GUEST BLOG: How the corporate travel industry needs to adapt to emerging trends

With the advent of a global economy and supply chain, the business travel sector has had to evolve in order to address new trends and challenges.  Whilst trip authorisation, duty of care and negotiated rates with travel providers are still the minimum standards required to address corporate needs, business travellers are looking for more than just the bare minimum. 

One trend we’ve seen is the growing demand for even more independent and boutique hotel inventory. According to Euromonitor International, hotel booking value is projected to grow 6% per year, from $480 billion in 2013 to $600 billion in 2017 in current terms, using year on year exchange rates. Travel management companies which address this growing demand and offer business travellers more choice will reap the rewards.

There are vast numbers of distribution channels for content (hotel and otherwise) and the challenge is to find the most efficient way to integrate that content and make it useable within the confines of the corporate travel program. Next generation travel providers are looking not just for ease of use and convenience, but also complete and transparent access. It is important that corporate travel providers have access to unique hotel content and ancillary spends in order to meet the needs of their customers and stay ahead of the competition.

It is for these reasons that Travelport has expanded beyond a traditional ‘GDS’ to become a broader travel commerce platform. We are giving travel providers new ways to merchandise their content and more intuitive ways to search, sell and book.  

This blog was written by Lorraine Jacobs, Vice President, Corporate Sales & Development, at Travelport. You can visit Travelport at the Business Travel Show from 25-26 February (stand B933) to find out more about how they can integrate any hotel in the world into your programme.