SABRE Travel Network offered a sneak peek into the results of its biannual mobile survey of business travellers. The results confirm that the explosion of mobile travel services over the past several years has single-handedly “consumerized” business travel. Travellers expect even more convenience and functionality from their mobile devices, and corporations and travel management companies must meet those needs or risk being left behind.
“Our survey shows that business travel today is personal. Travellers want the same functionality and convenience from their business travel tools that they have in their daily lives. People use travel services on their smart phones everyday and for every trip – before, during and after they travel,” said Daniel Naoumovitch, CEO, Sabre Travel Network Middle East. “The corporate travel industry needs to keep pace with the services and apps that travellers can access in their personal life and incorporate those into the world of managed business travel.”
According to the Sabre’s survey, 63 per cent of business travellers want to receive destination specific offers from local businesses – an 85 per cent increase from 2009 – and 47 per cent of business travellers use their smartphone daily to view or receive advertisements, a 95 per cent increase from 2009.
“One of the biggest trends we see in the survey data is travellers’ desire for local business information and offerings based on their location via their smartphone or tablet,” said Naoumovitch. “Travellers will look for this information from suppliers, travel management companies and technology resources such as online booking tools like GetThere. Smart and savvy travel management companies will use technology as a way to fill this need and improve customer support and solidify customer loyalty. ”
Consumers increasingly want to access navigational tools and maps on their mobile devices. According to the survey:
• 72 per cent of business travellers are interested in ability to view hotels on a map, an increase of 26 per cent from 2009.
• 43 per cent of business travellers reported daily use of their smart phone to access navigation services
• 71 per cent want to receive driving directions to a specific location via their smart phone
“Consumers already rely on their mobile devices to help them navigate their way through cities around the world,” Naoumovitchsaid. “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.”
The survey further revealed that nearly three-fourths of business travellers are interested in shopping and booking air options. More than two-thirds want to shop for and make hotel reservations via mobile devices and 66 per cent of respondents reported interest in the ability to add a hotel reservation to an existing itinerary. However, the highest growth was seen in the ground category. Sixty-two per cent of respondents are interested in booking rental cars via their smart phone, a 32 per cent increase from 2009 and 60 per cent of respondents want to shop for car rentals via their smartphone, a 33 per cent increase.