Traveller Sentiment
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Scott Davies reflects on a session at the ITM’s recent conference when some surprising insights came to light
At this time of the year, I reflect upon the sentiments and takeaways from our annual conference and, even though almost everything is different these days, ITM’s ‘Revive’ event was a useful way to gauge the feeling within our community.
“They had a strong sense that competitive forces will quickly mean that if you don’t meet that customer face to face someone else certainly will”
But the biggest surprise for many of us was when our travellers shared their feelings about getting together all of the documentation, information and guidance needed before travel. Although they understood that their TMCs will look to support them, they wanted to take ownership of this task themselves. This was because they were acutely aware that they were the ones who could face the consequences if they were caught in a situation where the rules, restrictions or required quarantine came as an unpleasant surprise.
Given the utter confusion over where we can or can’t travel to, this is going to need to be an area of focus for all providers in the business travel ecosystem. We simply must adjust our focus from travel management to traveller management and do all we can to allow them to feel comfortable with what they need and what to expect.
If we get this part right, the revival is on!
The session is of course available to watch back via ITM On Demand, along with all of our Revive plenary content.
Published in The Business Travel Magazine