Phot

o by

men

tatd

gt f

rom

Pex

els

The Future ofCorporate Travel

#FutureofX

Managing employee travel effectively is a vital part of an organization's success. Travel is an established part of doing business, so providing a frictionless travel experience that allows the person to focus on doing business, not travel, is becoming increasingly important. Seamless travel also means greater efficiency for the business overall.

When it comes to corporate travel, corporations are looking to:

> Unlock new business opportunities> Extend market reach> Streamline operations> Reduce costs> Maximize profit> Ensure travelers stay connected, regardless of their

location

This reduces uncertainty for corporations and helps them and their employees make the best travel decisions for now and in the future. But more importantly, corporations also have a legal and ethical duty of care to their employees, which means they should take all reasonable steps to ensure employee health, safety and well-being.

Amadeus helps corporations power smarter business travel. By working together with our partners, Amadeus has created a Live Travel Space, with our open technology and connected teams. It’s a space where all travel players can connect and collaborate to address the desires of travelers and provide them with a wide range of options at any given moment. Ultimately delivering the best possible experience for travelers.

Phot

o by

Sw

eet

Ice

Crea

m P

hoto

grap

hy o

n U

nspl

ash

What is shaping the future of corporate travel?

As employees exercise greater freedom and crave a travel culture that combines productivity and personalized experiences – a new and more complex landscape is emerging. This includes the rise of bleisure, a mix of business and leisure, amongst APAC employees – a trend that is growing in popularity as work-life boundaries blur.

It’s down to the travel management companies and corporations to evolve from their traditional approach to embrace this change in behavior and continue to provide the highest-quality travel experiences.

Corporations on the other hand, want smarter business travel, through open and connected technology. They are looking for solutions that decrease their travel spend, manage costs efficiently and ultimately provide travelers with the best experience, one that resembles what they get when they travel for leisure.

To discover what is driving change for corporations, Amadeus has looked at the top five trends currently impacting the corporate travel industry.

In any industry, the safety and security of employees traveling for corporate travel is a company’s number one priority. For us, it’s essential that we have a trusted travel technology partner that will help us focus on operations and then cost optimization. This will ensure we always undertake the right duty of care priorities and help us continue to give our employees the highest quality experiences whilst they travel for work.”

― Jun Noguchi, Senior Manager, Head of HR Systems Health & Safety Fuso, Human Resources, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation

Technology will continue to be a huge enabler in the travel industry. Blockchain, Voice and AI are potentially three of the most promising technologies. I personally think voice will be the differentiator going forward. It is incredibly complex but also the one that is most seamless. If you think of it, talking to each other is the most natural thing humans do. Typing, swiping and other forms of interaction are all just intermediate steps as we are unable to efficiently talk to a machine. This will change, and the companies that devise the most efficient way of selling high value and high engagement products via voice will lead in the future.”

― Nishank Gopalkrishnan, Chief Business Officer, Musement

To discover what is driving change for corporations, Amadeus has looked at the top five trends currently impacting

the corporate travel industry:

Top tech trends to watch

Voice is the next frontier

There’s a major shi� happening between human and computer interaction, particularly with voice technology across Asia Pacific. As travel companies continue to invest in voice technology, corporations they will have quicker access to the traveler’s profile, real-time alerts and in-flight amenities checks within a single natural sentence. This means travel consultants and travelers won’t have to go through multiple screens; they can achieve the same goal – using only voice.

Duty of care

In most countries, employers have a legal and ethical duty of care to their employees, which means they should take all reasonable steps to ensure employees’ health, safety and well-being. To help corporations with this, Amadeus offers a Mobile Messenger solution that provides real-time assistance and disruption management wherever employees and travelers are. Corporations can monitor the safety and well-being of travelers throughout their trip and anticipate their needs and take immediate action when needed. The case for companies to actively manage their travelers’ well-being is growing stronger every day. It’s been proven that happier, well-rested and healthy business travelers are: productive, present, likely to maintain strong relationships with their clients and suppliers, and more likely to stay with their current employers. Furthermore, the human connections established through business travel can o�en boost employees’ career paths, help them close deals, and improve a company’s bottom line.

Business travel is no longer just about getting to and from home. It is a series of experiences that demand an intuitive, streamlined management – which is all driven through mobile. I’m convinced that the 5G rollout will completely transform the corporate traveler’s mobile experience. For starters, access to unlimited data will allow for more informative and productive business trips while on the other side corporations will be able to provide better guidance for their corporate travelers in terms of access to hotel, transfer and destination services in virtual reality format.”

― Edgar Vega, Commercial Head of APAC, Mobile, Amadeus

Top tech trends to watch

Feeling the impact of 5G

Faster networks through 5G are being deployed in several cities and are enabling new technologies to take off, changing the way that we move around our own cities and travel to others. Thanks to the increased speed and amounts of data, there will be more advanced connected devices – from smart homes to self-driving cars and smart cities – and increased personalization through Artificial Intelligence. 5G connectivity will allow travel companies to provide a seamless travel experience in which a business traveler can go door-to-door from their home to a hotel hassle free and with a truly personalized service. The frictionless experience will continue at their hotel with 5G smart hotels – offering faster connection speeds for smartphones and connected devices. With 5G, the end traveler is going to be better connected than ever before. Corporations need to be ready for this and ensure they best equip their employees to take advantage of this 5G hyper-connectivity.

Mastering security with a seamless travel experience

The security of business travelers will always be the number one priority for corporations and travel management companies. However, maximum security doesn’t always mean a smooth travel experience. One trend to look out for in the future is how the travel industry will master security alongside a seamless travel experience. Innovation in this space is well underway and biometrics are playing a huge roll in making this happen. Long queues and scanning passports will become a thing of the past as travel becomes frictionless. Amadeus is working with several airports in line with IATA’s One ID vision to use biometrics to reduce wait times and move towards a remotely-hosted biometrics solution for the industry. Business travelers will be able to spend less time waiting in queues and spend more time focused on the job they are there for. This is crucial for those that travel regularly for work – especially in terms of keeping job satisfaction levels high.

Artificial Intelligence is already impacting and benefiting the travel industry. More travel management companies and airlines are using chatbots to service their customers and support them in their shopping, information requests and complaints processes. For me the next big chatbot? One that can answer our questions around our Corporate Travel policy when we are traveling and on-the-go.”

― Nadia Yahiaoui, Head of Corporations, Asia Pacific, Amadeus

Top tech trends to watch

Feeling the impact of 5G

Faster networks through 5G are being deployed in several cities and are enabling new technologies to take off, changing the way that we move around our own cities and travel to others. Thanks to the increased speed and amounts of data, there will be more advanced connected devices – from smart homes to self-driving cars and smart cities – and increased personalization through Artificial Intelligence. 5G connectivity will allow travel companies to provide a seamless travel experience in which a business traveler can go door-to-door from their home to a hotel hassle free and with a truly personalized service. The frictionless experience will continue at their hotel with 5G smart hotels – offering faster connection speeds for smartphones and connected devices. With 5G, the end traveler is going to be better connected than ever before. Corporations need to be ready for this and ensure they best equip their employees to take advantage of this 5G hyper-connectivity.

Mastering security with a seamless travel experience

The security of business travelers will always be the number one priority for corporations and travel management companies. However, maximum security doesn’t always mean a smooth travel experience. One trend to look out for in the future is how the travel industry will master security alongside a seamless travel experience. Innovation in this space is well underway and biometrics are playing a huge roll in making this happen. Long queues and scanning passports will become a thing of the past as travel becomes frictionless. Amadeus is working with several airports in line with IATA’s One ID vision to use biometrics to reduce wait times and move towards a remotely-hosted biometrics solution for the industry. Business travelers will be able to spend less time waiting in queues and spend more time focused on the job they are there for. This is crucial for those that travel regularly for work – especially in terms of keeping job satisfaction levels high.

The rise of ‘Super-apps’

This is basically the ‘all-in-one’ solution, or the ‘one-stop-shop’. Corporate travelers are juggling so many apps (airlines, travel agencies, hotels etc.). But the 'Super-app' concept is something very appealing for the corporate traveler, giving them the ability to book, make changes, get an itinerary, claim expenses – all on one single app. It is one of the top trends among big players in the mobile space. Much like WeChat has done for years in China, other companies in Asia like LINE, KakaoTalk, Grab, and Go-Jek are expanding to other verticals adding functionalities and content to their apps, from mobility options to food delivery, media, payments and travel, targeting more business travelers. Moving forward, travelers will expect everything to be easily accessible to them through one, simple to use app. Corporations need to bear this in mind when reviewing their solutions that they make available to their employees.

Top tech trends to watch

In business travel there are two goals that corporations need to consider, security and seamless travel. The tricky part is applying them in such a way that one goal isn’t achieved at the expense of the other. Better yet, technology needs to evolve that can improve both sides of the equation. For business travelers there are some opportunities in credentialing that could help authorities in risk profiling and crowd management.”

― Faisal Ariff, Founder and CEO, Borderpass

Feeling the impact of 5G

Faster networks through 5G are being deployed in several cities and are enabling new technologies to take off, changing the way that we move around our own cities and travel to others. Thanks to the increased speed and amounts of data, there will be more advanced connected devices – from smart homes to self-driving cars and smart cities – and increased personalization through Artificial Intelligence. 5G connectivity will allow travel companies to provide a seamless travel experience in which a business traveler can go door-to-door from their home to a hotel hassle free and with a truly personalized service. The frictionless experience will continue at their hotel with 5G smart hotels – offering faster connection speeds for smartphones and connected devices. With 5G, the end traveler is going to be better connected than ever before. Corporations need to be ready for this and ensure they best equip their employees to take advantage of this 5G hyper-connectivity.

Mastering security with a seamless travel experience

The security of business travelers will always be the number one priority for corporations and travel management companies. However, maximum security doesn’t always mean a smooth travel experience. One trend to look out for in the future is how the travel industry will master security alongside a seamless travel experience. Innovation in this space is well underway and biometrics are playing a huge roll in making this happen. Long queues and scanning passports will become a thing of the past as travel becomes frictionless. Amadeus is working with several airports in line with IATA’s One ID vision to use biometrics to reduce wait times and move towards a remotely-hosted biometrics solution for the industry. Business travelers will be able to spend less time waiting in queues and spend more time focused on the job they are there for. This is crucial for those that travel regularly for work – especially in terms of keeping job satisfaction levels high.

If you would like to learn more about how technology can be used to transform your business, let’s talk: https://amadeus.com/en/industries/corporations

linkedin.com/company/amadeus

amadeus.com/future-of-x

© Amadeus IT Group and its affiliates and subsidiaries

#FutureofX

WWW