Scott Davies
CEO, Institute of Travel Management
Every spring, the UK and Ireland business travel community gathers at the ITM Conference, this year held at Celtic Manor, with the theme ‘Inspire.’
Various key talking points were explored and debated, including two critical questions that appear to be on the minds of industry leaders. Firstly, is our industry broken? Second, are our travel management companies (TMCs) fit for the future?
Travel industry monetisation shift
The first question speaks to the money flows within the travel ecosystem, which have sustained it this far, but which have changed significantly in the last decade. Commissions paid by suppliers have long been confined to history. Yet, kickbacks, fees and other mechanisms which remunerate TMCs largely replaced them. These instruments have, for the last 25 years, been augmented as a revenue source by fee structures that TMCs charge their corporate clients directly.
However, advancements in technology — along with suppliers’ (especially airlines’) desire to differentiate themselves, sell directly to corporate travellers and upsell ancillary products — have eroded the value of the services they’re willing to pay TMCs for.
AI will play a major role in finessing
and optimising process efficiency
and customer experience.
Evolving travel management firms
At the conference, we aimed to level set the industry’s understanding of these shifting dynamics, to facilitate debate over whether innovation and progress are being hindered by legacy money flows that are tricky to wean off.
I believe that good travel management companies are the great chameleons of our industry, dynamically adapting and shape-shifting to aggregate, simplify and solve the challenges and opportunities that come their way. So many TMCs will continue to have a key role to play going forward.
AI can reshape corporate travel
The reality is that most corporate travel programmes do not have the resources and capacity to evaluate and implement new technologies and distribution methods themselves. They need a strategic partner that can be their filter, pivot and champion to harness and deploy such tools.
It is clear that AI will play a major role in finessing and optimising process efficiency and customer experience. ITM members were generally of the view that, if we continue to embrace new technologies and let go of some ageing commercial constructs, our industry is not in fact broken at all.
