Corporate Travel Is Getting More Customizable

Consolidation has been sweeping across the business travel industry, as many of the big travel management companies make strategic acquisitions all over the globe. With the business travel world getting smaller, employees may also see booking recommendations get a little bit more personal, according to recent analysis from Amadeus.

Now it looks like new distribution technology is only set to accelerate that trend, as more individual user data becomes available to travel providers.

We dig deeper and talk to travel management company Travel and Transport to get an inside take on the market for new distribution technology in both Europe and the U.S. and how it sees the role of this disruptive technology going forward.

Plus Travelport’s CEO Gordon Wilson announces plans to step down, and we look into some of the newest acquisitions in the travel management space.

If you have any feedback about the newsletter or news tips, feel free to reach out via email at [email protected] or tweet @ikcarey.

— Isaac Carey, Travel Reporter

Featured Stories

A Consolidated Biz Travel Market Could Mean More Personalized Booking: Watching how adoption of new distribution technology plays out in this early stage can give us a look into what to expect in the future, especially if direct distribution ever moves into other areas of travel booking, such as hotels.

BCD Travel and Flight Centre Make More Global Acquisitions: It’s pretty clear there’s a lot of consolidation going on in the travel management space, and there are no signs of that changing. With BCD’s most recent investment, the company is in a good position to start planning future acquisitions in the Asia-Pacific region.

Travelport CEO Gordon Wilson Will Exit Role: Gordon Wilson will leave Travelport after taking the company private. The company has a travel technology veteran lined up to take the reins, and Travelport needs all the help it can get to compete against Sabre and Amadeus.

Highest-Paid Online Travel CEOs of 2018: The CEOs of Booking Holdings, Expedia Group, and TripAdvisor all saw their total compensation fall in 2018, but only because 2017 was an exceptional year for each. Glenn Fogel of Booking and Mark Okerstrom of Expedia were each appointed as CEO in 2017, and Steve Kaufer of TripAdvisor received a long-term incentive award that was undoubtedly the envy of his peers.

The Future of Travel

Oyo Is Betting U.S. Strategy on Aggressive Dynamic Pricing: Oyo’s dynamic pricing strategy could turn out to be a bit of a double-edged sword in the U.S., where the company faces greater competition. On one hand occupancy is sure to go up for many of its hotel partners, but if a majority of rooms are booked last-minute at incredibly low prices, hotel managers can start enduring some losses.

Emerging Travel Group Raises $10 Million: From TripActions’ quarter billion dollar investment round to Emerging Travel Group’s solid $10 million round, there’s lots going on in travel startup funding.

Booking Holdings Delays Charging Hotels Resort Fee Commissions in Major Reversal: Booking Holdings faced opposition from hotels over its new resort-fee commission policy, although the brands that dropped out of Booking.com would not have delivered a material financial hit. This major reversal coincides with a leadership change atop Booking.com and represents a victory for hotels and their controversial fees.

Skift Senior Enterprise Editor Andrew Sheivachman [[email protected]] curates the Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report. Skift emails the newsletter every Thursday.

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