GUEST BLOG: Is Your Travel SuperCaliFragilisticExpialiDocious?

Spit spot. Your travel agent just booked your flight along with the expected hotel accommodation. Everything is practically perfect in every way, right? Well almost. The difference between a good trip and the most extraordinary one comes down to how three key ingredients manifest on your mobile phone: irresistible destination content, sensible user experience and indubitable dynamic communication channels.

It begins with a quest to discover ‘what to do’ and then ‘how to do it’ as soon as you have booked your flight and lodging. This isn’t an insignificant question when you consider the volume of travel taking place:

In 2017, a study of outbound tourism found that the average UK resident was abroad for a total of 10.2 nights, and spent £616 while there. In total, 72.8 million trips were taken, amounting to £44.8 billion spent abroad by tourists from the UK.  Conversely according to Visit Britain, the 39.2 million overseas visitors who came to the UK in 2017 spent £24.5 billion – both setting records. These figures represent a 4% increase in volume and 9% (nominal) increase in value compared with 2016.

Next, toss in a myriad of sites all declaring they have the answer to your destination needs.  But navigating all of this disparate content without the ability to weigh previous travel behaviour or current context feels like a ‘piecrust promise’ – easily made then broken, Miss Poppins herself would say.

Lastly, how we learn about all of the delightful accoutrements that can make or break one’s trip require that the communication surrounding them ‘step in time’. In other words, the delivery of push notifications, text messages, and email about ways to enhance and tailor your journey have to operate in a perfect symphony.

Good news, anything can happen if you let it. Truly. Travel agencies like Travel Up, Uniglobe and Wexas within the United Kingdom are already tapping into the latest mobile capabilities and best practices thanks to the Amadeus Mobile platform. This same white label platform powers CheckMyTrip, now the World’s Leading Travel App as of 2018, and is available to travel agencies worldwide to service and delight their travellers wherever they go.

It takes a village to successfully deliver a world-class travel app experience across content, user experience and multiple channels. Hence, Amadeus is cultivating the best and brightest global content and technology partners across activities, dining, parking, transfers, tours and more through the Amadeus Mobile COLLECTIVE to help travel agencies access everything they need to own and operate their travel apps so their travel clients enjoy the most productive and memorable journey.

Do you have a travel app, but not sure how to take it from good to brilliant? Well begun is only half done according to Mary Poppins. Pop by the Business Travel Show & Travel Technology Europe on 20-21 February at Olympia London to hear from top experts cultivated by Amadeus on the breaking trends and best practices defining the present as well as shaping the future of travel.

This post was written by Michelle Batten and her job title is Global Head of Marketing for Mobile, Amadeus. Register for your free visitor pass now at www.businesstravelshow.com 

GUEST BLOG: AN INSIGHT INTO BUSINESS TRAVEL TRENDS – DOES YOUR INVESTMENT PAY OFF?

When you pack your bags and head off on a trip, you often travel with the objective of scouting out new customers. But is that investment in travel paying off?

One of the key insights from our white paper 2015 European business travel and expense analysis, is that business travel spend in Europe is once again on the rise, although corporate travel managers are under more pressure than ever to demonstrate a return on investment on their travel spend.

The white paper, which is based on a telephone survey of travel managers who handle budgets ranging from less than €250,000 to over €50 million in 590 European companies, found that the main reason European corporations spend on travel is to acquire and develop clients. This is particularly relevant as 43% of the organisations surveyed intend to build on their activity abroad in the next three years, leading to an increase in their budget spend.

Paradoxically though, these companies view business travel spend as a cost rather than an investment, confirming the space in the market to improve the travel services these organisations are currently receiving.

Business travel spend can be broken down into two parts: the expenditure on the travel itself, which is known as the “direct cost”, or the expenditure on internal travel procedures and expense reimbursement, called the “indirect cost”. Controlling direct costs is one of the main priorities for those managing travel budgets, however the study details that 47% of corporations believe that direct cost-saving optimisation has reached a plateau and that they now need to focus on optimising their indirect costs.

This is where a global integrated travel and expense solution, such as Amadeus cytric Travel & Expense, steps in to meet corporations’ needs. Through this solution corporations can manage their travel programmes seamlessly from trip planning, to booking, accounting and reimbursement. An intuitive self-booking tool, together with a strong mobile app, is also a necessity to encourage adoption by employees so that they can be safely tracked while abroad – which was travel managers’ second priority in the survey.

Business travel certainly pays off when it’s supported by the right tools at home – and it’s clear from the study that the uptake of travel and expense solutions is a trend that’s set to continue. To discover further insights, download a copy of the 2015 European business travel and expense analysis white paper, and visit the Amadeus stand to discuss how we can help you shape the future of your travel and expense management programme.

This post was written by Florian Tinnus, Head of Corporate IT, Amadeus IT Group. Amadeus is exhibiting at the Business Travel Show in February. Register for your free

ticket now at www.businesstravelshow.com