Online booking and mobile payments are becoming more and more important in corporate travel

Security, mobile services and platforms common to all travel management are some of the trends that companies believe will most affect their business travel, according to the new wave of Braintrust's Business Travel Barometer.

The use of the Internet for travelers to book directly on their own is the travel industry trend considered the most important, according to the study. Seventy-eight percent of the companies interviewed say so, followed by the use of mobile and virtual payment tools for travel or the use of smart shopping solutions, such as e-auction, both of which were mentioned as relevant by 40 percent of the companies interviewed.

The booking of travelers themselves online stands out as a critical need among younger travel managers, many of them digital natives, and especially in SMEs, ahead of older travelers and large companies, while geographically Madrid is far ahead, followed by Catalonia and the rest of the regions.

SECURITY IN SERVICES AND DATA

For the companies analyzed in the Business Braintrust Barometer, improvements in security, both in services and data management, will be one of the priorities that will have the greatest impact on business travel in the future.

Security in transportation and hotels was the most frequently mentioned, with 64% of respondents considering this option among the most critical areas. This aspect is much more relevant for small and medium-sized companies, most of which do not have security policies in place, nor do they have departments or personnel to deal with this need, in an increasingly insecure, unstable and unpredictable geopolitical environment.

In the part of the study dedicated to Big Data, data security appears as a critical requirement in 81% of the cases, more accentuated in the case of SMEs, some of which are still in the process of storing their data in a secure environment;The most demanded aspect by large companies (59%) is to maximize the use of data for predictive analytics, while SMEs are still in the process of storing their data in the cloud.

UNIQUE PLATFORMS

As for trends in travel technology, the construction of a common process and platform for all travel management is the most important aspect;

In terms of trends in travel technology, building a common process and platform for all travel management is the one that will have the most impact in the coming years, being very important for 57% of respondents.

Implementing travel comparison, search and issuance tools or the use of mobile applications to increase traveler efficiency with 55% and 46%, respectively, are the next most relevant trends in the technology field for Spanish companies.

Lastly, the participants in the study state as other important trends in the market the use of low-cost airlines (61% include it in aspects of great relevance), the competition between the traditional agencies and OTAs (45%), the disintermediation of end suppliers (40%), and the use of social networks for business travel (31%).