What Travel Agents Need to Know About Corporate Travel Today
This is rightly named as the age of traveler-centricity and with the evolution of the new era of personalized travel; it really is leading to research and development of a bunch of new so-called intelligent services. The command-and-control perspectives of traveling have changed a whole lot from days gone by and the focus has shifted more on the traveler and the productivity of every trip. It has become essential to maintain that the travelers have the greatest profits on return on each trip. New generations of young employees and managers, who have been growing up and dwelling in an electronic age, are moving up the ranks as travelers. It has become essential to recognize the necessity for greater flexibility acknowledging that the employees who travel on corporate trips also consider a percentage of their trip to be considered a leisure outlet. With increasing globalization and rise in companies sending their staff overseas to network and interact with their offshore prospects/customers/suppliers, corporate travel is a highly profitable tourism segment. Before we discuss how tourism companies can better cater to business travelers, why don’t we first look at why they would rather use specialized corporate agencies over traditional agents
Why do businesses use Corporate Travel Agencies?
This might function as most elementary question for a travel agency as to the reasons they need to use agencies focusing on corporate travel when there are many regular travel agents available in the market. Here is cultural tourism for corporate travel agencies who’ve online systems which allow business travelers access to their complete itinerary.
The following information is at the fingertips of the CTAs:-
full business itinerary details
up-to-date tracking information on flights (including delays or rescheduling)
transparent details about additional costs such as for example baggage fees or in-flight fees
travel alerts, if any, in the destined area
complete and up-to-date information regarding the visa procurement policies and identification required
currency requirement and conversions
What do corporate clients expect from Corporate Travel Agencies?
Negotiated Fares
The Corporate Agencies generally have tie-ups with hotels, car rentals, flights etc. providing them with access to lower fares which can be used only by the frequent business travelers. Discounted prices are not the only advantage though because they also offer flight upgrades, room upgrades, and VIP check-in lines as required.
In-depth information regarding the travel industry
Corporate travel agents have access to many travel resources & most importantly, quickly, than any leisure travel agent. Additional information helps to make the business trips convenient and comfortable.
Changes in Itinerary
When an airline ticket needs to get rescheduled or cancelled, itâs likely that the airline or the web company will charge lofty fees. When booking with a corporate travel agent, a lot of the times schedule changes can be achieved at zero or minimal extra charges.
Viable emergency contacts
It is important for the business enterprise travelers to reach the correct person at the need of trouble. Corporate travel companies have the knowledge and professionalism to alleviate stress for both the traveler and the business.
What you should consider as corporate travel increases?
Business Travel Barometer reported that corporate travel is witnessing an accelerated growth. However, when poorly managed, it could be no longer an advantage to companies and could, in fact become a burden. There are some factors that your corporations and CTAs must consider to obtain the best out of your time spent traveling.
Adopting a travel policy
The organization must define a travel policy that is applicable to and respected by travelers at all levels. This policy should be used to establish the standards which can only help to track the improvement of business travel. It is going to help to decrease the costs of the complete package.
Do not limit the traveler’s autonomy
The management is in charge of budgeting the travel policy which helps to improve cost management however, additionally it is essential to provide a degree of autonomy to the traveler. The policy ought to be flexible enough to permit the employee to adapt the trip according to the situation.
Traveler’s security should be a major concern
Business travelers need to have security in place. The business needs to stick to its definition of standards to ensure the employee’s integrity. The CTAs must have reliable partners (travel cover, airlines, hotel chains etc.).