The Business Travel Magazine Feb/Mar 2019

Travel tech / TMCs
TRAVEL
into the future
Catherine Chetwynd discovers how TMCs
are utilising new technology to provide
customers with better, smarter services
Leading edge technology is now at the
heart of a TMC’s operation. It makes
service delivery more efficient,
allows them to be more creative and
flexible, and provide simpler processes
that mirror consumer trends – something
clients today take for granted.
Technology facilitates communication,
whether that is via mobile, web or VOIP,
according to travellers’ and travel managers’
preferences; it ensures travellers can change
their itinerary while on the move and lets
travel providers learn more about clients in
order to personalise their services.
“In the past it was all about collecting data,
but now people are thinking about what they
can do with tech; we want to translate that
into action,” says FCM Chief Technology Officer
Michel Rouse. This requires platforms that
can automate the processing of data, analyse
it, draw out trends and present the results in
a way that is meaningful and easy to read.
“Good data scientists are crucial,” he says.
Innovation is allowing TMCs to compare
corporate spend on a particular route or in a
certain hotel to the market average, pulling in
data from a number of entities such as midoffice
and back-office systems, GDS, OTAs,
payment and expense management
providers, and traveller tracking systems.
Modern tech has also moved data use away
from just giving a historical view. If someone
normally travels to Los Angeles in February, a
TMC can see they would benefit from
booking six weeks before departure, instead
of eight weeks, because fares drop at that
point. “That is where we increase value, using
data predictively rather than historically,” says
Global Product Director of Advantage Travel
Partnership, Neil Amorgie.
CWT also uses predictive algorithms to
discern what a traveller has done, is doing
and the likelihood of its occurring again. AI
data visualisation tool CWT AnswerIQ lets
In the past it was all
about collecting data,
but now people are thinking
about what they can do with
tech; we want to translate
that into action”
users interrogate the TMC’s travel data in a
similar way to shopping online and it learns
over time, making suggestions to give clients
faster answers.
This leads to greater personalisation. “We
believe we can drive more intelligent search
results, based on what you’re doing, have
done in the past, and what your colleagues
are doing,” says VP, chief data scientist Dr Eric
Tyree. It allows CWT to present options for a
flight based on the passenger’s loyalty,
corporate policy and preferences.
Data also highlights traveller behaviour.
“We are collecting open booking data; we pull
it from our own systems but more and more
travellers are booking outside travel
programmes and we are able to bring that
into managed travel programmes and report
on it, and that covers duty of care,” says BTD
Product and Implementation Director,
Andrew Burroughes. Similarly, ATPI Analytics
provides measurable, real-time data in a
single platform, allowing clients to see what
they want, when they want in one place.
Technology is also helping harness
information about the bugbear of many
travel managers – ancillaries. Since the
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