competing on very different terms than the traditional oligopoly they have enjoyed for so many years.
Within corporate travel, it's not just about the ability to book NDC inventory, but to be able to service the booking effectively to process it downstream (invoicing/reporting, etc.). Those companies that really understand the process issues and find solutions to solve them will win.
Some companies specializing in NDC are producing GDS back office files that help the invoicing process. But, there is still a lack of a system capable of capturing GDS bookings, NDC bookings and bookings from other direct sources to provide a single environment in which to modify or cancel them. Today, the GDS is still the only tool that really offers a centralized place for everything.
I imagine that at some point the GDSs and the airlines will resolve their commercial differences and we will get NDC content in the GDS as mainstream. If they don't, a huge investment by the GDSs will have been wasted. With more and more airlines adding surcharges for booking in the GDS, as well as eliminating the cheapest fares, it is becoming a more expensive environment to book in. The model must change.
Online Booking Tools
Online Booking Tools (OBTs) will face some challenges in 2021, one of them regarding resources. Those companies that rely on transactions rather than annual profile fees have had to make layoffs. There may be a flight of innovation due to labor shortages. TBOs will need to integrate new sources of covid-19 information. These integrations will help keep people rebooking and are necessary to increase trust between companies and their travelers, which is at an all-time low. In some respects, OBT workflows are ideal when it comes to approval processes, which are likely to be more complex in 2021 compared to the previous year.