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Corporate travel
tech adoption

Corporate travel tech adoption

TMC NDC ADOPTION BAROMETER

Corporate travel
tech adoption

Corporate travel
tech adoption

T

echnology is the great enabler of travel management. From pervasive online booking tools to niche traveler rewards systems, travel buyers can deploy an array of products, features, tools or systems to guide travelers pre-trip, in-trip and post-trip.

        Whether extended through a travel management company, offered by a startup or delivered by a specialized provider, the travel management tech stack has grown rich with options.

For companies hellbent on containing costs, technology features and products help enforce policy, steer purchasing to preferred suppliers, optimize prices paid and shine a light on travel spend.

        For programs keen on employee engagement and safety, technology can help mitigate traveler risk and ease their lives on the road.

        This year, The Beat surveyed more than 200 travel buyers whose organizations handled at least $500,000 in 2018 U.S.-booked air volume to assess adoption in several discrete technology categories.

        Among findings, online booking tools, expense reporting systems, mobile travel applications and traveler tracking systems form the core of travel management tech, each adopted by at least two-thirds of respondents.

        Airfare and hotel rate reshopping as well as guest-booking technology are emergent tech options, adopted by at least one-third but less than two-thirds of respondents.

        Meanwhile, niche solutions like software that captures off-channel bookings, virtual payment tech and trip budgeting and rewards systems are gaining ground in usage, but have been adopted by less than one-third of respondents.

        What follows is a look at each category, including assessments of current and forward-looking adoption levels among managed travel programs.

THE ENTRENCHED
THE ENTRENCHED

the emergent

the emergent
the niche

the niche

METHODOLOGY

The Beat in May-July 2019 invited hundreds of qualified corporate travel managers to complete an online survey. Nearly 400 self-identified corporate travel managers and/or procurement professionals completed the online questionnaire. Respondents identifying themselves as consultants, travel agency representatives or other suppliers were excluded. To better represent managed travel programs, the findings also excluded results from travel manager respondents who answered that their program spent less than $500,000 on airfares from the U.S. point of sale in calendar year 2018.

In the online survey, The Beat presented a definition for each technology category and asked respondents if they: “Have formally adopted and/or endorsed within travel program; Plan to formally adopt and/or endorse in the next 12 months; Do not plan to adopt or endorse.” The definitions presented to respondents are included in each entry in this report.

Of 207 corporate travel buyers whose responses were included in the statistical findings, 18 percent spent between $500,000 and $2 million on airfares from the U.S. point of sale in 2018; 42 percent spent between $2 million and $12 million; 13 percent spent between $12 million and $20 million; and 27 percent spent more than $20 million. The Beat supplemented statistical findings through interviews with travel management company executives, corporate travel managers, procurement professionals, technology providers and consultants—some for attribution and others on background.
PRODUCED BY
JAY BOEHMER / Editor-in-Chief
jboehmer@thebtngroup.com
CHRIS DAVIS / Contributing Writer
LOUIS MAGLIARO
Senior Vice President/Group Publisher
lmagliaro@thebtngroup.com
ANTHONY CARNEVALE / Publisher
acarnevale@thebtngroup.com
MARIZA MOREIRA / Group Design Manager
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NORTHSTAR TRAVEL MEDIA, LLC