Navigating the future of business travel: Insights for travel managers

The volume of business travel has increased tremendously in the last 12 months. A sense of normalcy and familiarity in the travel experience has set in, with traveller confidence, demand, and travel activity fast returning to pre-pandemic levels. The much-anticipated re-opening of China has reconnected the world and had added the extra seat capacity needed to push down unsustainably high international fares. This begs the question, what is to consider in the future of business travel?

For a travel manager, understanding the bigger picture of supply chain concerns, resourcing and recruitment challenges across the travel sector, ongoing war conflicts restricting airspace, rising fuel costs, and the impact of all of these elements on the company’s travel programme and budget is critical.

Apart from the standard contract review and SLA performance, here is what a Travel Manager should discuss with their Account Manager during their next business review:

Is the Travel Agency Future Ready?

Automation and AI will be part of the travel management eco-system. Find out which technologies your Travel Management Company (TMC) is investing in to be future ready and does that reduce the effort or problems faced by your teams. 

At ATPI we are focused on enhancing existing technology based on client feedback and innovating newer technology. Our new reporting system ATPI Analytics is AI driven and provides insightful commentary on traveller patterns, traveller welfare, savings and missed savings opportunities, carbon emission reporting, industry peer group benchmarking, travel policy outliers, and other intelligent information.

ATPI CrewLink™ is another widely used travel workflow management tool utilised by our marine customers to manage travel for crew, onshore workers, and management. The tool integrates with customers’ existing systems and technology seamlessly, enabling them to manage the entire travel process, from scheduling and booking to safety tracking and reporting.

Review Air, Hotels Contracts and NDC Readiness 

Determine if you are New Distribution Capability (NDC) ready and run tests with your TMC partner to review the savings and backend workflow from booking to invoicing.

ATPI’s goal for NDC readiness is to be able to consistently offer NDC content with the least amount of disruption to our customers and travellers, while being completely transparent on how NDC affects the operations of a travel management company that could ultimately affect your organisation’s travel program.

This is also a good time to review existing supplier programs, consolidate spending with a few suppliers to increase buying power. With travel activity increasing rapidly meeting volume targets set up by the airlines is achievable when spending is consolidated to a few suppliers.

A Sustainable Traveller Journey

Discuss how your TMC can support your organisations Sustainability goals.  

ATPI adheres to the MEASURE – REDUCE – OFFSET environmental sustainability approach. We partner with Thrust Carbon to measure Scope 3 business travel emissions of your travel program. Carbon emission data is also reported at invoice level and can be offered at the time of fare selection to make a conscious choice. Your account manager will discuss opportunities to reduce emissions through data intelligence and travel policy review. Lastly, ATPI Halo can assist companies in offsetting their unavoidable CO2 emissions through a variety of high-quality offset initiatives.

Duty of Care and Traveller Well-being

Duty of Care is a company’s obligation to provide a standard of care to its employees when they are on a business trip. What are the tools and practices you are investing in to handle this responsibility?

Discuss your travel policy with your account manager to ensure its relevant and protects the traveller’s wellbeing and safety in all circumstances. 

ATPI offers various Duty of Care tools and policy compliance trackers to support travel managers and those responsible for travel function. If your requirement is high level information of traveler whereabouts to in-depth tracking, we have you covered. Schedule a meeting with your account manager to explore more.