That is rightly named as age traveler-centricity and with the evolution of the new era of personalized travel; it is leading to research and development of a bunch of new so-called intelligent services. The command-and-control perspectives of traveling have changed a great deal from days gone by and the focus has shifted more on the traveler and the productivity of every trip. It is now essential to keep that the travelers have the best return on investment on each trip flights. New generations of young employees and managers, who've been growing up and dwelling in an electronic age, are moving up the ranks as travelers. It is now essential to acknowledge the necessity for greater flexibility acknowledging that the employees who travel on corporate trips also consider a percentage of the trip to be a leisure outlet. With increasing globalization and rise in companies sending their staff overseas to network and connect with their offshore prospects/customers/suppliers, corporate travel is a very profitable tourism segment. Before we speak about how tourism companies can better appeal to business travelers, let's first look at why they prefer to use specialized corporate agencies over traditional agents
Why do businesses use Corporate Travel Agencies?
This might be the most basic question for a vacation agency as to why they have to use agencies focusing on corporate travel when there are lots of regular travel agents in the market. This is actually the importance of corporate travel agencies who've online systems which allow business travelers access for their complete itinerary.
The following information is at the fingertips of the CTAs:-
- full business itinerary details
- up-to-date tracking information on flights (including delays or rescheduling)
- transparent factual statements about additional costs such as for example baggage fees or in-flight fees
- travel alerts, if any, in the destined area
- complete and up-to-date factual statements about the visa procurement policies and identification required
- currency requirement and conversion rates
What do corporate clients expect from Corporate Travel Agencies?
Negotiated Fares
The Corporate Agencies are apt to have tie-ups with hotels, car rentals, flights etc. giving them access to lower fares which may be used only by the frequent business travelers. Discounted costs are not the only real advantage though as additionally they offer flight upgrades, room upgrades, and VIP check-in lines as required.
In-depth details about the travel industry
Corporate travel agents have access to many travel resources and above all, quickly, than every other leisure travel agent. Extra information helps to help make the business trips convenient and comfortable.
Changes in Itinerary
When an airline ticket needs to get rescheduled or cancelled, odds are the airline or the internet service provider will charge lofty fees. When booking with a corporate travel agent, all the times schedule changes can be done at zero or minimal extra charges.
Viable emergency contacts
It is essential for the business travelers to achieve the proper person at the necessity of trouble. Corporate travel agents have the ability and professionalism to alleviate stress for the traveler and the company.
The thing you need to take into account as corporate travel increases?
Business Travel Barometer reported that corporate travel is witnessing an accelerated growth. However, when poorly managed, it could be no more a bonus to companies and may, in reality turn into a burden. There are some factors which the corporations and CTAs must consider to get the best out of that time period spent traveling.
Adopting a vacation policy
The corporate must define a vacation policy that is applicable to and respected by travelers at all levels. This policy should be properly used to ascertain the standards which will help to track the improvement of business travel. It could eventually help to reduce the costs of the whole package.
Don't limit the traveler's autonomy
The management is in charge of budgeting the travel policy which supports to enhance cost management however, it is also essential to provide a qualification of autonomy to the traveler. The policy must be flexible enough to allow the employee to adapt the trip as per the situation.
Traveler's security should be described as a major concern
Business travelers must have security in place. The business needs to adhere to its definition of standards to guarantee the employee's integrity. The CTAs should have reliable partners (travel insurance, airlines, hotel chains etc.).
Mobility and automation
To optimize time and ease the processes, the administration of management platforms should have automated processes. This means they will adopt mobile solutions where search options, travel alerts, ticket reservations etc. could be accessed quickly, easily and on the go.
Corporate Travel Trends in 2016
Corporate travel trends tend to improve regularly. 2016 in addition has not been any different and the travel management companies (TMCs) and corporate travel agencies (CTAs) are quite focused to supply steady if not strong axis all over. An increasing MICE sector, investments in mobile and big data and enhanced focus on duty of care are some of the areas of focus.
Rising prices
The consolidated buzzword among global suppliers, airfares, hotel rates etc. is the rising fares. It might be the move of the suppliers to generate discounts which encourage travel when there is a solid decline in demand. A confident 2016 world economy has been bringing a rise in air fares of several percentage points, hotels are likely to see 4%-6% rise in average global rates and your competition will remain moderate in the car rental services.
Duty of care
Risk management is among the major points of emphasis for corporations. Corporate clients are allowing new policies and improved technologies to monitor employees' location in the event of an emergency, particularly when they are going to foreign destinations. As an example, Concur Risk Messaging helps to recognize the travelers active on the planet and alerts them with alternate travel arrangement as and when needed.
Focusing on MICE
Meetings industry is really a major growing sector and the corporate travel trend is developing on it. The corporate travel agencies should better start aligning the many meeting procurement methodologies using its transient travel sourcing. Among the ways might be to broaden all of the meeting services by incorporating incentive trips within it.
Buying technology
A sharper focus on increasing value and becoming more traveler-centric can be done by bringing in mobile friendly technologies. Mobile and big data are certainly the 2 most crucial technological investments which any corporate travel agency must focus to produce their platform more appealing.
Business travel analysis after Brexit
Following Brexit, ACTE and CAPA shared their speculations. According for them, the best short-term effects on the travel industry can come from the weakening of the pound against other world currencies. Greeley Koch, executive director for the Association of Corporate Travel Executives said that the business travel industry will trend on currency fluctuations; with some companies benefiting from the weaker pound and traveling more, while others may withhold business travel until world markets find their particular level.
Impact of terrorism on corporate travelers
Travel policy makers and administrators must be guided by rising terrorism scare. For executives and staff undertaking travel on behalf of businesses, the travel agents and corporate travel agencies (CTAs) should prove the reassurance for his or her safety through the travel policies. It is most likely that the surveys conducted over corporate travelers reflect the typical concern of the global business travelers in regards to the spate of terrorism. However, there's no denying the fact that terrorist threat is changing the patterns of business travel. The important thing impact of this really is to keep in mind that the firms providing travel services for business travelers need to boost their focus on security and the associated risks in delivering the services to corporate clients. Based on a current finding, travel managers have higher estimation of the policy's effectiveness in addressing risk compared to skeptical business travelers.
Concluding
Even though corporate travel sector has continued to progress, you can find various challenges faced by the industry. A rapidly changing consumer market, the emergence of new business models, the impact of technology, man-made and natural crises are some of the fulcrum points that must be considered before planning corporate trips.
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