Today’s business travellers are demanding that their travel management companies (TMCs) keep up the pace in mobile technology development, according to a senior figure at Sabre.
Chris Kroeger, Sabre Travel Network’s senior VP, said corporations and TMCs must meet travellers’ demands for “more convenience and functionality” of mobile devices, or risk being left behind.
“The corporate travel industry needs to keep pace with the services and apps that travellers can access in their personal life ad incorporate those into the world of managed business travel,” he said.
Mobile travel services have single-handedly consumerised business travel, said Kroeger, and in the future smart phones will become replacements for passports, wallets and credit cards.
For tomorrow’s business traveller, advancements in mobile payment, commerce and banking will make it easier to electronically transact via mobile devices, he added.
Kroeger’s comments follow a survey of some 800 business travellers worldwide, which found that mobile technology has become a vital tool for the business traveller, and can be used to influence their decisions.
According to the study, the majority (63%) of respondents are interested in receiving destination specific offers from local businesses.
“One of the biggest trends we see in the survey data is travellers’ desire for local business information,” said Kroeger, and “smart and savvy” TMCs will use technology to provide it.
Some 71% of the business travellers also said they want to receive driving directions to a specific location via their smart phones, while nearly half (43%) already use their smart phone to access navigation services daily.
Kroeger said: “Consumers already rely on their mobile devices to help them navigate their way through cities around the world.
“In the future they’ll look for mobile services that are not only location-based but contextually aware, such as airport navigational tools with the ability to find in-airport businesses but also have deals and offers pushed to their smartphone.”