With a mixture of new emerging technologies during the past few years and the impact of the pandemic, the travel industry has witnessed changes like never before. In fact, it is precisely these circumstances that have forced us to change our perspective on travel all together, rethink business travel in particular and assess what travellers and travel management companies need the most. Here is a list of 5 most current trends that are changing the business travel industry from the core:
Bleasure Travel
Back in the day, people tended to spend as few days away on business trips as possible.
In the last several years, the line between business and leisure travel has been almost completely blurred, giving way to the emergence of what is often referred to as “bleasure travel”. Now, business travel inevitably includes the traveller’s wish to explore the area they are in and get in touch with the local culture. According to a global survey of business travellers, 83% find time to get out and explore while on business trips, and 78% see adding personal days on the end as beneficial to the business, such as reducing stress and increasing employee satisfaction. In order to cater to such needs, business travel agencies need to find appropriate offers in terms of accommodation and transport, all within a previously established Travel Policy. This used to be a challenge, until, of course, business travel entered a new, digitalised era.
Travel has gone digital
The impact of technology is hardly a new, shocking piece of news. It’s been quite some time since travel booking made its way from landline calls and computers to smartphones, tablets via specially-made apps. With the emergence of digital booking, what needed to follow were the so-called digital wallets, i.e. the possibility to pay online. However, every aspect of travel, such as accommodation, transport and travel support, had to be booked separately which was, admittedly, very time consuming.
Technology, however, keeps evolving and what has emerged as a complete novelty of business travel are online booking platforms that incorporate every aspect of travel and allow the customer to save time and make business travel a breeze. DIB Travel has created such a platform that allows you to book not only your flight and hotel, with direct access to the world’s largest booking platforms such as Booking.com and Expedia, but has also found a way to make business travel convenient for the travel management end of the process as well.
End-to-end travel management experience
Free access to travel-related content and apps has resulted in business travellers looking for a complete end-to-end experience. While convenient transport and accommodation booking tends to be one of the key features when it comes to business travel, what is often neglected is the other half of the process, which includes not only the Traveller, but also the travel management, such as the Approver, Human Resources, and the Finance Department.
DIB Travel’s platform provides an end-to-end business travel experience, by allowing greater control of business travel expenses through integrated Travel Policy/ies. Apart from unique hotel and flight content, the platform contains various features that are constantly being assessed and added, such as travel booking expense tracking and reporting, accounting integrations, and virtual credit cards, making it a true all-in-one platform.
Risk Management ft. Flexibility
Due to the current circumstances, the demand for safe travel and flexibility has never been higher. Traveller support is now a big emphasis for companies with employees travelling abroad. This is why DIB Travel too has introduced numerous features that incorporate new policies and technologies to help monitor employees’ location in case of an emergency or unpredictable changes, especially when they travel abroad. In addition, DIB Travel is particularly proud of its Travel Support Team which is available to all of our clients 24/7.
While some of the trends continued to develop, particularly the impact of technology, business travel never lacks significant changes, especially in 2021. Planning for the future seems challenging, but what remains certain is that everyone in the business travel industry needs to constantly strive towards new discoveries and development. DIB Travel has decided to do so through countless innovations on our platform as well as finding a way for all of us to join our strengths and push forward. Curious to hear how we can all stand together? Make sure to read our next post for some more exciting news!
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