How do you see the future of the travel agency and the impact of new technologies such as artificial intelligence?
Christophe Renard - The business travel agency of the future will evolve towards a content access platform covering the different booking channels. The aim is to move from "travel management company (TMC) to the "travel platform. Harmonisation between online, offline, mobile and, if necessary, mobile devices. chatbot or messaging will be crucial. Everything will have to be fully integrated, so that you can switch from one channel to another while keeping track of your history. Artificial intelligence (IA) is still not very present in the business travel sector. There are many simple bookings that could be handled in this way. As for very complex cases, such as sudden changes or cancellations, we shouldn't expect AI to solve them. Travellers need to be reassured by an agent who talks to them. The human element still has its place.
Do you fear market consolidation, or even the intrusion of digital giants?
Christophe Renard - Concentration is underway in many other sectors: there's no reason why it shouldn't be the case for TMC. For large accounts, the market is already relatively concentrated around three or four major players. Today, it would be difficult to assert that a single player can meet the needs of a global company in all markets. It remains appropriate to rely on a regional solution in certain markets to cover all needs and all specificities. But in the future, if we look ahead ten yearsBy the end of the 21st century, online reservation players will certainly have evolved towards a much more global coverage of needs, with specific features for each market, such as the possibility of handling train and hotel content... This is the platform concept I was talking about. Integration with publishers is also an interesting phenomenon, and there will certainly be new players entering the market. Can Google become a real travel distributor? That remains to be proven. At the moment, it doesn't really fit their model.
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Will environmental issues put the brakes on business travel?
Christophe Renard - It's not very tangible yet, but it will become so, particularly with the new generations entering the job market, who are particularly sensitive to these issues. Will there be less travel? Perhaps a little. Will we travel differently? Undoubtedly. Travellers will pay more attention to the carbon emissions of their journeys. It will be a significant trend for next ten years. For the moment, the movement is top-down: management committees are launching initiatives such as the CO2 measurementThen they try to make each employee more responsible. But the trend will soon be reversed, with younger employees perhaps questioning the choice of air travel and favouring alternatives such as the videoconferencing. However, there will always be a need to physically meet customers, employees or suppliers.
