Technology will be the key to rebuilding business travelers confidence

November 24, 2021

3 min read

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Despite the best video conferencing technology, meeting people in person is an inherent part of business. It is necessary to build relationships with partners, colleagues, and customers.

Although we are starting to see business travel return, and we can all agree that business is better in real life, it is important to recognize the lasting impact COVID-19 will have on business travel moving forward. We have the opportunity to not just rebuild business travel, but to rebuild it better. But how? By delving deeper into discovering what travelers really want. That’s why over the last 12 months, we commissioned three global traveler surveys to understand traveler sentiment during this unique time.

Thelatest traveler research focuses around attitudes in travel, highlighting concerns and sentiment towards travel health data, openness to technology, and sustainable travel. We found that while people are strongly considering new factors and priorities on whether to travel or not, technology is and will continue to play a fundamental role.

The latest survey reports that 98% of business travelers say that technology will increase their confidence to travel, up from 95% in February 2021. Moreover, technology and innovation seem to be key in building traveler confidence and the recovery of the industry, illustrated by the fact that only 3% of respondents said that no technology would increase their confidence to travel in the next 12 months. The travel industry is at a critical stage, demand for travel is growing as we see some restrictions ease, but traveler concerns still exist and must be addressed with innovative solutions to help increase confidence as quickly as possible and for the long-term.

For example, in today’s world, business traveler expectations have evolved with COVID-19, heightening the expectations for seamless, touchless, travel. Our survey found that the top five technologies that would increase confidence to travel in the next 12 months would be:

Mobile applications that provide on-trip notifications and alerts
Self-service check-ins
Contactless mobile payments
Automated and flexible cancellation policies
Mobile boarding

This is great news, at Amadeus we are committed to transforming the travel experience by building the smartest,mostconnectedcorporate travel ecosystem in the world. The solutions we develop for corporations, airlines, airports and travel agencies will deliver just this.

We saw a willingness to use technology to help combat travel concerns, which sends a positive message to our industry: by working together we can rebuild travel better. This is another reason why we have taken a traveler centric approach when it comes to research and innovation. By understanding the challenges and sentiment of today’s business travelers we can rebuild travel and create the type of travel experience business travelers expect. Such as the development of theSafe Travel Ecosystem,a global program designed to help the industry overcome these challenges and accelerate recovery. Or the addition of capabilities toTraveler ID , a secure platform for its travel provider customers, that connects, digitizes, and automates traveler identification and document validation across the traveler journey, while meeting regulatory requirements.

We continue to work in collaboration with partners and customers in the industry to innovate, enhancing the business traveler experience and operational efficiency – all for supporting the industry to rebuild travel. This is the first in a series of blogs, where we will outline some of the innovative solutions we are providing at Amadeus in response to business traveler needs.

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