Business Travel March-April-2021

TMCs / Covid response
SUPPORT
systems
With a raft of new products and services TMCs
are playing a vital role amid the current travel
complexities. Gill Upton reports
Here’s the dilemma: the dire
economic climate is forcing
companies to introduce more
rigid travel policies and reductions in
spend while Covid-19 dictates that those
changes must accommodate a far more
robust duty of care programme, in terms
of traveller wellbeing and safety, which
often means higher cost.
It’s a tough balance to strike between cost
and risk mitigation and TMCs have been
demonstrating just how to deliver that
through real-time traveller tracking, a
tighter pre-trip approval process, up-to-date
travel alerts, Covid-related intelligence and a
raft of new-fangled reports to dice and slice
to maintain cost controls.
It's taken a global
pandemic for TMCs to
prove they are vital partners
in the travel space, something
that historically they have not
been good at articulating"
“Clients already have access to this,”
argues Nicola Cox, Director at Midas Travel.
“What they’re seeking more of is an
integrated and advisory approach. Our
clients know us for our proactivity and rely
on our advice on traveller wellbeing,
protecting supplier partnerships and
restoring traveller confidence.”
The picture of Covid readiness varies
among TMCs but generally they have not
been idle. Ahead of the curve initially were
the digital TMCs. The likes of TripActions, for
example, swiftly added new functionality to
help instil confidence and protect travellers.
This included an enhanced Covid-19 report,
deeper policy controls and customisation,
real-time data for travellers, automated
unused tickets and waivers within the
booking flow, a recovery app to assess the
safety of planned travel and webinars to log
best practice for travel managers.
More recently, travel data platform Shep
has added Covid-related perimeters to its
browser extension, sharing guidance on
thousands of websites. Tripkicks has done
something similar, adding actionable
insights to its Concur booking overlay.
6 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com