Planning Now for the Future

“In a world with products and services all over the place, it comes back to more than NDC. It’s that, plus distribution strategy, direct or indirect, business or leisure, channel differentiation,” said Tilstone, adding that it’s time for travel buyers to leverage all their travel data as well as traveler profiles.

Boyan is on the leading edge of that type of strategy, deploying Traxo and ARC subsidiary Traverse to handle direct booking data.

“Utilizing the Traverse link, it takes you through the exact path as for leisure,” Boyan said. “It adds the tour (corporate) code, negotiated benefits, bump protection, seat protection if the aircraft is switched, and it will ask if you want to include internet, which is $10 on the flight but $8 if prepaid. If canceled, all is refunded back to the card if I do that 24 hours [before the flight]. Or if I cancel and get an unused ticket within 24 hours, Wi-Fi is refunded, but the core fare isn’t, then I can reuse it. It’s a win-win.”

Tilstone agreed that such a model is emerging that would actually focus on direct bookings. “TripLink, Traxo, they used to be secondary, but now they need to be front and center,” he said.

With Traverse and Traxo in place, Boyan continues to look at other pieces in the ZS travel tech stack. “We’re looking at OBTs and what might make sense,” she said. “We’re prioritizing direct connects with the secondary source of GDS versus the primary source being the GDS. We’re really excited about the possibilities, but we haven’t made any definitive decisions yet.”

Boyan also is looking at third-party profile technology as a way to “future-proof” her program. “NDC came and shook the industry. What will be the next thing? We don’t know, but we need to be prepared. We think the profile piece can be an integral part of it. It makes us as a company as agile as possible.”

When it comes to retailing and tailoring the right experience—both for the company and the individual—a large part of the onus is going to be on suppliers to understand the customer and deliver to that, said the tech company travel buyer. They’ve got two things on their side: loyalty and, eventually, artificial intelligence.

“A business traveler right now is looking for someone to know them,” and that’s where AI can come in, said the travel buyer. “Business travelers are looking for us in corporate travel to know them and to anticipate [their needs]. I say this all the time, there is so much data, [suppliers] should know how I travel [and offer] the perfect trip.”

Salesforce’s Stonie agreed, citing AI advances in driving persona strategies and how a next-generation travel program puzzle begins to fit together.

“This is where NDC and advances in technology will incorporate intelligent supplier searches that will be able to factor in the benefits that we get through our programs,” Stonie said. “Especially for online booking tools, as they are able to integrate intelligent fare searches and factor in if a traveler is platinum, 1K or has no status. … Loyalty is going to allow us to tailor those services to those individuals and not just by enterprise VIPs and non-VIPs. Personas will be so important, and if you can adapt your program to those personas, then our travelers will want to use our services, not because we mandate it. It will increase compliancy, satisfaction and be perceived as a benefit.”