Doing More for Female Business Travelers

Happy 6th of July, everybody.

This week I took a look at the latest research on the serviced apartment sector, which is growing but faces challenges amidst a building boom and increased competition from the sharing economy.

I also examined how companies seem hesitant to adapt their policies to ensure the safety of female travelers. Most business travelers are men, but as women travel more for work, a new focus should be placed on their security. New research shows a big missed opportunity for travel managers and companies to do more for female workers.

Check these stories out below alongside other looks at the future of travel.

If you have any feedback about the newsletter or news tips, feel free to reach out via email at as@skift.com or tweet me @sheivach. It's starting to get close to this year's GBTA Convention; let me know if you want to meet up in San Diego.

— Andrew Sheivachman, Business Travel Editor

Airlines, Hotels, and Innovation

Serviced Apartment Demand Rises Despite Headwinds: The serviced apartment sector appears to be thriving, although it faces a challenge from reduced growth among corporations. The bigger threat could be the mainstreaming of homesharing services like Airbnb at a time when serviced apartment providers are in the midst of a building boom.

Few Corporate Travel Policies Specifically Address Female Safety: Travel managers know they need to focus on safety as more women travel for business, but seem to be unwilling so far to make specific changes to their policies. Hopefully, this trend won’t continue.

JetBlue Eyes Europe and Airbus’ New Jet With Longer Range: U.S. airlines can reach some Western European airports profitably with narrow-body aircraft. But even the best narrow-body planes have some range issues. If it wants to fly to Europe, JetBlue will need to decide whether it can do so with the A321LR, or whether it should wait for a longer-range aircraft.

Amazon, Group Travel, and Loyalty: 3 Charts From Our Skift Research Reports: Amazon is posing a threat. Chinese tourists are spotted everywhere and the loyalty war is getting ever more intense. Common threads? It’s a disruptive phase for travel that requires nimble strategies.

The Future of Travel

AccorHotels Using Biometrics as Marketing Ploy for Loyalty Members: It’d be so much more interesting to see if and how this kind of biometrics data can truly inform our travel experiences.

Why Lufthansa Group Helps Customers From Other Airlines Check In for Flights: Lufthansa Group’s Airlinecheckins.com may not be the most amazing innovation ever, but considering it only took about 30,000 euros to build, the return on investment has been impressive. The platform allows customers to check in for flights on more than 200 airlines. And as the facilitator, Lufthansa gets a lot of data about passenger preferences.

How Personalization Can Revolutionize Business Travel: Festive Road's Caroline Strachan writes in The Company Dime about the glaring need for stronger personalization in business travel.

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Skift Business Travel Editor Andrew Sheivachman [as@skift.com] curates the Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report. Skift emails the newsletter every Thursday.

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