CONNECTED TRAVELLER

New technological tools are helping business travellers to be more efficient and responsive. Slowly but surely, the world of business travel is catching up with consumer tools in terms of ergonomics and responsiveness.

Founder of TravelThink and a TravelTech specialist, Aurélie Krau is also a partner at Festive Road. She is a regular speaker at events analysing the development of business travel from a connected angle, and here she analyses a sector undergoing major change for Voyages d'Affaires. Interview by Florian Guillemin

Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines are allowing business travellers to surf the Internet on their European routes. Another Lufthansa initiative is the sale of prepaid SIM cards to avoid roaming charges anywhere in the world.

Intelligent scales, connected electrocardiograms, watches that calculate physical activity: the era of connected health is now touching the private lives of business travellers, their bodies and their health.

On the programme of this new connected selection: a high-tech pen, a luxurious connected watch and the latest generation of laptops. Enough to satisfy the most demanding business travellers.

Spies and CIA agents aren't the only ones being subjected to lie detectors. Travellers could soon be subjected to the same interrogation methods.

The connected revolution is underway: on 15 December the SNCF is launching its new TGV Connect service, a free Internet connection on board its high-speed trains, long-awaited by business travellers.

On the programme for this new connected selection: a waterproof memory, a secure telephone and a guardian angel key ring. Enough to reassure the most demanding business travellers.

The Lufthansa group is introducing a chatbot to help travellers find the best fare. It is now possible to chat via Messenger with Mildred - in English and German - to find out about the group's different options on a given route.

A new development in the Snowden affair directly concerns French business travellers. Air France is said to have been the target of an in-flight communications interception programme set up by the NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ.

Finding a technological solution to improve the customer experience in the event of flight disruptions: this is the spirit in which Air France launched its Priorité Client hackathon on 26 November, which was held for 48 hours at the Zalthabar in Levallois Perret.

Facebook has recently been experimenting with a new feature that tells users which wi-fi networks are available nearby.

The latest update to Google Translate moves from a word-by-word translation to a sentence-by-sentence approach, enhanced by machine learning. Google is promising the biggest breakthrough for the tool in 10 years...

G7 taxis are launching a new "Connect" service, enabling passengers to pay for their journey directly from their smartphone once they are in their taxi.

AccorHotels is enhancing its mobile application with a new service for connecting business travellers in partnership with LinkedIn.

Urban transport is undergoing a revolution without drivers. Individual cars, shared shuttles, even flying taxis: the future is already here.

Travellers' safety is the new priority for Travel Managers. Protecting their data will undoubtedly be the next challenge, as shown by several of the connected tools compiled in this new shopping selection.

Smartphones, watches, even connected trainers: the business traveller's range of accessories is constantly expanding. The latest angle of attack from suppliers is...

On 19 September, Google launched its new travel application. Soberly named Google Trips, the new tool is positioned as both a leisure- or even bleisure-oriented travel guide and a travel organiser. Perhaps with more advanced features in the pipeline.

A smart watch and a motorised suitcase, sports glasses and hybrid PCs: the new digital shopping selection showcases the new connected panoply of the business traveller.