IS BREXIT REALLY MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE SAFETY OF OUR TRAVELLERS?

Our annual Business Travel Show survey revealed that Brexit is not only the biggest challenge facing buyers next year, it will continue to cause them problems as far ahead as 2022.

For the first time in four years, cost-cutting was knocked off the top spot of the list of forthcoming challenges to be replaced by Brexit, which shot up from fourth place – its home for the last two years. Airbus UK travel manager and one of our advisory board members, Geoff Allwright, even admitted that Brexit is the one thing that ‘keeps him awake at night’.

With the news agenda saturated by Brexit, none of this comes as much of a surprise. But there were two interesting results from our survey. The first is that our poll (of 134 European buyers) showed that 65 per cent of travel managers don’t have a post-Brexit plan in place. Whether that’s a cause of concern or simply a side effect of the fact it’s impossible to plan for something so uncertain, is hard to know, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

And the second thing? While Brexit rocked up the chart and pricing, the value of sterling, globalisation and technology also make the 2019 top ten, duty of care and traveller risk have dropped out of the chart completely after taking the second slot for the last two years. Completely dropped out. In a world where terrorism and natural disasters are not getting any less frequent; at a time when travel managers claim that duty of care, traveller risk, traveller tracking – all of these things – are the ultimate priority to them.

In line with the Business Travel Show’s Travel 2022 theme for 2019, buyers were also asked what they expect to be the biggest challenges facing them in three years’ time. Similarly, to the 12-month forecast, Brexit and cost-cutting topped the table. Visas also made an appearance at number seven, mirroring the general concern about the impact that Brexit will have on the free and easy movement of people across borders.

1	Brexit	6	Consolidation
2	Rising costs	7	Visas
3	NDC	8	Climate change
4	Traveller safety	9	Personalising travel
5	Travel alternatives	10	Sharing economy

Whether for or against the UK leaving the Europe Union, the last few months have been particularly frustrating and baffling for both sides leaving everyone possibly even more uncertain about any potential outcomes than they were a year or two ago. Because of that, I think our poll captures the Zeitgeist perfectly and it doesn’t surprise me that – right now – buyers are more concerned about Brexit than cost cutting.

This post was written by Business Travel Show marketing manager Kye Blackett. 

The Business Travel Show is the leading event in Europe for corporate travel professionals, taking place 20-21 February 2019 at Olympia London. Buyers can register for a free visitor pass at www.businesstravelshow.com/register. Buyers with a minimum annual spend of £1 million can also apply to attend as a hosted buyer at http://www.businesstravelshow.com/hosted-buyers.

WHY THINKING 12 MONTHS AHEAD MAY NOT BE ENOUGH

The Business Travel Show runs an annual buyer survey. We must have been doing it for nearly 10 years, now. Each year we ask buyers what the biggest challenges they’re expecting to face over the next 12 months are, how budgets will change, if they’ll book more or fewer trips, flights, hotel rooms… It gives the industry an interesting snap shot into how the industry changes from year to year and the issues we need to be aware of over the coming months.

At the show, we also curate conference sessions that focus on the next 12 months. Our Forecasting Forum, which looks at the cost of business travel among other things, is always incredibly popular.

Getting access to insight like this – especially data that’s practical – is valuable and genuinely useful to buyers. And that’s why they come to the show from all over Europe – because they want to spot trends and be inspired by innovation

But is it enough to only look 12 months ahead? Given how long it takes for technology, for example, to really bed in and prove itself on a day to day basis, shouldn’t we look a little further ahead and help buyers to visualise how these innovations can be slotted into the travel programme of the future?

With that in mind, this year’s theme for Business Travel Show is Travel 2022 and we’re launching a host of new features to complement it that are designed to ramp up the visitor experience and prepare buyers for the future of business travel. It will focus on introducing travel buyers and managers to the technology, techniques and topics that will/could dominate the industry over the next three years.

Keep an eye out for WonderLAB. It’s a fun interactive tech showcase where buyers can get hands on with the innovations that will impact travelling and travel management in the future. Think driverless cars, drones, robots and mixed reality experiences.

Then there’s the Future Forum: a new multipurpose theatre and communal space on the show floor where visitors will be able to take part in brand-new Huddles (brilliantly informal educational and networking opportunities) and watch the fourth annual Disrupt Awards final led by head judge Nick Easen.

Talking of the Disrupt Launchpad and Awards, they are back for the fourth year running in 2019. It’s home to the next generation of business travel start-ups and the winner of the Disrupt Awards will be back at the show in 2020 with a free bells and whistles stand.

Over in the conference theatres, there is tonnes of content planned to fit in with the Travel 2022 theme, including agile travel platforms, Brexit and the global risk outlook, using bots in travel programmes, and intro to ONEOrder and a fascinating session on AI, blockchain, bots and mixed reality and how they will transform travel management.

Join us. It’s going to be a fascinating journey.

And if you fancy exhibiting in the WonderLAB – it’s free – just send your entries before Christmas to adam.garside@centaurmedia.co.uk.

This post was written by Business Travel Show marketing manager Kye Blackett. The Business Travel Show is the leading event for corporate travel in Europe attracting over 9,000 professionals and 260 exhibitors. Taking place from 20-21 February 2019 at Olympia London, the show is celebrating its 25^th anniversary.