This is correctly called the era of the centered traveler and with the evolution of the new era of personalized travel; It leads to the research and development of a series of new services called smart. The outlook for travel command and control has changed significantly in the past, and attention has shifted more to the traveler and the productivity of each trip. It has become essential to keep travelers with the best return on investment on each trip. The new generations of young employees and managers, who evolve and live in the digital age, evolve as travelers. It has become essential to recognize the need for greater flexibility, knowing that employees traveling in business also consider that a percentage of their trip is a pleasure trip. With the increase of globalization and the increase in companies that send their personnel abroad to establish contacts and connect with their prospects/customers/suppliers abroad, business travel is a very tourist segment. profitable. Before we talk about how tourism companies can better serve business travelers, let's see why they prefer to use specialized corporate agencies rather than traditional agents.
Why do companies use business travel agencies?
This could be the most basic question for a travel agency as to why it needs to use specialized business travel agencies when there are many regular travel agencies on the market. Here is the importance of business travel agencies that have online systems that allow business travelers to access their complete itinerary.
The following information is available to CTAs: -
all the details of the commercial route
update flight tracking details (including delays or rescheduling)
Transparent details of additional costs, such as baggage fees or flight fares.
travel alerts, if any, in the targeted area
complete and up-to-date details on visa acquisition policies and required identification
monetary requirement and conversion rate
What does corporate clientele of business travel agencies expect?
Negotiated rates
Corporate agencies tend to have links to hotels, car rentals, flights, etc., which gives them access to lower rates that only frequent business travelers can use. However, the discounted prices are not the only benefit, as they also offer flight upgrades, room upgrades, and VIP check-in lines as needed.
Detailed information on the travel industry.
Business travel agents have access to many travel resources and, more importantly, quicker than any other leisure travel agent. Additional information helps make business trips convenient and comfortable.
Route changes
When an airline ticket has to be postponed or canceled, the airline or online service provider will likely charge a high fee. When booking with a business travel agent, most of the time, changes can be made with minimum zero or minimum charges.
Viable emergency contacts
Business travelers must reach the right person if necessary. Business travel agents have the experience and professionalism to relieve the stress of the traveler and the company.
What should you keep in mind when business travel increases?
Business Travel Barometer indicated that business travel is growing rapidly. However, if mismanaged, it may no longer be profitable for businesses and may even become a burden. There are certain factors that companies and CTAs should take into account to make the most of the time they spend traveling.
Adopt a travel policy.
The company must define a travel policy that is applicable and respected by travelers at all levels. This policy should be used to establish standards that will help track improvement in business travel. This will ultimately help reduce the costs of the entire package.
Do not limit the autonomy of the traveler.
The administration is responsible for budgeting the travel policy which helps to improve cost management, but it is also essential to give the traveler some autonomy. The policy must be flexible enough to allow the employee to tailor the trip to suit the situation.
Travelers' safety should be a major concern
Business travelers must have security in place. The company must comply with its definition of standards to ensure the integrity of the employee. CTAs must have reliable partners (travel insurance, airlines, hotel chains, etc.).
Mobility and automation
To optimize time and facilitate processes, the administration of management platforms must have automated processes. This means they should adopt mobile solutions that provide access to search options, travel alerts, ticket reservations, etc. quickly, easily and on the go.
Business travel trends in 2016
Business travel trends tend to change regularly. 2016 was no different either, and travel management companies (TMC) and business travel agencies (CTA) are targeted enough to provide a stable, if not solid, focus everywhere. A growing MICE sector, investments in mobile devices and big data and a better focus on care are some of its areas of intervention.
Price increase
The buzzword consolidated among global suppliers, airfares, hotel rates, etc. It is the increase in tariffs. Sometimes it is the movement of suppliers to generate discounts that encourage travel in the event of a sharp drop in demand. A positive global economy in 2016 led to an increase in airfares by a few percentage points, hotels are expected to see a 4% to 6% increase in average global fares and competition will remain moderate in rental services. of cars.
Obligation to care
Risk management is one of the main points of interest to companies. Business customers are allowing new policies and improved technologies to monitor the location of employees in an emergency, especially when traveling to foreign destinations. For example, Concur Risk Messaging helps identify travelers moving around the world and alerts them with an alternative travel agreement if necessary.
Focus on MICE
The meeting industry is an important growth sector and the trend of business travel is developing there. Business travel agencies should start aligning the different meeting acquisition methodologies with their transient travel source. One way could be to expand the variety of meeting services by incorporating incentive travel.
Invest in technology
You can focus more on increasing value and become more focused on the traveler by incorporating technologies compatible with mobile devices. Mobile data and big data are certainly the two most important technological investments that any business travel agency should focus on to make their platform more attractive.
Analysis of business travel after Brexit
After Brexit, ACTE and CAPA shared their speculations. According to them, the most significant short-term effects in the travel industry will come from the weakening of the pound against other world currencies. Greeley Koch, executive director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, said the business travel industry will tend to fluctuate in currencies; some companies take advantage of the weakness of the pound and travel more, while others may keep their business trips until world markets find their own level.
Impact of terrorism on business travelers
Policymakers and administrators must be guided by the growing fear of terrorism. For executives and staff traveling on business, travel agents and corporate travel agencies (CTAs) must demonstrate the safety of their safety through travel policies. Business traveler surveys are more than likely to reflect the general concern of international business travelers about the wave of terrorism. However, the fact that the terrorist threat is changing business travel patterns cannot be denied. The key impact of this is to keep in mind that companies that provide travel services to business travelers need to focus more on the security and associated risks when providing services to business customers. According to a recent finding, travel managers have a better estimate of the effectiveness of their risk management policy compared to skeptical business travelers.
Conclusion
Although the business travel sector has continued to grow, the industry faces many challenges. A rapidly changing consumer market, the emergence of new business models, the impact of technology, man-made and nature crises are some of the points to consider before planning travel trips. 'business.
TravelCarma is an experienced travel technology company that operates more than 200 travel agencies worldwide with B2C / B2B online booking systems, back-office, mid-office and access to global inventory. Visit our website http://www.travelcarma.com.
Happy travel
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