GUEST BLOG: The UK is flying.

Now in it’s eleventh year, the AirPlus International Travel Management Study asks travel managers in no fewer than 24 countries how they view business travel prospects for the 12 months ahead. For the first time we have sought the views of business travellers too.

It turns out the opinions of both groups are remarkably similar. For example, 36 per cent of both UK travel managers and travellers expect more trips in 2016, while 5 per cent of travel managers and 8 per cent of travellers think there will be fewer. Likewise, 44 per cent of UK travel managers forecast higher travel spend in 2016, as do 40 per cent of travellers.

A year of optimism – but watch out for costs

Another consistent picture to emerge is that British travel managers and travellers are well ahead of their peers in Western Europe and even globally in expecting more trips (and more spend) in 2016. Since business travel and GDP growth are strongly linked, these findings are consistent with the UK economy outperforming most other industrialised nations over the past year.

Expansion of business activity is welcome news, of course, but no company wants to see its travel spend spiral out of control as a result. Quite rightly, UK travel managers identify hotels as their biggest area of cost concern this year. Air fares are largely stable at present, thanks in part to low oil prices, so I expect to see travel managers making accommodation their number one supplier management objective in 2016. Tighter policy control, better use of corporate payments and a drive for more detailed hotel data are all likely to be on the agenda.

Managing cost while maintaining quality will undoubtedly be an issue this year, but there are plenty of good tools – and talent – available to tackle this critical challenge for travel managers.

To get your copy of the International Travel Management study, visit us on stand B430 at the Business Travel Show 2016. AirPlus is a leading specialist in corporate payment solutions.With 25 years experience we offer products to over 40,000 customers worldwide including corporate cards, centrally billed accounts, virtual card solutions and expert reporting tools.

GUEST BLOG: How should SMEs integrate suppliers into their business travel programmes?

There are an overwhelming range of options when it comes to business travel accommodation – particularly in London, where the latest figures predict that the volume of serviced apartments will increase by approximately 80% within the next two years.

Susan Cully

So what happens when a business traveller needs to book their stay? If you belong to a corporate company, you will more than likely either have an internal procurement team or a TMC (Travel Management Company) to take care of everything from the choice of accommodation to taxi and flight times.

But if you’re an SME, there is often a choice to be made – one which can ultimately impact a range of factors from significant cost differences to booking efficiency. Should you use an external TMC, or is there a larger benefit going direct to the accommodation supplier?

What many SMEs don’t realise is that Travel Management Companies often receive commissionable rates from suppliers and pass these on to the company. This can inflate rates by up to 15% in some cases – despite a more attractive package often available by going direct to the supplier.

And whilst some large corporations rely on TMCs to book frequent worldwide travel, business travel on a much smaller scale for SMEs will often mean that the client/supplier relationship is more than manageable. Communication is paramount to ensure that requirements are fully met – and who knows an SME’s accommodation requirements better than the company itself?

Interestingly, TMCs are being very mindful to treat SMEs differently from corporates. According to a recent survey by The Business Travel Show, 71% of buyers are nearly twice as likely to give SME travellers freedom to book independently. Rather than restricting choice and enforcing policy, employees are encouraged to make the right choices themselves.

But if this is the case, then what real merit do SMEs gain from working with a TMC? This necessary question should always be at the forefront of a company’s plans for developing its travel programme – and it is a subject that Marlin Apartments will be discussing further at the Business Travel Show 2016. Visit Marlin Apartments at Stand B262 to discover our serviced apartments and business solutions.

This post was written by Susan Cully, Managing Director of Marlin Apartments, London’s leading serviced apartment provider. Marlin Apartments will be exhibiting at the Business TravelShow on 24-25 February 2016.

GUEST BLOG: First you see it, now you don’t….then you do again

The recent results of the Business Travel Show travel buyer survey show that NDC is now 17^th on the list of travel buyer concerns compared to being at the top in 2013. 

Paul Tilstone

With my session on NDC on the first morning of the show, I therefore naturally ask myself “why is this?”. Is it because people are just comfortable with NDC now and the consensus is that it will be what it will be or instead is it that people don’t see it impacting them in 2016 because since 2013 they can’t see any manifestation coming to market yet?

We know that it was front of mind in 2013 because it had recently been launched and the issue became a combative one in the press and on conference agendas, but things have moved on since then and these days all parties seem to recognise that NDC could help us find the solutions we desperately need. But it takes time to develop an industry standard and it was only formally launched at the end of 2015 so to judge its impact on 2016 based on the waves it has made to date would be unwise.

During my session I will be updating people on where the project is one year on from our session on NDC at the Business Travel Show last year. I will be sharing the names of companies involved in the project and what the benefits could be to buyers, TMCs and Self Booking Tools and you’ll get to hear from a company which you wouldn’t normally associate with business travel on how they are using the standard. This project is at a stage when we can all help to shape it, but in order to do so rather than have it be something we have to react to, we must remain engaged. See you at the show and make sure you arrive early enough to get yourself NDC ready…

This post was written by Paul Tilstone, co-founder of Festive Road. Paul is presenting a session on NDC at the Business Travel Show - to register for a free pass, please visit www.businesstravelshow.com 

GUEST BLOG: Managing travel in a multi-channel world - or how to herd cats in the modern age

I’ve never actually herded cats, but I hear it’s a difficult, if not impossible task. Doing business and getting things accomplished can feel more and more like herding cats the more our channels of communication multiply and diverge. It used to be that you had one, or maybe two, ways of contacting someone, your travel agency for example - by telephone, or fax. Today, only a very few people even know where the company fax machine is located, if there indeed is one. 

Christophe Peymirat

The same goes for the web. There used to be only one way to access the Internet, but today the sound of a dial-up modem is commonly used to illustrate outdated, slow technology from another generation. Smartphones, tablets, watches and soon even your refrigerator will be connected. Imagine these as a herd of cats, and now imagine that you depend on these cats for your company’s travel management.

Recently, the Expedia®/Egencia® Mobile Index showed once again how attached travellers are to mobile devices. Travellers now consider it to be the single most indispensable item they carry with them when they travel, ahead of their toothbrush, deodorant and driver’s license. So assimilated has the device become that even the ever-polite, etiquette-conscious British are second only to Australia in mobile etiquette tolerance - not bothered by most of the mobile activities other nations find offensive. It’s only natural that we will want to book more and more travel on mobile. A recent study by Criteo, a leading digital marketing firm, shows that the share of mobile bookings almost doubled between Q2 2014 and Q2 2015, increasing from 12 to 23 percent worldwide.[i]

But mobile addiction is not new. What’s becoming evident now is that screens are multiplying and access to the Internet may no longer even require a screen. With the multiplication of touch-points comes the challenge of keeping it all together in one place. We expect that an email we read and answer on our smartphone will automatically sync with our desktop mail server. I recently spent three weeks outside of the office, and conducted all of my business using only my smartphone. This would have been unthinkable just five years ago. So should it go for booking travel. When a booking is made online, we expect to find that booking on our mobile and vice versa. If I shop for a hotel on my iPad while I’m on the sofa over the weekend – I want to be able to book it right away and not have to wait until Monday to do it at the office. Convenience is something we all crave and if travellers get it through your travel program, it will make following the rules that much easier.

In addition to multiple screens, we also use a multitude of apps. We’ve found that up to 30 percent of business travellers across Europe use multiple apps to manage their business travel. What are they using them for? If you take a look at the App Annie Index, the top downloaded travel apps in the US are for ground transportation, beating out airlines, TripAdvisor and even the ubiquitous Expedia app. So it stands to reason that a good way of making sure travellers are finding what they need and booking what they should is to put everything in a single app, and connect that app to your travel program.

If you compare our mobile behaviour to a herd of cats, what would your weapon of choice be to get everyone moving in the same direction?  One big juicy piece of tuna would surely do the trick - especially one that is proven to be tasty.  For travellers, having an experience where we can do everything we need to on whatever device we choose, and in one single app is akin to this big piece of tuna.  If the traveller’s experience is fast, easy and effective, then keeping it all in one place becomes much easier than herding cats.

Christophe Peymirat is Senior Vice President of Egencia EMEA. Based in Paris at the Egencia European Headquarters, he will be speaking on the main stage of the Business Travel Show on Day 1 from 11:30 – 12:30. Come hear his thoughts on the pace of mobile in the business travel industry. Find out more about Egencia at BTS stand B435

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[i] Criteo, Travel Flash Report: Booking On Mobile Goes Mainstream - September 2015

GUEST BLOG: The growing need for the digital experience

In my last post, The Changing Face of Business Travel, I explored how the landscape in the business travel industry is shifting. Now I’d like to explore one of the fundamental catalysts driving that change: the growing need for the digital experience.

When you think about it, airports have quickly become some of the most technologically advanced buildings in the world. Just walk through the front entrance of London’s Heathrow Airport, Singapore Changi Airport, Dubai International Airport or San Francisco International if you don’t believe me.

Through clever use of technologies, airports have succeeded in allowing passengers to take control of their journey (something that organisations in other sectors can only dream about). From the moment a passenger enters the terminal doors, to the second their feet touch foreign soil, digital tools and technologies are playing an increasingly important role. Biometric enabled self-service check-in facilities and bespoke mobile phone applications designed to help to navigate through airport processes from check-in to boarding, from bag drop to shopping are testament to this.

It is this context that inspired us, at Priority Pass to carry out research, designed to uncover just how technically savvy today’s businesses travellers are. We found that in general frequent business travellers are active users of technology, both inside and outside the airport. Since our brand refresh last October, we have seen a dramatic increase in app usage across all platforms - iOS up over 50%, Android up by 10% and downloads of our BlackBerry app up by over 1,000%. Business travellers’ thirst for digital doesn’t just stop there; we know that they want their travel experience to be equally integrated with their devices, available digitally 24/7.

There is clearly a growing impetus to provide a seamless digital experience at airports, driving new levels of 21^st Century customer service, while taking the stress out of travel and providing a more personalised and intuitive passenger experience. The Priority Pass digital experts will be at the Business Travel Show and look forward to discussing how you can offer your business travellers a digital experience, at stand B422.

This post was written by Stephen Simpson, Global Marketing Director, Priority Pass who are exhibiting at the Business Travel Show. Register now for a free pass at www.businesstravelshow.com.