By Alisha Somanas
As the leisure industry focuses on making unique experiences for travellers, business travellers are following suit and seeking more personalization when they book for business. At the same time, travel management companies are looking for ways to start making additional revenue and cut margins, said Miriam Moscovici, director of emerging technologies & strategic marketing at BCD Travel, who hinted at several untapped spaces for SMEs in corporate travel in a panel discussion at the WIT Bootcamp yesterday.
“Travellers that travel for business are often travellers that travel for leisure. And as the leisure industry gets more and more exciting, and gets more personalization, more unique experiences, business travellers are expecting that same type of experience when they book for business,” said Moscovici.
BCD currently operates in almost half of the world’s countries, with an annual revenue of US$24.2 billion in 2014. But with margins very slim in the corporate travel world, travel management companies are looking for ways to start making additional revenue and actively looking for partners that can support them to do better at their job.
“The number one thing a business travel management company (TMC) is going be looking for is whether you can help us make more money. Margins are very slim in business travel so we’re looking for ways that we can start making additional revenue beyond the typical transaction revenue,” Moscovici shared.
“What we’re good at is taking care of business travellers, getting them to their destination efficiently, for the right price.” says Moscovici. This translates into an interest in price assurance products such as Yapta or Tripbam.
Anything that helps secure the best prices is going to be of interest to TMCs, said Moscovici.
They’re also looking for mobile solutions and consumer experiences that will tell the traveller they are better off booking within their travel program or agency, than they are anywhere else. “We’re looking for ways to make it easier for travellers to book inside BCD or with the online booking tool that we use for that customer, instead of going to an Orbitz or a Travelocity or another OTA to book their travel.”
BCD Travel has made its own efforts in this area, putting out their own app tailored just for clients. Meanwhile competitors have been spending millions of dollars in trying to create mobile applications that business travellers want to use.
TMCs are also investing in business intelligence and fragmentation. “There’s lots of talk about big data, and what to do with it.” TMC customers are buyers of corporations so developing business intelligence solutions is a big investment point, said Moscovici. TMCs want to give their clients the ability to search and find hotels that they need – and they’re investing in the shopping, buying, and, most of all, a solution that travellers will pick to book in their corporate program.
However, the big challenge in the business travel market is helping customers meet their goals, which are vastly different from that of the typical travel client. Corporate procurement officers’ goals are to ensure travellers stay and consume specific travel inventory that they’ve negotiated to meet volume agreements and share agreements. Ultimately, partners who can help ensure the quality of inventory will be of utmost interest to TMCs.
The post Uncovering untapped spaces in corporate travel appeared first on WIT.