Articles tagged “corporate travel”

Corporate travel has embraced new distribution capability in fits and starts, mostly because the global distribution systems have been slow to integrate the technology. Australian companies, however, have seen the wisdom of taking a forward-looking approach.

In an interview, Travelport CEO Gordon Wilson strikes an optimistic tone for his company and for the negotiations at large over the fate of Britain's relationship with the European Union. We'll see if his confidence will be borne out by events.

Qantas, Serko, and Corporate Travel Management are leading the charge towards new distribution capability adoption in Australia, promising better access to rich content. They will have to overcome plenty of confusion in the market, however, before the new distribution channels are fully accepted.

After a few years of renewed focus on improving the business travel experience for employees, the corporate travel sector could soon flip back into cost-saving mode when faced with global pricing increases and a more uncertain overall business outlook.

TripActions and Lola have been two of the most interesting players in the business travel ecosystem in recent years. Both their moves this week show how important it is for smaller companies to be able to acquire customers and service larger organizations effectively.

Lola has struggled to catch on as it now pivots to provide travel management tools to small companies. Mobile booking through travel agents never broke through and it's hard to see a path forward for Lola in the extremely crowded market for managing small group travel.

TripActions is investing big in customer service unlike many other players breaking into corporate travel. The truth is that it's hard to land larger customers unless you can service their travelers wherever they are, no matter how cool your app is.

As Amazon pushes into hospitality, a battle will take place over who owns the business traveler's wallet. Travel managers will have to deal with Amazon and hotel loyalty programs pushing travelers to spend more on their platforms. Ubiquitous voice-powered travel booking, though, remains a distant reality.

The big global travel management companies have pivoted to become more like technology companies in recent years. Despite the usual bromides about innovation and user experience, they're unlikely to invest in voice-powered automation right now. Personalization needs to come first.

Not every company can afford a dedicated security director. There are services out there, though, that are evolving to offer more automated security solutions that aren't just for multinational corporations and global operations.