Personalization, Optimization, Technology are the Major Trends for Modern Travel Managers

Moscow, Russia, February 28, 2017: A rucial point is coming in the field of business trip management causing changes both for travel managers and service providers involved by them. Such a conclusion was made by the experts of Vipservice Holding and Sabre, the leader in technology for the global tourism and travel industry, who did a research on satisfaction of TMS service quality among the Russian specialists for business trip management.

Travel managers think that a client-oriented approach in the corporate tourism means both service provision at the best price for the customer and involvement of the customer in the purchase process and a possibility to control on his side. The respondents have designated that the major means of such control are the automated systems which allow to monitor compliance with the travel policy rules, provide sustainable interaction of TMS and the customer and protect from mistakes and abuse.

Today, TMS and corporations have a difficult task: on the one side, to increase the personalization level, i.e. to consider wishes of business tourists within the framework of the travel policy and the system of manager remuneration, and on the other side, to meet the growing requirements to budget economy. TMS can provide the travel manager with analytical data which can help avoid unnecessary expenses and will become the basis for strategic planning. The research shows that agencies are more and more involved in business processes of the customer, and as far as the list of competencies is extended, the role of TMS is transformed from the agent to the interested business partner.

To this end, special attention in the research was paid to work arrangement for the travel manager and the purchase department aimed to find new opportunities for TMS. The survey shows that so far not all Russian companies have the approved travel policy but in most cases it is not available in the companies with the annual budget for business trips less than 25 million rubles. The corporations where this expense item is more than 100 million rubles, as a rule, have the travel policy. Estimating the priorities of Russian travel managers, it is found out that they devote most of their time to work with suppliers, as well as to development and execution control of the travel program.

Almost in every organization travel managers are overloaded with operational work, and the major difficulties they face are lack of control instruments, resources for cost management and solutions for data gathering and analysis. No wonder that the research participants have showed a particular interest in modern information technologies. More than a half (56%) of respondents already use online solutions to search and book services, and 44% of travel managers use technologies to analyze data and prepare reports. About one third of respondents have showed interest in IT solutions to control compliance with the travel policy rules, technologies to personalize service and mobile applications. In this case, TMS can act as advisors and assist clients to select and implement high technologies.

In the nearest future, Russian travel managers are going to devote more time to estimation and implementation of technologies, as well as personnel training and participation in industry events. And the possible directions in which the organizations are going to put more efforts will become: management of service demand, new models of relationship with suppliers, alternative forms of payment solutions, safety of business tourists and mobile technologies.

"For the last years we have invested a lot of time and efforts in implementation of new technologies and optimization of business processes together with Sabre, our technology partner. It was done to implement our client-oriented approach. We value the market opinion on our work, and for this reason we did a research on satisfaction of Russian travel managers from cooperation with TMS. The key conclusions we have received will form the basis for our work on further improvement of service quality for clients", said Anna Kuznetsova, Managing Partner of Vipservice corporate business holding.

"The conducted research helps to form a holistic comprehension of the current condition and prospects of the Russian market of corporate tourism. We see that technologies become an integral part of travel management in Russia, which enables to reach a whole new level of client-related service and thus to come close to the world's best practices. Within the framework of corporate programs on cost reduction, new technology solutions can increase efficiency of the whole business. Moreover, they will allow travel managers to deal not only with tasks on the operational level but with more strategic issues, such as long-term planning of programs and search of new solutions for cost optimization", says Anastasiya Lavrenuk, Chief Representative of Sabre Travel Network in Russia.

As a whole, the research results of Vipservice and Sabre have much in common with the key observations of the international research of the travel manager role did by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) with the support of Sabre in 2015. It testifies that, in spite of specifics, the Russian market of corporate tourism develops according to a scenario similar to the scenario of international industry, and technologies are playing more and more important role in this process.