Channelling the Right Travel Content Sometimes the Best Influencer Is a City
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ISSUE 3 UpgradeFCM TRAVEL SOLUTIONS MEA Elevating business travel intelligence Channelling the right travel content Sometimes the best influencer is a city. #LifeChangingPlaces f advert Welcome Issue 3 he phrase ‘content technology in place to enable us to service all this content via one platform. However, we have made great progress is king’, coined on our NDC roadmap since Nicola Ping joined us from Sometimes the best Tby Bill Gates over British Airways earlier this year as Manager of Air Content 20 years ago, couldn’t & Distribution. I’m sure you will enjoy our interview with be more appropriate Nicola on page 18. FCM can also give our clients access to influencer is a city. an unrivalled range of content via our virtual gateway. Read in today’s dynamic more about the FCM Marketplace in FCM News on page 16. world of business travel Wellbeing is a hot topic in the industry today and high on #LifeChangingPlaces management. corporate agendas and so we have included a feature on how travel policy can help avoid traveller stress (page 10), Corporates tell us they want the richest choice of travel as well as ways in which you can incorporate CSR activities content and price parity through one source, as this into an event for your staff or delegates (page 26). correlates directly to traveller satisfaction, compliance, cost savings and duty of care. But NDC, private channels I hope you enjoy reading this issue of Upgrade and as and new entrants are disrupting the distribution always we welcome your feedback. landscape. Our lead feature in this issue of Upgrade (page 4) examines ways in which corporates can access the right content and address the challenges of managing their travel programme amidst this disruption. Ciarán Kelly Content is also king for us as a TMC, and one challenge we Managing Director, Middle East & Africa Network face is that the GDS providers, and airlines, don’t yet have the FCM Travel Solutions Contents 13 EDITORIAL Nairobi COMMISSIONING EDITOR Nairobi is Betty Low Kenya’s largest CONTRIBUTORS city, its capital Catherine Chetwynd, and a business Mark Frary hub for East and Central Africa – FCM EDITORIAL ADVISER here are FCM’s Vanessa Aves tips for visiting ADVERTISING the city ADVERTISING SALES Sue Robinson 4 Get with the programme Procuring travel content DESIGN in today’s dynamic PRODUCTION & MANAGEMENT distribution landscape 16 FCM News WonDesigns, Caren Johnstone LEAD DESIGNER & ILLUSTRATOR André Albuquerque 21 First world hotels find secondary cities JUNIOR DESIGNER 8 Livin’ the dream Teresia Magnusson How do we sharpen the Top hotel chains head outside the blurred lines around capital to meet growing demands PUBLISHING ‘bleisure’? MANAGER Rebecca Talbot ©FCMUPGRADE 2019 Images sourced from suppliers, FCM Travel Solutions, and stock photography New business enquiries [email protected] 10 26 A socially responsible turn of events Editorial and advertising Frictionless travel Building CSR into your next enquiries Safety and efficiency top traveller priorities corporate event [email protected] FCMUPGRADE.COM 03 TRAVEL MANAGERSPROGRAMMES Get with the programme The changing distribution landscape makes managing travel procurement far more complex and challenging for corporates these days… 81% of travel managers have a mandate in place requiring staff to book travel through company tools and platforms but 5% of those admitted adoption is currently lower than 10%. ACTE (Association of Corporate Travel Executives) report, ‘Booking Tools and Technologies: One Size Does Not Fit All’. June 2019 oday’s corporates want rich THE IMPACT OF ONLINE TRAVEL content through one source, AGENCIES as it correlates directly with In particular, online travel agencies effective business travel (OTAs) have had a major impact on management. It delivers the marketplace, luring travellers away T from in-policy booking channels and personalisation, traveller satisfaction, friction-less travel, compliance and it’s easy to see why. Since their market therefore ultimately, cost savings from entry some 20 years ago, they’ve preferred suppliers. If travellers also offered more convenience, selection, comply with the in-policy booking fewer touch points and better prices channel then the corporate benefits – on the face of it, at least. However, from detailed traveller tracking satisfies OTAs are not authorised booking duty of care and can influence future channels and cause significant leakage, supplier negotiations. loss of savings and concerns over traveller safety. An OTA hotel rate is not Happy travellers are generally comparable to a TMC negotiated rate compliant travellers, so delivering for example, as the latter often includes that rich content is vital; but it's an array of corporate-friendly benefits challenging in today’s dynamic such as a room guarantee, room distribution landscape. Some suppliers, upgrade, F&B vouchers and maybe for example, do not offer price or even loyalty scheme points. A TMC rate content parity across multiple booking is also more likely to be refundable, channels, while disruptors tempt which an OTA rate is usually not. travellers away from the in-policy booking channel, sometimes because Some 39% of travel managers surveyed in-policy content isn’t available. by ACTE said travellers think they can 04 Issue 3 booking channels they must do the safe. While TMCs strive to offer full right deals with the right suppliers. Is content, there is a strong argument there a mix of boutique hotels alongside that curated content will sit better with corporate hotels? Does the programme today’s traveller than unlimited access to include apartments for re-locating staff multiple suppliers, as personalisation is or staff on long-term contracts? what travellers want. “A lot more customers want a more What’s key is not to strike deals with varied approach to their hotel everybody but just those that will be programmes. Gone are the days of effective. The deal might make perfect just negotiated rates. They need more commercial sense, particularly if an flexibility outside the key chains,” says airline has offered vastly reduced fares Rachael Deede, FCM’s Director Product and no targets, but if travellers are not & Marketing for Asia. going to use that airline then the deal It’s a conundrum for the corporate will be ineffective. who wants all content in one place. A THE NEED TO CREATE THE LEISURE report from ACTE (Booking Tools and BOOKING EXPERIENCE Technologies: One Size Does Not Fit The next hurdle is replicating the leisure All) this summer summed up that 80% booking experience. Apps can offer of travel managers said consolidating all updates on gate changes, flight delays channels into one platform is important. and the like, helping business travellers TMCs can aggregate these multiple run their work lives just as seamlessly as booking channels via third-party APIs their personal lives. The key is to reduce Gone are the days regardless of source or user to deliver the trip friction and enable self-service “ widest range of omni-channel content. For across multiple devices. it to work seamlessly, booking technology of just negotiated has to be open source and connectable The crucial piece of technology in the with other technologies to aggregate booking process is the online booking hotel rates. new disruptors. tool, which usually accounts for the bulk of bookings. “The booking experience Worryingly, some four out of five (80%) Corporates need needs to be highly flexible and should travel managers surveyed by GBTA/ look and feel like it does when they book SAP Concur do not use technology to more flexibility personal travel,” said Fitzgerald Draper, capture bookings made outside of director of research at ACTE. outside the their programme. Travel manager respondents in the key chains” THE RAMIFICATIONS OF BOOKING GBTA/SAP Concur report revealed OUTSIDE IN-POLICY CHANNELS they are “excited about different FCM’s Scott Reddie, Global Director booking innovations, of Account such as a more Management, consumer-friendly says: “Booking get a better deal and save money booking experience, outside of outside of their programme. Yet 56% personalised booking corporate of travel managers are apprehensive and live online chat.” about employees booking outside channels Booking outside of takes away “ Confirming a booking of policy, and 55% recognise that with a minimum the company may be missing out on one of the key corporate channels number of strokes opportunities to save money. things driving management of takes away one of the is key. Visual guilt Moreover, less than half of spend – visibility. can also be used respondents in a GBTA/SAP Concur We flirted with key things driving to advantage, with survey say they do not capture open booking timed messages traveller data if they book outside and trying to management of spend appearing on the of corporate channels. “This lack of loop back into screen at key stages visibility has critical implications for cost tracking – visibility” of the booking both travel spend and duty of care,” via expense process as reminders says the report. systems, but to do the right thing. Data capture of all bookings is key that left too big Moreover, the OBT can show hotels and - and the good news is that today’s of a support gap when things don’t go airlines that are in policy, by using rate booking tools aggregate OTA content according to plan. Who likes sitting on caps for example. so travellers can benchmark with an hold for hours to get through to a low- According to ACTE, 90% of OTA rate. cost airline?” those surveyed agreed that DOING THE RIGHT DEALS TO Business travel management has optimising their online booking tool IMPROVE COMPLIANCE become more complex, and the role of platform for company policy and If corporates wish to keep their the travel management company vital to preferred options was moderately or travellers away from non-compliant simplify, add value and keep travellers extremely important.