travel tech insights

Today’s corporate travelers have a lot on their plate. Is the presentation ready? Has everyone reviewed the report? Will the right players be available for this afternoon’s conference call? How can we quickly leverage this data into a positive action for our company? These are the questions the average corporate traveler faces on a daily basis, which is why - given the number of decisions needed each day - it makes perfect sense that travel agencies are still an important value proposition for the 21st Century corporate traveler.

Yes, in today’s increasingly connected, digitized world, access to destination information, travel review websites, and online travel agencies (OTAs) or travel management companies (TMCs) is greater than ever. But as the speed and pace of the corporate lifestyle continues to increase, business travelers find themselves at something of a curious paradox: the speed and availability in ecommerce that makes travel bookings so easy and convenient has actually made it difficult for corporate travelers to tend to these tasks given the myriad of other responsibilities they have day-in and day-out.

The release of BridgeStreet Global Hospital’s The Bleisure Report 2014 introduced a new term to the travel industry and revealed the idea of combining business and leisure travel – far from being outlandish – was a reality for a sizeable number of people and poised for growth.  The report found that 83% of global business travelers take time on business trips to explore their destination cities and 37% add personal leave days to most or all of their trips. The key word to notice is “global” business travelers, because it makes all the sense in the world to maximize international airfares bought by employers.