The Evolution of the Business Traveller

Franc Jeffrey – CEO Duncan Sanders – Operations DirectorNicola Wilson – Client Relationship Manager

The Evolution of the Business Traveller

Combined with a user technology explosion

Today – travel is connected

Today – travel is intelligent

Today – travel is an experience

Today – travel is mobile

Today – travel is Apps

• 17,000 Travel Apps on the Market

• 160 million app-compatible devices are owned worldwide

 

Group Discussion Point

How many people in the room have a Travel App?

• What ones?• How many?• Do you use one or a combination?• What do you like / dislike?• What do your colleagues say?

 

The Evolution of the Business Traveller

Future – Business Travellers

Future – Business Travellers

Future – Business Travellers

The Millennial Business Traveller

Goodbye…limited, restricted

Hello.. limitless, unrestricted, innovate and infinite.

In 2015, Millennials became the biggest generation in the workforce. One of the biggest challenges for businesses today is integrating the Millennials or Gen Y twenty-somethings into a Baby Boomer culture.

No doubt you have read the volumes of the data on Millennials in today’s workforce, but here is a quick reminder…

Describe today’s Business Traveller

Group Discussion Point

The Evolution of the Business Traveller

YoungConnectedTech Savvy‘C’ SuiteRushedVIPKnowledgeableSmartOld School/MatureDemandingImpatientBrand LoyalNot Loyal

Independent

ManagedUnmanagedInterested/ExcitedBoredPoints DrivenPrice SensitiveTime PoorStressedChilledExplorers/TouristsTravel AgentsHoteliers

Describe today’s Business Traveller

Today’s traveller

Understanding today’s Business Traveller

Business travellers are assumed to be focused on carrying out a work-related task, rather than feeling emotionally stimulated during their trip.

Recent competition among travel service providers in the context of the business travel market has highlighted the need for a better understanding of business travellers as a tourist segment, including how they evaluate their travel experiences.

“Business travel usually takes qualified professionals and managers to destinations they have not selected themselves”

(Opperman, University of Bournemouth, 2000).

Understanding today’s Business Traveller

Traditionally, corporate travel policies have been structured around “dos and don’ts,” whereas today, many companies are opting for a more subtle tone — one that focuses on encouraging travellers to use certain tools.

As generation Y freely mixes work and play, Millennials can sometimes lack clear boundaries when it comes to business travel. As a consequence, it falls to the employer to ensure factors like lack of experience and easy access to technology don’t create risky situations.

Today, Travel Managers needs to innovate their travel programme tools to ensure policy adherence as well as productivity and safety.

It’s the mullet of travel: business in the front, party in the back. 

“Bleisure” trips, or ones that combine business and leisure, are rising fast as a common form of travel worldwide, according to a new report from Bridgestreet Global Hospitality published by Skift. 

The survey, which interviewed 640 respondents, found that 60% said they were more likely now to take bleisure trips today than they were five years ago

Understanding today’s Business Traveller

Future – Traveller Management

What is Traveller Management?

Demand Management – influencing number of trips taken

Buying behaviour management – influencing how trips are planned

Future – Traveller Management

Take a fresh, critical look at your existing travel program from your travellers’ perspective.

Does it meet their needs by giving them better prices than they could find themselves?

Are you giving them the tools and information they need to make the smartest buying decisions? If not, go out and get them.

Consult with travellers, get their feed back and suggest how you can help them buy smarter, instead of “checking up” on them.

Future – Traveller Management

Apply consumer pricing psychology to corporate travel.

‘Behavioural economics’ is a new branch of study which investigates how consumers make buying decisions:

• Decoy pricing

• Anchor prices

Future – Traveller Management

The business travellers of tomorrow, who grew up in the sharing society dominated by Facebook, have already grown accustomed to sharing more information about themselves in exchange for a better, more personalized service experience.

This next-generation corporate traveller will demand a tailored experience and capturing and capitalising on big data makes it possible.

Future – Traveller Management

Mobile messages

Location-based services

Connect location-based information, personal identification and context data

How has travel changed while you’ve been in this business?

What are your experiences of traveller management?

How do you manage the user experience in your travel programmes?

Group Discussion Point

The Evolution of the Business Traveller

Future – Gamification

Future – Gamification

What is gamification?

The application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service: “gamification is exciting because it promises to make the hard stuff in life fun”

Oxford English Dictionary

What is your experience of gamification?

• Do you practice this?• Do you know how to create such a program?• Could your TMC’s incentive department help here?• Could business tourism / Bleisure travel be the way to

a successful gamification programme?• Do you think gamification can work across all traveller

types within you organisation?• Do you think gamification can help you manage your

travel programme?• What downsides do you foresee?

Group Discussion Point

The Evolution of the Business Traveller

Questions….

Business travel usually takes qualified professionals and managers to destinations they have not selected themselves

(Opperman, University of Bournemouth, 2000).

Is it fair to say the above is generally no longer true?

Conclusion

The future – holistic approach