Distribution, data and duty of care will top 2019 business travel agenda

The biggest factor influencing business travel in 2019 will be distribution as the industry moves towards NDC and hotel suppliers continue to drive direct booking channels, according to FCM Travel Solutions.  

Duty of care will also remain high on corporates’ agendas due to the ongoing risk of terrorism, natural disasters and geo-political volatility. However, travel data will be even more critical and TMCs will need to evolve as aggregators of MI from multiple booking sources to support clients effectively with traveller safety, FCM warns.

“It will no longer be sufficient for TMCs to say that they can only track travellers if all bookings have been made via their reservations systems. We need to be able to pull in data and bookings from other channels, even if the client has booked externally, so that we can truly support corporates with their duty of care obligations and traveller safety,” explains Jo Greenfield, UK General Manager, FCM Travel Solutions.

“Customers will also expect greater visibility around reporting and analytics as other data management solutions come into the market, which will potential reduce the role of a TMC as MI providers. As a TMC, we need to adapt and continue to evolve to address this challenge and ensure we are proactively aggregating comprehensive business intelligence,” adds Greenfield.

“2019 is also the year when we will see a major focus on distribution as NDC becomes more of a reality and travel content is more fragmented,” continues Jo Greenfield. “That is why FCM is investing heavily in its travel content and NDC strategy in 2019 and we will be announcing significant developments in the first quarter. Our clients need to turn to us as the experts on NDC, to guide and advise them, and ensure that NDC has a positive impact on their business travel programme.”

In the UK, FCM forecasts that corporates will continue to focus on cost and ROI on their travel programme in 2019 but not necessarily because of uncertainty around Brexit. “There is definitely a focus on cost and clients cutting spend on internal travel, but it is hard to know if that is Brexit related.   On the whole we saw clients up-trading in 2018 – in fact 17 of our top 20 UK clients up-traded by anything from 5% to 1319% - and we expect that trend to continue as corporates are focussing on travel that will grow their business,” explains Greenfield. “We also foresee an increase in travel to and within Europe as companies look to outsource business functions and set up shared services in markets like Poland for example.”

“2018 was a hugely successful year for FCM as our global turnover grew by 20 per cent" added Greenfield. “Around 25% of new multinational business was driven out of the UK and we particularly saw growth in the FMCG sector. Plus we have had a record number of major UK clients extend contracts or reappoint us following a retender process."