Does Technology Improve Business Travel?

Technology is helping refine certain key aspects of business travel , but ultimately, people are the driving force behind its development and progress.

With the growth of smart technology, coupled with a traveller satisfaction, business travel has become more personalised, flexible and seamless. 

However, to understand the impact of technology on business travel, it is important to understand the challenges of business travel, including its impact on mental wellbeing .

The Challenge of Business Travel

Covering what are often long distances, sometimes across different global timelines, is inherently demanding of the business traveller.

Whether the journey is for securing new business or training, business travel can be stressful getting from A to B. From ensuring you have all your booking details, to tedious expense reporting, business travel can cause frustration for a lot of travellers. 

Traditionally, the personal and office-based administrative burden has been high. Business travel can involve multiple bookings and transport modes, each with their own reservation requirements.

At the same time, the individual travelling may well be on a business-critical mission that requires them to be performing at their best when they reach their destination.

Consequently, any administrative hiccups while travelling will be a distraction, and may end up actively detracting from this performance.

One critical issue is the last mile and local knowledge, when the traveller has reached their destination but needs to get a transfer from the airport to the hotel, or the venue where they are expected.

Technology and Personalisation

Data is incredibly valuable to businesses, allowing them to understand trends and forecasts in all areas of their business. This is not limited to business travel.

However, technology has given us the ability to understand travellers more than ever. In fact, personalisation through smart technology is raising user expectations.

For example, an individual’s experience is monitored from the time they search online for a hotel, reflecting the date, time of day, their location and also their online history as a consumer.

Like consumers, business travellers routinely generate large amounts of data, which will allow smart technology to provide them with greater flexibility when booking itineraries.

Companies can use this data to streamline their processes when it comes to business travel. This can help eliminate previous issues with checking into flights and hotels, as well as streamline the entire travel and accommodation process. 

As  artificial intelligence  (AI) becomes more widely-used, it will enable more automation that is very much focused on the individual on a human, personal level.

People Come First

Whilst technology is brilliant at...