A recent white paper about corporate travel says: “In 2020, managed travellers will experience greater automation, will have access to more transparent information and will receive personalised services for all aspects of the trip”.

With the dominance of smartphones and tablets, purchasing of travel will continue to move to mobile by 2020.

The emergence of transparent information will come with changes to distribution, the implementation of New Distribution Capability (NDC), and with the ability to capture and analyse ‘big data’.

By 2020 managed travel will seamlessly integrate traveller service preferences with expanded airline services to meet evolving traveller expectations.

New communication protocols and the ability to track and measure customer preferences throughout the journey will be embedded into the process.

Big data will be used to better match services with the preferences of travellers.

Open booking will gain momentum, but will likely only be adopted by certain types of companies whose corporate culture supports this approach. On the plus side, the ability to capture out-of-channel bookings will be widespread by 2020.

This shift in the way the airline offer is created will be enabled by widespread adoption of NDC. Airlines will be able to provide a unique set of services for each reservation request and a tailored response based on customer insights.

From the traveller perspective, travellers want what they have always wanted – personalised services that reduce travel friction and meet their preferences along with a seamless handling of itinerary changes.

From the TMC, technology provider or corporate travel manager perspective, they must add value to their customers, partners and suppliers in order to survive.