travel tech insights

How can a Travel Agency win Millennial Travelers?

Based on the frequency of articles focused on millennials over the past two years it’s apparent the travel industry views them as an important demographic. That’s not surprising, the Baby Boomer generation is retiring – perhaps gaining more time for travel but likely with less disposable income to pay for it. Millennials, on the other hand, are entering the workforce and starting to climb the income ladder.  As was the case with the Boomers, these Millennials might have limited travel budgets at the moment, but they’re likely to transform into a lucrative age group for travel agencies over the next ten years.

Topics: Travel Industry travel technology Travel App travel agency millennial traveler travel agent trusted adviser

Mobile Transactions & the Travel Industry: Infographics for 2016

A Q4 2015 e-commerce survey, condensed into these infographics, provides good insights and guidance for what mobile technology means for the travel industry in 2016. Key take-aways:

Topics: Travel Industry travel technology Travel App travel agency Tour Operator Mobile App Infographic Mobile Transaction

Tour Operators & Activity Suppliers: Unique Challenges Ahead!

Tours and activities is one of the most difficult sectors of the travel industry to define and analyze. For example, just gauging the size of the sector isn’t easy. A report released this month said, “Consumers spend somewhere between $100 billion to $200 billion annually on tours and activities according to some estimates.” When estimates vary by 100% (could be $100billion, or could be $200 billion), it’s hard to view them as little more than educated guesses. However, even these rough figures make it clear the sector is huge.

Topics: Tour Operator

How a Travel Management Company controls Business Travel Costs (Part 2)

Part 1 of this series explored why controlling the cost of employee travel is difficult due to issues that cannot be eliminated and are not easily handled. Part 1 also discussed why these difficulties often lead organizations to use travel management companies (TMC) for their business travel -  with their responsibilities ranging from administering corporate travel policies to booking employee business trips.

Topics: travel technology Travel Management Company Business Travel TMC Travel Policy Travel Costs Corporate Travel

How a Travel Management Company controls Business Travel Costs (Part 1)

Business managers often find the challenges of controlling business travel costs to stay top of mind for two reasons: 1) travel costs often appear deceptively easy to manage and control – only to turn out to be quite the opposite; 2) travel is expensive, meaning these costs can quickly become significant if not controlled.  Travel costs appear easy to control because the amounts almost always require a formal approval mechanism. However, travel approval procedures in most companies tend to stumble in two ways.

Topics: Travel Management Company Business Travel TMC Travel Policy Travel Costs Corporate Travel

Protecting your Travel Agency’s Online Reputation

There is a great deal of attention paid in travel industry articles to the importance of an effective online presence. Given the growing influence of technology on every aspect of travel – whether travel agency, tour operator, or Travel Management Company – that focus isn’t really surprising.  However, it’s important for every online travel business to realize the power of the Internet cuts both ways.

Topics: Travel Industry travel agency online reputation management Tour Operator online travel reviews online reputation travel reviews

Why Every Travel Management Company should embrace Bleisure

The release of BridgeStreet Global Hospital’s The Bleisure Report 2014 introduced a new term to the travel industry and revealed the idea of combining business and leisure travel – far from being outlandish – was a reality for a sizeable number of people and poised for growth.  The report found that 83% of global business travelers take time on business trips to explore their destination cities and 37% add personal leave days to most or all of their trips. The key word to notice is “global” business travelers, because it makes all the sense in the world to maximize international airfares bought by employers.

Topics: Travel Industry Travel Management Company Business Travel TMC Business Travelers Millennials Bleisure Leisure Travel

Bring Lost Travel Bookings back to Life

Lost – or abandoned travel bookings refer to online travel customers who visit a website, put travel products into a shopping cart then leave the site without confirming and completing the transaction. There’s an abundance of articles written on the issue of abandonment in the travel industry, perhaps because the high incident rate makes the potential for large revenue gains from even slight improvements very attractive.  Can a travel agency, tour operator or other travel business take measures to address this issue and improve outcomes? Of course they can. But they should consider whether the best, first step is breathing life back into lost travel bookings - before trying to prevent them in the first place.

Topics: Travel Industry travel agency Tour Operator abandoned travel bookings travel shopping carts lost travel bookings online travel