Abacus: How To Improve The Efficiency Of Travel Management?

The latest survey of business travel behavior released by Abacus, GDS, reveals a series of structural and behavioral problems. If these problems are solved, the efficiency of travel management will be significantly improved.

The survey found that 83% of business travellers were required to save money in the context of business travel policies, and 3/4 business travelers cut costs through consultative discounts.

The survey results represent the 82 leading business travel brands in the region, and summarize the following five aspects to help travel management departments streamline the process and maximize the effective implementation and control of policies.

Tourism management companies (hereinafter referred to as "TMC") and business travel agents (hereinafter referred to as "CTA") are increasingly troubled by the challenge of integrating different sources of content into a single, consistent journey.

It will be even more difficult if the travel plan is changed so that many travel adjustments are needed.

Worse still, there are also

The "interference" of various preferential means.

87% of B2C websites offer lower prices to attract customers and encourage travelers to violate business travel policies.

Abacus president and CEO Robert Bailey is convinced that the solution is to integrate more content into the itinerary, and use any retail channel to show the best product choices.

He said: "technology can integrate completely different contents and provide a fixed or flexible packaging form.

This will ensure that TMC and CTA manage customer business better and respond to increasingly fierce online competition through a wider range of content sources. "

More than half (53%) of respondents said they found that ancillary services increased in business travel, while half of the respondents expected to "track, manage, negotiate and strengthen the policy of charging supplementary services for their customers".

Most of the service requirements are common checked baggage, seat selection service and use of lounge.

In fact, more than 70% of business travellers have high demand for reserved seats.

However, the demand for pay meals and WiFi on the computer seems to be more urgent.

This requires TMC and CTA to include the details of the new ancillary services in the customer travel policy, which can provide more options for the approval before travel, and facilitate the checking of costs after travel.

"Because more supplementary services are added, it is very important to list the total cost of each flight, not just the basic seat fee, especially when many business travel policies require the lowest available fare."

Bailey added.

3. enhance self-service acceptance

Despite the emergence of numerous new and alternative booking platforms, there are still 1/3 respondents who say their customers refuse self-service technology.

Business booking tools (hereinafter referred to as "CBT") have the potential to integrate these fragmented Search contents into content that is in line with specifications and to conduct secure pactions.

Respondents in Southeast Asia pointed out that travellers were willing to talk with agents, while the refusal of travel managers in North Asia was the main reason for the low acceptance of self-help technology.

Lack of training is also one of the sources of the problem.

Bailey explains, "the data shows that once the CBT is applied, the usage rate will grow.

We should use this tool to change the culture of the industry. "

4. deploying mobile tools

TMC and CTA are lagging behind in the application of mobile tools, though this is a direct channel for customers.

Doing nothing also brings risks.

"Because of the increased penetration of mobile applications, OTA and low-cost airlines' smart phone APP are very popular with non compliant booking practices," he said. "We must pay more attention to the more active use of mobile channels in centralized travel management.

5. automated cost management

Automated cost management is not only a challenge to TMC and CTA (2/5 respondents say their customers spend more than 15% of their cost on these two categories of cost), and the nature of the cost management itself is changing.

53% of the respondents said aviation ancillary services and ground pportation were the two fastest growing and bigger businesses this year.

44% of the respondents are working with customers to manage two types of costs, but no solution has yet been found.

However, most respondents also realized that norms should be part of their value proposition, and the cost data analysis could test whether a policy could be reformulated to meet the KPI of a specific customer.