*GUEST BLOG* How travellers will use technology in 2020?

By Fiona Shanley, Chief Customer & Marketing Officer, Travelport 

If you’re a member of Generation X, as I am, you probably remember making phone calls from your hallway at home and only sending emails from the office. We read travel inspiration catalogues and reserved our trip on a Saturday morning trip to the local High Street. While it’s easy to take for granted the devices almost all of us now carry 24/7, the continued advancement of mobile connectivity in the last few years means more of us than ever are now being inspired, planning, booking and managing travel through our mobile phones.

With this in mind, we’re looking at the trends shaping mobile travel at the start of a new decade and the traveller behaviour that’s shaping how our industry works. Here are the findings of our recent research and the 9 things you need to know about consumer-facing travel technology as we start the 2020s.

Researching your trip

Peer to peer recommendations remain the most influential source of information for consumers. The same behaviour occurs in the travel industry with review sites (such as TripAdvisor) the ‘go-to’ research resource for over 80% of travellers.

We’re also using the capability of our mobile devices to find new ways to research travel options, including voice search, which will increasingly be available within your favourite travel apps through the next decade:

1. Voice search continues to gain traction as a research method with 40% of travellers using it, up from 23% in 2018.

2. Voice search is even more widely used by business travellers, with almost 60% using it in 2019.

Booking on mobile 

Booking travel is quite a fractured experience for the majority of travellers. Only 36% of respondents said they booked their whole trip through one website or mobile app. When you factor in research the number of touchpoints grows. A clear trend we are seeing is a willingness to book on mobile if the content is right for the traveller.

3. The vast majority of travellers (~75% of Leisure and ~80% of Business) have booked and paid for travel on their mobile.  

This trend is unlikely to change. Over the next 10 years, mobile will become increasingly prevalent as a travel booking method. Our research highlighted that the over 55s are the only age group not to have embraced booking on mobile. As the population gradually gets older the majority of travellers will be the digital natives of today (current 18-40-year olds) and more likely to continue their current behaviour of booking through their mobile

4. 84% of Gen Z and Gen Y respondents have booked and paid for a trip on mobile versus only 40% of the over 55s.

Communication creates connection 

As we’ve shown, lots of travellers are already booking online and through their mobiles. What their travel agencies do after a person has made a booking will be the key to building loyalty with that customer. Offering a discount or sending special offers is the minimum consumers expect from any retailer. Added information and relevant, timely customer service are likely to take that relationship a lot further. 

The biggest frustration travellers have is getting access to new information once their trip is booked. Our research shows many travellers are open to hearing about opportunities to enhance their travel experience through adding ancillaries like in-flight wi-fi or checking an extra bag after making their original booking.

5. 56% of travellers want to see the availability and cost of extras such as the ability to choose your seat, look at the menu, check if wi-fi is available and what the baggage allowance is  

Over 80% of travellers using apps said an update on the trip status is the most important notification they could receive. However, push notifications can play a role in the sales process too.

6. 82% of app users want to receive push notifications about changes to the price of a flight they had been considering and reminders about flights they had left abandoned in their cart.

This shows travel brands that travellers are always open to relevant communication while they’re planning their trips, before and after booking. 

Time to get personal 

We live in a world of big data. Our ability to understand huge data sets in order to gain insights about the people represented within them is growing thanks to AI and machine learning. Personalization as a trend will continue to grow in importance, whether it’s tailored offers or the ability to self-serve, travellers want more control over their trips.

7. 82% of respondents said they were in favour of receiving a shortlist of branded offers, being able to purchase add-ons, and to give airlines more access to your data to facilitate more personalization.

8. 35% of travellers said they get annoyed if companies they use regularly do not remember their preferences.

While a little over a third might not seem that significant, in an industry the size of ours that is a lot of people and these people are likely to be regular travellers. Think about a CFO who travels first class to regional offices every quarter, who likes to stay in the same suite in the office-adjacent hotel and prefers to drive themselves to and from the airport in 7-series BMW. This is a high value traveller and well worth remembering. If you can communicate with her before she comes to you and let her know these preferred services have been booked and confirmed, you make her PA’s life easier and her trip less stressful. 

App, app and away

As you may expect, younger travellers are more likely to use apps. The range of activities covers all aspects of the trip including flights, accommodation, car, and bleisure. Regardless of how the booking took place, approximately 40% of travellers want to be able to manage all aspects of their flight from an app.

9. 87% of travellers have the same or more travel apps on their smartphone in 2019, a 5% increase on the previous year.

The internet is becoming increasingly ‘mobile-first’. The amount of traffic from mobile has overtaken that from desktops in recent years and smartphone sales have been a multiple of PC sales for a long time. In the eyes of Google, how your websites look on mobile is more important than how it looks on a desktop.

A lot of the stats uncovered in our research back up the move to mobile by consumers and particularly travellers. Creating a digital travel experience through mobile communication should be a priority for travel agencies in 2020.

To find out more, download our Consumer Trends Report. You can also download our Mobile Trends Report 2020 and our Online Trends Report for even more information.

Visitors can reserve a meeting with the Travelport team or request an NDC demo at BTS here: https://marketing.cloud.travelport.com/bts-2020 

Register for FREE and visit the team on stand B1400 now www.businesstravelshow.com

*GUEST BLOG* How Carbon Offsetting Can Work for Business Travellers

When work calls for employees to travel to places unreachable by the more carbon-friendly options of train, bus or car -- they fly. However, flights are a huge contributor to the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere, a greenhouse gas that leads to global warming. Carbon offsetting of flights is becoming a popular way to understand emissions as travellers look to take action for a better future.

Several charities and programmes are working to reduce the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere through projects funded through donations. Now that it’s easy to generate carbon impact data through travel management platforms, travellers and their organisations can see their emissions in tonnes and donate the price equivalent to these programmes to help offset their carbon footprint.

Carbon offsetting programmes usually consist of two different kinds of projects: forestry or energy. Forestry projects stop trees (nature’s carbon solution) from being cut down or provide for the planting of new ones, and energy projects reduce fossil fuel consumption by investing in energy efficient products or renewable technology.

It’s important to remember that donations to these programmes do not instantly offset emissions. Understanding and utilising these environmental projects truly indicates the slow process of resolving our carbon impact - so offsetting can serve as a motivator to help change habits and decision making when it comes to travel.

Choosing Efficient Carbon Offset Programmes

Technology is being improved all the time and carbon impact data can now even live inside your corporate travel booking platform. With this data on hand, if employees do choose to harness that information for offsetting, it’s important to understand how to select efficient and reliable programmes.

Efficient programmes exist, just consider these three factors:

·        Additionality: Carbon offsets must be additive to those planned or expected from existing projects and initiatives.

·        No Leakage: The project can’t be increasing emissions somewhere else whilst it’s reducing them in others.

·        Permanent: A project where the output won’t be reversed in the future.

Why Enable Employees with Carbon Emissions Data?

Providing your employees with data on their individual carbon impact enables them to make environmentally-conscious decisions that can reduce your company’s emissions overall. It’s not hard to do with advancing travel management platforms providing carbon impact data now. Additionally, travelling sustainably is often more cost friendly and might positively impact your T&E spend as a by-product.

Providing employees with this information communicates a wider corporate social responsibility (CSR) message from the business, gaining buy-in and contributing positively from a company culture standpoint. It enables environmentally conscious employees to understand the impact of their business travel decisions and gives them an opportunity to turn that information into aid.

Learn how to make incremental changes that work towards a sustainable future and still harnesses the power of in-person communication with TripActions latest eBook - Taking Steps Towards Sustainable Business Travel.

TripActions are exhibiting at Business Travel Show. Register for FREE and visit them at stand B322, www.businesstravelshow.com

*GUEST BLOG* Mix people and platforms to build a high-performance travel programme

No matter how many objectives you’ve mapped out for business travel in 2020, you’ve only got one goal: to run a successful corporate programme. I’m here to tell you that four managed travel strategies will get you there, no matter what success looks like for your company and programme.

1.       Engage your travellers.

2.       Take good care of them.

3.       Let data drive your decisions.

4.       Create a scalable programme.

These four strategies require both great people and innovative technology. That’s not news to travel buyers. A recent survey by The Beat shows 87% of travel buyers value professional and responsive agents above all else. But digital capabilities aren’t far behind: 85% of travel buyers say getting accurate and timely programme data from their travel management company is critical.

At BCD Travel we’re constantly thinking about how best to configure the talents of our people and the ingenuity of our technology to meet corporate travel programmes changing needs. Those four strategies are at the heart of everything we do.

Engage your travellers

Traveller engagement is about balancing business objectives with traveller-friendly booking options and frictionless trip experiences. The aim is to gain travellers trust, inform their choices and, ultimately, increase traveller productivity while cutting programme costs.

Strong engagement tactics treat travellers like the consumers they are—reaching them with targeted merchandising and informative messages that show up at the right time. Engagement influences travellers booking and spending decisions, and it gets results. In just three months, our client Finastra, a U.K.-based financial technology firm, saved more than US$650,000 through traveller engagement.

Take care of your travellers

The coronavirus, Brexit and the wildfires in Australia all serve as timely reminders that we can’t eliminate hazards faced by business travellers. But we can mitigate them with a modern risk-management model.

On the people side, providing travellers with emergency numbers answered 24/7/365 is invaluable in building traveller confidence that you’ll take care of them. But you can’t just wait for that call. You must leverage digitalisation to locate and communicate with travellers in a crisis.

Domino’s harnesses the capabilities of BCD’s DecisionSource®, TripSource® and SolutionSource® platforms to increase the safety of employees, whether they're traveling for business or commuting to the office. A bonus: Duty of care improvements boosted booking compliance by 21 percentage points in one year.

Drive better programme performance with data

Any decisions you make for your programme should be backed by data. Period. That’s why we care so much about the quality of the data we collect and consolidate. It’s also why we make booked data available to our clients in just 30 minutes. That ensures your dashboards and reports are accurate and actionable in the moment.

RELX, a global information and analytics firm headquartered in London, relies on BCD to consolidate third-party data worldwide. Hear from RELX’s travel leader about how high-quality data enables insights and innovation.

Build a tailored programme with scalable platforms

Your business is unique. Your travel programme should be, too. What if you could create a programme tailored to your company culture and policies? One that offers:

·        The best travel content available, at the best rates, from multiple sources

·        A consumer-grade traveller experience driven by profile-based recommendations and service

·        Reporting and intelligence that allows you to make quick, informed decisions

A platform approach makes all of this possible by allowing you to integrate and distribute new technologies, content and suppliers with agility.

BCD is a full-service digital provider. Over the past five years, we have put 35% to 40% of our earnings back into the company to invest in our people, technology and infrastructure. That enables us to build flexible, open platforms primed for what’s next; partner on industry advancements; and meet clients’ changing needs without ever losing sight of what really matters: running a successful programme that keeps your travellers moving safely and smoothly so your business grows.

I’d love to talk about how your travel programme is adapting to change. Meet me at the Business Travel Show, 26-27 February, Booth B320. See you there! Register for a free visitor pass www.businesstravelshow.com

This blog was posted by Heather Wright, vice president of Global Product Marketing at BCD Travel.

*GUEST BLOG* Please Sir, I Want To Take A Business Trip

How the tedium of approval stresses travellers out – and inflates costs

People often have a romantic view of business travel – flying business class, five-star hotels, lobster dinners, piling up the points, cutting epic deals. And sure, it has its perks! But ask anyone who travels more than three or four times a year, and they’ll tell you it can be stressful too.

For many travellers, the stress begins long before they board the plane. Getting approvals, for example, can be a soul-cleaving experience.

Most companies demand employees seek approval before booking. And in theory, this makes sense. Companies don’t want employees booking trips willy-nilly, racking up costs.

But pre-trip approval processes have become so onerous that the booking experience is about as streamlined as a Lego bulldozer.

This applies across Asia. In India and China, travellers can require four or five levels of approval before booking. Even in Singapore, that beacon of efficiency, travellers may require two or three. So, they typically wait around three days – sometimes even a week – before booking.

As mortals wait, airfares rise.

In Asia, business trips are usually booked two to four weeks in advance. Waiting three days bumps airfares up four per cent on average. A week? Seven per cent.

Worse, if the fare goes up in the interim, it can be back to square one – the company’s travel policy might require the traveller to restart the entire approval process all over again.

You might ask: “Isn’t the ability to hold a booking one of the benefits of using a travel management company?”

And the answer is yes – but only for certain fares. It doesn’t apply to cheaper fares, which are ticketed instantly. Consider China, where approximately half of all airline seats are ticketed instantly, and these are around 30 per cent cheaper than the flexible seats.

It seems absurd to waste your travellers’ time – while costing the company money. Particularly since a whopping 98 per cent of trips are approved in the end. For domestic travel, approval rates are even higher.

What to do?

Start by identifying which trips require approval. Then set thresholds. For example, you can modify your policy to auto-approve any flights under US$500. And for flights over US$500, if fares increase only 10-12 per cent while you’re waiting for approval, you’re good to go.

Next, consider post-trip instead of pre-trip travel approval. Since almost all trips get approved anyway, just trust your employees to do the right thing. Deal with issues when they file their expenses after the trip.

And of course, use technology. Some apps send push notifications when a trip needs approval. This can cuts approval times massively. Technology can also auto-approve trips if the approver doesn’t approve them in time.

We’ve worked with our clients to find savings of up to five per cent. That might seem piffling, but when you’re spending US$5 million a year on flights – not uncommon for mid-to-large sized companies in Asia – that’s a quarter of a million dollars. Plus you have happier and more productive travellers. Result!

Blog Author: Akshay Kapoor, Senior Director, Multinational Sales, Asia Pacific, Carlson Wagonlit Travel. CWT are exhibiting at Business Travel Show, register for FREE now and visit the team on stand B230 www.businesstravelshow.com

*EXCLUSIVE Q&A* Business Travel Wellbeing Community

Business Travel Wellbeing Community was started by a group of like-minded people who wanted to change business travel for the better, and who felt that the best way to go about this was to focus on helping people with their mental health, physical health, jet-lag, sleep management, recovery, thriving and calm mind-sets and cultural intelligence. 

We find out more in this exclusive Q&A with co-founders of Business Travel Wellbeing Community; Dr. Lucy Rattrie, John Lee, Katie Virtue and Matthew Holman.

What inspired you to co-found BTWC?

We are business travellers, love working in the industry and are passionate about people doing incredible work. We have been frustrated that wellness challenges are not being addressed, despite statistics and anecdotal reports emphasising the importance of wellbeing. We want to enable people, organisations, and the industry to flourish, so collectively founded a global community with no hidden agenda and a values-based purpose.

Thankfully, traveller wellbeing is a topic gaining momentum, confirmed with a 2019 report revealing 89 % of organisations polled will increase their approach to wellbeing in 2020. We realised the people who matter (that’s the business travellers btw!) were not being asked what they want, need, think, so felt the need for something different, radical, right.

What excites you most about BTWBC?

Harnessing our collective energy to make a difference in the industry, speaking as a single voice that puts people at the heart of actions! A central point will bring together opinions, insights, knowledge to address challenges faced, guide people, organisations, suppliers, and professional bodies in decision making and action, bringing sustainability and putting people first.

What will make traveller wellbeing front and centre for the next ten years?

The increasing impact to travel programmes, high turnover, absenteeism, increasing fears around risk (amongst other factors) are causing travel managers and HR to take ownership. We expect the travel-HR conversations to become status-quo, driven by internal advocates, willingness to allocate budget and resources to help travellers, and suppliers who up their game. It’s been accepted for a long time that people are the heart of HR, and we feel people will soon be viewed as the heart of travel management – taking a balanced view and stopping a dominant default to savings, compliance, cost etc. We expect a change in travel policies to become more people-centric, with a degree of flexibility to enhance wellbeing.

Building a global community around wellbeing is a crucial first step, but ultimately, the leaders will make a difference and be recognised as first movers, courageous in taking a holistic business metric view.  Wellbeing is not an easy topic as the KPIs and business metrics to follow can be difficult to measure or take time to emerge.  They don't appear in any profit and loss account, but they do have a considerable business impact.  Losing a talented employee to anxiety, stress or burn-out can cause a ripple across an organisation beyond just their direct salary. Some are leading the way and we’re looking forward to seeing how things develop.

Business Travel Wellbeing Community are exhibiting at BTS wellness retreat. Register for FREE now www.businesstravelshow.com

*GUEST BLOG* Flexible Mental Health Support - a Must for Business Travellers

There are few who would criticise moves towards ending the shame and secrecy surrounding mental health. The change in how we perceive and talk about mental health has come quickly. Even five years ago those unfamiliar with mental ill-health were to some extent sheltered from others’ reality. Now we can all readily absorb the newly shared private tortures of people experiencing depression, anxiety, self-harm or any other mental health issue or condition.

And as the extent to which mental health is affecting all of us becomes clear, so too has the need to address what is a growing and unmet demand for support.

Employers are no exception here. They bear a moral and legal responsibility for employees who are increasingly demanding support. Financially too there is reason to review existing provision: Deloitte and Mind estimate that poor mental health provision costs UK companies more than £43 billion annually.

For employers with staff who travel extensively, the picture becomes ever more complex. Not only do those employees need access to the same benefit package as their counterparts in the office, but they need a huge degree of flexibility and scope in the type of mental health support service they can access.

A recent survey by Capita showed that 33% of business travellers said that travelling to meetings has affected their sleep, with almost a quarter saying that their early start or late finish caused by travel has resulted in an argument with a partner. A significant 41% of respondents said they worked beyond their core hours when travelling for work.

A paper published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine looking at business travel and behavioural and mental health stated: “...business travel is...associated with jetlag, sleep disorders, stress and anxiety, increased alcohol consumption, exposure to high energy density ‘‘fast’’ foods, and long periods of sedentary behaviour.”

Our own survey found almost half of business travellers feel that their employer does not provide them with the right type of mental health support.

But what support does this cohort of workers need?

Interestingly, we also found that demand for online chat-based mental health support was twice as high amongst business travellers (41%) compared to office based workers. And one of the top reasons cited by business travellers as an important aspect of a mental health support service was out-of-hours availability.

So while we know that stigma is a significant barrier to getting help, there are practical reasons too why some people can’t or don’t get the support they need. The demand for a flexible support service which can work alongside travelling workers is clear.

According to Dr Lynne Green, Chief Clinical Director at Kooth Work, tractability is key: “Employees across the world are increasingly flexible and don’t all conform to the traditional nine to five pattern of work. Staff therefore need flexibility in terms of mental health and wellbeing support. They need something they can access whether at the airport at 9pm or sitting at their kitchen table with jetlag at three in the morning. Easy and early access to support is key for all of us.”

So while we welcome anti-stigma campaigns as critical in helping as many people as possible to get help, we know we must turn our attention to the support that is available when and if they decide to talk. For employers of business travellers, this means ensuring you have a flexible service which allows staff to use it on their terms. One that means they can get the help they need when they need it - wherever they might be.

Kooth Work are this year's Wellness Retreat sponsor. Register for FREE and visit them at the Wellness Retreat where they'll be presenting their recent findings on mental health in travel www.businesstravelshow.com

*GUEST BLOG* Top 5 ways to deal with business travel stress

Business travel can be stressful. One of the ways to monitor the travel worries of employees is through regular surveys about their views of business travel. In a recent survey, over 100 points of potential anxiety for travellers was identified, ranging from planning a trip, not knowing the location well, delays, cancellations, language and culture to home-related stresses including childcare, pet cover and personal social commitments.

To achieve a less stressful travel experience, travellers are encouraged to embrace ‘Smarter working’ – a unique approach to booking and travelling.  

Matthew Holman, Head of Traveller Wellbeing at Capita Travel and Events, shares his top five tips to dealing with business travel stress:

1)     Book Smarter

Changes to the way we plan travel and book, such as advance booking as well as integrated itinerary information, a traveller can prepare mentally for it.   When changes happen during the trip, travellers benefit from our support and our technology, which has been developed to provide relevant and timely communications to help them.  After the trip, we encourage the traveller to take time to recover and prepare for their next activities.

2)     Sleep is key

When travellers fly long-haul, their circadian rhythm is disrupted.  On average, it takes one day for each one-hour time zone change to reset your circadian rhythm to its home settings. We encourage travellers to sleep well and avoid stimulants, such as caffeine after lunch or alcohol in the evening.  

3)     Educate on coping strategies?

One of the best coping strategies I recommend for travellers is to practice mindfulness and breathing exercises.  When travelling, try to stay connected with home and your normal routines.  If you use the gym at home, make sure to pack your kit so you use the gym when travelling.

4)     Understanding of individuals’ needs

Managers need to seek deeper and more-connected relationships with their employees. They should focus on understanding what the challenges are for the individuals and, where they see something that they are worried about, they should be open to having a discussion to understand the employee’s issues.  The best leaders are the ones who show their employees empathy and compassion.  Simple steps, such as making sure travellers are fit to travel before their trip, making sure the traveller has downtime when they travel and are allowed the time to recover make a difference.

5)     Not travel

It may sound obvious, but travellers should really question whether they need to travel in the first instance. Is the trip necessary and how can it be as efficient and effective as possible?  Is there an alternative to being their physically? Employees should look attending meetings via video call or conference call. 

We have hosted numerous ‘Smarter working’ workshops with customers and our own travellers, as well as steering groups with suppliers so we can enhance the overall traveller experience and continue to improve traveller wellbeing. If you are interested in finding out more about Smarter working and want to speak to our wellbeing experts, Matthew will be on our stand (B140) at various times throughout the show. If you want to book a specific appointment, please contact Matthew.Holman@capita.com

This blog was posted by Matthew Holman, Head of Traveller Wellbeing at Capita Travel and Events, who are exhibiting on stand B140 at the Business Travel Show over 26 – 27 February. Register for a FREE visitor pass now www.businesstravelshow.com