What Buzzwords Tell Us About Corporate Travel — Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report

The Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report is our weekly newsletter focused on the future of corporate travel, the big fault lines of disruption for travel managers and buyers, the innovations emerging from the sector, and the changing business traveler habits that are upending how corporate travel is packaged, bought, and sold.

We've been covering corporate travel closely for a little more than a year now, and one thing that struck us is the terms that seem to get a lot of attention — and then fade away as new phrases catch on. (We're looking at you, consumerization, gamification, and traveler centricity.)

So we decided to query experts in the industry about what terms they see generating the most buzz, for better or for worse (does anyone like "bleisure" as a word?).

What we found (see story below) was that concepts stick around and evolve, even if their buzzy names do not. And if one theme ties together the trends, it's that evolution in corporate travel is often driven by, yes, efforts to find savings — but also the desire to make the experience less burdensome for travelers.

— Hannah Sampson, Skift 

Social Quote of the Day

After flying from Germany to DC with a baby, a toddler, and two dogs, business travel is a piece a very delicious cake.  @MilliGFunk

Business of Buying

American Airlines Will Shrink Legroom in Coach — Again: We’ll reserve judgement until we try the seats. Maybe American has developed a special seat that makes passengers feel as if they have more legroom than they do. But that’s probably unlikely. American’s passengers should prepare for a squeeze. Read more at Skift

Airbnb Debuts Business Travel Search Tool: Why hasn’t Airbnb rolled this out sooner?
Read more at Skift

Congress Warns 5 Airline Execs They Must Improve Customer Service: Congress is not happy with U.S. airlines. That’s for sure. But how much will Washington do about it? Here’s a prediction: Probably not much. Read more at Skift

Meetings and Events Are a Big Part of Vegas’ Latest Winning Streak: Found yourself in Vegas for work trips more lately? With gambling revenue in steady decline, meetings and events have become extremely important for Las Vegas resorts. Read more at Skift

Safety + Security

U.S. Issues Warning About Travel To Europe: This travel warning replaces one that expired in February. Is it based on new intelligence or specific threats? That wasn’t clear. Read more at Skift

Skift Backstage Podcast: Global Tourism in a Volatile Time: Tune in to our first backstage podcast from Skift Forum Europe for insight on how the world is changing for travel — and how the industry is responding. Read more at Skift

Disruption + Innovation

Don't Call It a Bizcation: The Corporate Travel Buzzwords Everyone Is Sick Of:
Traveler Centricity. Gamification. Big Data. Bleisure. Buzzwords can help drive an industry forward, even if everyone is tired of hearing them. Read more at Skift

Do Rewards Motivate Employees to Spend Less on Business Travel? Companies such as Rocketrip and Upside can save companies money on travel spend. The question for these startups is how big can they get? Read more at Skift

Killing U.S. Visa Programs? It’s Apparently on Trump Administration’s To-Do List: As strange as it is that a tweet from a Rabbi would help expose the inner workings of a Presidential administration, it’s even stranger that a plan to thoroughly disrupt international travel to the U.S. could be in the works. Read more at Skift

Concur Will Add the Name of Its Parent Company and Become SAP Concur: After buying the travel technology company Concur in 2014, SAP now wants the unit to reflect its ownership. Other than the branding, nothing else is expected to change. Read more at Business Travel News

COMMENTS

Skift editors Hannah Sampson [hs@skift.com] and Andrew Sheivachman [as@skift.com] curate the Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report. Skift emails the newsletter every Thursday.

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