TMC

Not surprisingly, the health crisis is accelerating the trend towards consolidation in the business travel sector. It was still necessary to identify the players involved. Unsurprisingly, American Express GBT is once again at the helm of these major manoeuvres: the TMC had already distinguished itself three years earlier by...

How did you experience the EVP 2021, converted to hybrid? Yorick Charveriat - The teams did a great job. The Meetings & Events division had already organised several virtual events, but following the new restrictions, we had to decide whether or not to continue with this EVP 2021. The participants and panellists were almost...

TMC "alternative": this is the new positioning advocated by FCM at the launch of its new visual identity on 10 March. The business travel agency's aim is to underline the flexibility it offers its customers in managing their business travel. The new technological platform currently under development will provide this flexibility. FCM...

American Express GBT is continuing its consolidation drive in the business travel market. The TMC has just acquired the Ovation Travel Group, for an undisclosed sum. Present in around a hundred countries around the world - and with 30 offices in the United States and the United Kingdom - the Ovation Travel...

How is a player like American Express GBT looking ahead to 2021? Despite the current climate, are there any sources of optimism or certainty? Yorick Charveriat - 2021 is fast approaching and the outlook is of course linked to the pandemic and the treatments and vaccines that will be introduced. The only thing...

On 30 September, business travel professionals were invited to attend the 29th EVP in digital format. Although they were unable to reveal the data from the traditional EVP barometer - an exercise made virtually impossible by the health and economic context - the American Express GBT managers did release a few figures. These are...

Has the travel agency model been weakened by the past few months? Julien Kauffmann - On the contrary, I'd say that the current crisis has put the agency back centre stage. Its role has been reaffirmed, in particular through its ability to reassure travellers, to give them precise information on the conditions of their...

As part of its multi-channel strategy, American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) is enhancing both its instant messaging service and its Amex GBT Mobile application. Messaging on the Amex GBT mobile application, which enables travellers to chat with a travel adviser, has now gone live in more than 24 countries....

It is in this very special context that FCM Travel has just announced the launch of a Meetings & Events department dedicated to the French market. The business travel agency has set up a team of five employees, based in Paris. This new department, called FCM France Meetings and Events, is designed to offer a local service, tailored to...

Admittedly, this is not the time for all-out bookings in the business travel sector... But it is also important to prepare for the future, and CWT has therefore been working to improve the booking experience for its travellers. The business travel agency has been working on this issue, adopting a multi-pronged approach. Clearly, professionals...

Ventura Spa, which celebrated its 40th anniversary three years ago, is about to write a new page in its history. BCD Travel made it official on 4 February: TMC is buying out its Italian partner, with whom it has had close links since 2006, and creating a new entity, BCD Travel Italy. This new entity will retain...

Already a "trusted partner" of American Express GBT for several years, Kanoo Travel is to play a new role in TMC's strategy in this strategic market. The directors of the business travel agency have just announced plans for a joint venture, due to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year or early in the first quarter...

Egencia took advantage of the Business Travel Show, held in London on 20 and 21 February, to unveil some of its new features. Among them, the "Egencia Hotel Conversations" tool is designed to facilitate direct dialogue between business travellers and their establishments. The managers of the business travel agency are quick to point out that this is "the first time that Egencia has...

BCD Travel will be testing reservations using the New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard in partnership with the Lufthansa Group, parent company of the German airline as well as Austrian Airlines, Swiss and Brussels Airlines. This new distribution standard created by IATA is based on the use of XML technology to facilitate the exchange of information between airlines...

At the ACTE Global Summit, held in Paris from 14 to 16 October, American Express GBT took a closer look at one of the most crucial issues facing the airline industry today: NDC. Behind these three letters lies a new distribution standard ("New Distribution Capability") and above all a concept that is still unclear to many companies....

The business travel market was getting impatient. American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) is beginning to provide some tangible answers. Since the creation of the joint venture with the Certares group and the Qatar Investment Authority in 2014, the business travel agency has been moving forward in disguise, and according to some, has been slow to make use of this new financial windfall,...

Following on from RouteHappy, which was added to TripNavigator's air travel catalogue at the end of 2015, Egencia is now tackling urban transport to provide better support for business travellers. The business travel agency took advantage of the Business Travel Show held on 24 and 25 February in London to unveil the aggregation of two new well-known content...

On 17 June, Egencia is celebrating a house-warming party of strategic importance in Courbevoie. Not that the move was particularly far away - just a few hundred metres separate the Aegean Tower from the former premises of the Franklin Tower - but the group's new address in the Paris region claims a prestigious status,...