HRS highlights corporate travel trends

Sarah-Jane Tempest as Director of Corporate Solutions for HRS, APAC region

Unique experiences at an affordable price point, are increasingly sought after. According to the Travel Market Report, over 50% of business travellers will be by Millennial by 2020, travellers who have higher expectations for services and perks, do more of their research online and are more likely to splurge during business trips.

In an exclusive interview with Natalie Chen, Tobias Ragge, CEO of HRS said that there are several corporate travel trends running the industry. One is Increased travel costs, and demand for better-managed travel solutions. Amidst increasing travel costs in the region, corporates are placing an emphasis on the need to optimise travel dollars.

Said Ragge, “This calls for a need to review and promote cost-reducing behaviours amongst corporate travellers, to help manage overall corporate travel expenses and yet provide transparency in transactions as well as maintain – if not increase – overall traveller satisfaction.”

According to recent studies, 70% of corporate travellers now use mobile as one of their top two booking channels, compared to only 2% of corporate travellers in 2012. With connected smart phones and tablets becoming more and more ubiquitous, travellers expect more accessible, customised and user-friendly experiences.

Said Ragge, “We have recorded the increased use of mobile in our own data and are thus making higher investments in building the capabilities and capacity of the channel.”

Unique experiences at an affordable price point, are increasingly sought after. According to the Travel Market Report, over 50% of business travellers will be Millennials by 2020, they are travellers who have higher expectations for services and perks, do more of their research online and are more likely to splurge during business trips.

They are also more open to unique experiences as can be seen with the growing popularity and insurgence of initiatives such as AirBnB.

Said Ragge, “While the larger chain hotels are constantly innovating their offerings in order to reach out to this growing markets, we at HRS have also started focusing on partnering with a number of independent hotels around the world, and this is one area in which we tend to be a step ahead than traditional TMCs.

“The average rate of a TMC is higher since their content supply is primarily based on chain hotels. Each franchisee has to pay a fee of 10-percent of their turnover resulting in a higher price point for the customers. The smaller or independent properties, however, do not have to pay such high overheads and benefit from a cheaper cost structure for the same performance – if not better, the same location and quality, too.”

Ragge predicts that data is the challenge , “Data continues to be the number one challenge in the region – and one that affects many aspects of the entire hotel solutions process. Without relevant data, travel managers find it difficult to benchmark and optimise both process and solutions to their corporates’ benefit.“

Risk management and employee safety is another increasing concern in the region. This has prompted HRS to partner with iJET International Inc, a leading operational risk management solutions providers to produce new booking tools that integrate HRS Corporate booking data into iJET’s Worldcue® systems, providing client with improved risk management capabilities through the instant tracking and identification of employees and assessment of situations should they arise.

 And to further strengthen its leadership team in the region, HRS Corporate appointed industry veteran Sarah-Jane Tempest as Director of Corporate Solutions for the APAC region while simultaneously bringing in Global Travel’s Charles Tan as Global Account Manager in APAC.  Both Sarah-Jane and Charles will be based in Singapore.