TRAVEL MANAGEMENT

The hotel industry is doing rather well in Asia, and the ASEAN community is no exception. Thailand and Vietnam in particular are experiencing a boom in tourist arrivals.

According to a study published by the Business Travel Show, which kicks off in London on 22 February, the scope of Travel Managers' activities is expanding to include Meetings & Events.

The twelfth International Travel Management Study (ITMS) has just been published. The survey, conducted by AirPlus, takes the pulse of business travel in 24 countries, and delivers a positive message in terms of anticipated travel volumes for 2017.

Travel Planet is aiming for a business volume of 120 to 130 million euros in 2017. Tristan Dessain-Gelinet, CEO of the business travel agency, explains its strategy for the coming months. It's a roadmap that relies heavily on new technologies and content, and will include a phase of external growth.

A study published by the Movinga removals platform may well put French business travellers into perspective. The cost of public transport in Paris is much lower than in other top business destinations, including in Europe. The same applies to communications and food.

Booking.com Business has published an insightful study into the expectations of French business travellers. The survey confirms the growing importance of bleisure, establishes business travel as an HR argument and highlights the most dynamic business destinations.

Concur has examined the role played by Airbnb in the business travel segment, analysing spending on alternative accommodation over two years. The results are clear: business travellers are increasingly using Airbnb for their business trips in France, Germany and the UK.

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

With their loyalty programmes promising miles and wonders, the business travel industry has managed to capture the attention of its regular customers with reward tickets, free nights and VIP advantages. To go even further, their strategies revolve around three pillars: digitalisation, personalisation and emotion.

DIMO Software's Notilus solution is to be integrated with Traveldoo's self-booking tool following a distribution agreement between the two travel and expense management specialists.

According to Carlson Wagonlit Travel's latest white paper, compliance with travel policies can reduce the savings companies miss out on by 15 %.

HRS is introducing the Multisource solution into its reservation system to offer its customers the best prices.

A new version of the TravelTracker tool has just been unveiled by International SOS and Control Risks. The security experts have focused on communication with the business traveller, and on the user experience.

Have small businesses rationalised their business travel expenditure? What type of travel do they make, and how is it managed? Ticket Travel Pro has carried out a survey and produced an infographic.

On Tuesday, CWT presented its vision of the Travel Management Company (TMC) of tomorrow. The business travel agency has set a new strategic course for 2018: "TMC 3.0" will be based on data, the development of the mobile application and the hotel offer.

A white paper published by International SOS points out the lack of guidance on the use of collaborative economy players in business travel.

American Express Meetings & Events has published its "Meetings 2017 Forecast", based on its own data and on content from outside the agency, which expects budgets to stabilise next year.

According to a study published by Sabre, the introduction of an African passport to facilitate travel within the continent should significantly boost the aviation sector.

Booking.com unveils "the 8 most anticipated trends in the world of travel in 2017", with business travel and, above all, bleisure coming in second place.