Traveller Centric Travel Management
Chris Slagle
National Sales Director, CWT Solutions Group
Carlson Wagonlit Travel
Agenda
Traveller Centric Travel Management
• How did we get here?
• What is it?
• Key first steps
• Building a communication strategy
• Examples
• What can I do today?
Traveller Centric Travel Management
Three Revolutions of Travel
How did we get here?
• The 1st - led by introduction of centralized CRS/GDS systems
– The idea began in 1959 – an IBM/American Airlines
collaboration they named Semi-Automatic Business Research
Environment (SABRE)
– Travel Agent access began (with Apollo) in 1976 and grew to
eventually include car/hotel content.
• 2nd - led by the Internet
– Focus and momentum began in the early 2000’s – making
content widely accessible
• 3rd - currently led by Travellers
– Mobile, social media and crowd sourcing
– Traveller and travel information is available anytime,
anywhere and in any language
Traveller Centric Travel Management
What is it?
• It’s about acknowledging the movement of the traveller to the
center of the buying decision
– That they have access to more information in the form of
content, alternatives, and social feedback than ever before
– The same information provides a new level of confidence in
buying choices without referencing corporate policy or
guidelines
• Challenging the norm
– Traditional ‘one-size fits all’ policies are less effective in
today’s environment – shift to an Adaptive Travel Policy
• Shifting paradigms
– Greater movement towards ‘duty of care’ and considering the
needs and wants of today’s traveller
Traveller Segmentation
Acknowledging that not all travellers are the same. Although they have
commonalties, their experience plays a major role in how they make decision
Traveller Segmentation
Analysis
Experience
Demographics
Type of travel
Identify traveller
segments
behaving well
Leverage the
knowledge of those
travelers to help other
segements
Locate segments that need to
be managed differently
Traveller Centric Travel Management
What is it?
• It’s about acknowledging the movement of the traveller to the
center of the buying decision (more info/choices/access)
• Challenging the norm (move to Adaptive Travel Policy)
• Shifting paradigms (duty of care / traveller satisfaction)
• Segmentation (re-thinking traveler behaviour)
• Improving the communication strategy
– Taking advantage of new systems, analytics and methodologies to
improve compliance, savings and traveller satisfaction
S
T
R
A
T
E
G
I
C
F
O
C
U
S
Advanced
Communication
Strategies
Traveller
Behaviour
Monitoring
On-going Vendor
Optimisation
Solidifying
Vendor
Agreements
Vendor Strategy
Assessment
BEST PRACTICE
Key First Steps – Identify the Initiatives
• Focus on the Travellers
– What are their buying behaviours telling you?
– What is driving compliance / non-compliance?
 Lack of knowledge of Travel Policy?
 Have they found a ‘better’ supplier?
 Is there a forum for their feedback?
• Where are the opportunities for improving compliance savings?
– Advance Purchase?
– SBT / OBT compliance?
– Lowest Logical Airfare?
– Hotel booked with Air?
– Preferred vendor compliance?
Key First Steps – Identify the Initiatives (con’d)
• Data & analysis creates a stronger platform
– Work with your TMC and vendors to gather data
– Employ deeper analytics to improve visibility of opportunities
– Calculate the impact of traveller behaviour and compliance
• Align your discoveries
– Update the Travel Policy
– Don’t stop there
 Create initiatives
 Build a communication strategy
Build a communication strategy
• Improving communication throughout the organisation
– It’s about sending contextual information to an individual traveller
– But also about creating a unified sense of purpose
• Who are the key stakeholders?
– Procurement
– Finance
– E-team
– Business Unit Leaders
– Travellers
• Navigate varying levels of management understanding
– You are the travel expert. Trust your instincts
– Team up with other departments’ expertise but stay in the lead!
– Rely on your TMC to assist you to bring visibility to data & strategy
Build a communication strategy (con’d)
• Understand that messaging needs to differ based on
the recipient
– Management / Business Unit Leaders
 Be concise and specific
 Impact of Missed Savings / Compliance
 Results will extend their travel budget
– Traveller
 Provide broader comprehensive information – it’s about them
 Create opportunities to capture their feedback
 Drive towards improving the accessibility of the information: Portal,
Mobile, etc.
 Make the impact of their behaviours “real”
What are some of the existing and emerging support tools?
• System generated compliance messaging
• Traveller Segmentation Analysis
• Travel Stress Index
• Scorecards
• Reward / Gaming components
Source: As reported by GBTA Foundation Benchmarking Tool and therefore may be subject to change
Traveller Scorecard
Traveller Scorecard
Traveller Scorecard
Traveller Scorecard
Possible gaming element!
Traveller Scorecard
Traveller Scorecard
Possible gaming element!
Traveller Scorecard
Traveller Scorecard
Traveller Scorecard
Possible gaming element!
Traveller Scorecard
Business Unit Comparative Matrix
What can you do today to move towards Traveller Centric
Travel Management?
• Review your vendor strategies
• Work with your TMC and/or internal teams to quantify the
financial benefits of behaviour change
• Open channels of communication with your travellers
• Consider re-thinking your traveller mix / segmentation
• Create initiatives – start small, build success
• Align your Travel Policy with those changes
• Develop a broader communication strategy
• Discover what tools and support are available from your TMC
• Stay current – leverage this emerging technology for change
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