Today, corporate travel is becoming an important aspect of the business.
In most organisations around the world business travel has become a vital part of an organisation’s success.
Many organisations view business travel as the best way to result in great relationships and working towards life-changing Business opportunities.
To tap into these opportunities, the travel industry players are rethinking their approach to customer experiences.
It’s not enough to simply provide a basic service and expect the customer to be satisfied.
How and where Travel, Transportation and Hospitality companies sell to the customer is quickly evolving.
Competition is increasing from Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), sharing economy players like Airbnb, uber and larger, more marketing-savvy hotel brands.
Technology is also evolving at blinding speeds and consumer expectations are shifting in new, unforeseen directions.
Such dramatic change makes it challenging to understand what is happening within Travel, Transportation and Hospitality.
Many industry players are struggling to keep pace.
The following are 3 ways the travel Industry is envisioning the future to better serve Business travellers.
Demographic changes
We are witnessing a gradual shift in spending patterns and working hours. Millennials, the generation born between 1980 and 2000 have unique tastes and habits.
With the workforce becoming younger every day, the future of global business travel is transforming. Generation Z and Millennial are taking over corporate travel.
They have never lived in a world without the internet, social media or smartphones; they are intrinsically tech-savvy and socially minded.
The working environment has been affected by trends such as technological advancement, outsourcing, changing worker attitudes and values.
With most people prefer working from home or working flexible hours this gives them ample time to work in the evenings and engage in leisure activities during traditional work hours.
This has led to the rise of bleisure travel is one of the most significant outcomes of this demographics shift in corporate travel
The shift in corporate travel demographics has influenced the global business travel forecast for the upcoming years
Adoption of the latest technology
With the advancement in Technology, travel industry players are adopting new and emerging technologies to better serve and communicate with their customers
Increase the efficiency of business operations and scale their business growth.
With the stiff competition, businesses are keeping up-to-date with the latest and emerging travel technology trends so they do not fall behind competitors.
Some of the most exciting emerging travel technology trends are;
Internet of Things (IoT) – the technology is being used by both airports and hotels. In hotels, it’s being used in rooms to provide customers with a device that connects to everything from the lights, to the heaters and air conditioning, allowing all to be controlled from one place.
Recognition Technology – which includes fingerprint recognition, facial recognition, retina scanning and various other biometric identifiers.
Artificial intelligent (AI) – To enhance Customer Service
Mobile Apps – Ease of Planning
Shift to Voice Searches – Voice assistance saves travellers from typing search queries
Re- engineering & development of new products
In order for the travel industry to meet the additional needs of business travellers, the industry players must meet the customer requirements and test.
Emerging trends suggest that today’s business travellers seek to intensify their personal development and fulfilment. Because of this, the travel industry delivers the most memorable experiences.
Corporate travellers are looking for emotional stimuli, they want to buy feelings and not products and they want personally to experience the immaterial qualities.
To increase strategic competitiveness, the travel industry is pursuing new strategies to differentiate its services supply, reinventing and re-engineering products, with a focus on the corporate travel needs.