Asia remains divided in resumption of travel, with flight availability limiting demand. Photo Credit: gettyimages/Rawpixel
The business traveller experience and Asia recovery were some of the
topics under discussion at the recent Think FCM event, where travel
buyers discussed the industry’s latest trends.
Think FCM, a joint event between FCM and the Global Business Travel
Association, took place earlier this month, with insights on technology
and business travel.
The traveller experience is core to getting people to travel again
Melissa
Elf, general manager, FCM Australia touched on the theme of people and
said business travel is about bringing people together post-Covid.
“It’s about how do we connect again,” she said. “Our meetings and
events teams are really busy at the moment, we didn’t think they would
come back this quickly but customers are really looking forward to
bringing people together to create culture and connections.”
Asia is a region of two halves
North Asia,
including destinations such as Japan, China, Hong Kong, are very much
where the rest of the world was 12 months ago, according to Bertrand
Saillet, managing director, FCM Asia. “I don’t think they see yet the
perspective of where they are going and what reopening will look like,”
he says.
“Then you have South East Asia, which to the surprise of everyone has
opened much faster than we anticipated. The problem we have in this
part of the world now is capacity, you cannot find a seat on flights. We
are struggling to find seats for our customers. We are in a dual world.
Either you have restrictions and people don’t travel, or you lift them
and everyone is travelling.”
The role of the travel manager has shifted massively in the last year
“The
future role of the travel manager is about being a third of an IT
expert”, said Benjamin Park, senior director, travel & recruitment
at Paraxel. “Travel managers need to focus more on technology, there
needs to be a skill set shift.”
Get ready for adaptive AI
Shivvy Jervis,
innovation forecaster, looked at which digital breakthroughs will
elevate the travel sector, and touched on adaptive A and augmented
commerce.
“We have to build that bridge between man and machine, we have to
take the systems we have from level two to level four and that is where
the value lies,” she said.
“Adaptive AI is about giving social intelligence to our digital
tools. This means giving digital the ability to grasp human dialogue in
its most natural form. Our app, business software and virtual assistants
will respond to our needs better.”