Technology in business travel is geared towards travelers_Session FBT Madrid

Technology has changed the way business travel is conceived and the transformation is accelerating rapidly. From being basically oriented towards management, its current challenge is to serve travelers on the move. Forum Business Travel has analyzed the latest market trends in a special session for travel agencies held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Madrid.

 

The conference, held on May 21, started with the intervention of Óscar García, founding partner of Forum Business Travel, to break down the conclusions of the “Observatory on Technology and Innovation applied to Business Travel”, elaborated by FBT and Amadeus with the results of a survey conducted among more than 100,000 business travelers;a e Innovación aplicadas a los Viajes de Empresa”, elaborated by FBT and Amadeus with the results of a survey conducted among more than 120 travel managers representing an estimated buying power of 374 million euros.

The progressive arrival of the Millennial generation to management positions is changing the business culture of many of them. To analyze this transformation, the Observatory aims to give a vision of the map of technology applied to business travel in Spain and to know what travel managers think of the technology available in our country and how it is applied.

The most relevant data of the study reflect that one out of three companies works with self booking tools or Self Booking Tools (SBT), with which they claim to obtain savings of 14.5% in rates aéreas. In agency costs, the reduction is less. However, travel cost control is still very manual. In fact, more than 55% of those surveyed acknowledge not having this management automated.

With regard to data processing, 66% of the companies surveyed have analysis tools. The information to feed it comes mainly from the travel agency and, to a lesser extent, from the payment system. One of the most striking aspects of the study points to the scarce implementation of corporate social networks, although it is beginning to be an effective tool for mobile travelers.

After a presentation of the SAP Cloud for Travel and Expenses tool, an end-to-end solution based on hosting information in the cloud and integrated with Amadeus SBT, the session reviewed the trends that Forum Business Travel travel managers have identified for this year.

By the hand of Sandra Andradas, travel manager at Isolux Corsán, the travel agents present at the session learned the perceptions of their partners regarding market trends for 2014. According to Andradas, what travel managers are looking for are “global agreements, with transparent rates, regardless of the point of sale”. According to the expert,  “companies aéas aére taking steps through the alliances in which they are integrated, but very slowly”

Travel agents welcomed the recent incorporation of the offer of Renfe into the Amadeus self-booking tool. However, they pointed out that the integration is better. Either way, it is a big step that will strongly boost train ticket sales, where a reduction in fares is also expected due to the introduction of competition in Renfe's monopoly. Specialized agents and travel managers expect complementary transport services to be included in the booking systems.

As for the relationship with travel agencies, no new remuneration models are envisaged, but new functions are expected. According to Sandra Andradas, “with the new technologiesías it seems that everyone is an expert in travel, but the authentic consultantía is the one that really brings value”.The travel manager said the transaction fee model remains the most transparent.

As far as the hotel industry is concerned, travel managers somehow recognize that “rates cannot be lowered any further;s”, asñaló Andradas, “because there has been a great adjustment effort and prices are expected to remain stable”. 

The FBT session in Madrid concluded with the working tables of the travel agents in attendance, in which they analyzed the challenges of implementing a self-booking tool. Basically, the recommendations include studying the advantages of its adoption, involving the management and all the staff in the project and establishing a progressive process in which incentives play a more important role than imposition.