In 2023, while travel changed drastically, the slowdown experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic is a thing of the past. The travel industry is now booming and catching up with missed revenue. With business travel resuming, this article will focus on how travel agencies now use the available tech stack to provide customized, beginning-to-end service.
This begs the question, has travel booking changed because of the pandemic, or has it been on its own inevitably changing trajectory due to the nature of travel and access to information? Let’s explore how the travel arrangement industry has changed and how business-to-business (B2B) travel agencies have kept up with changing demands.
Delivering smooth and personalized travel planning for business travelers
Travel agencies have long existed to provide customers with the service to plan trips and excursions to places worldwide. Before, this was the primary way people planned their travel. Now in a world with the internet, many other options exist.
Various online tools allow travelers to pick their flights, accommodations, and transportation, which can be compared with other deals. It can be booked all at once from the comfort of one's home. Clearly, this has become popular for those travelers who prefer to do all their planning themselves.
However, the importance of travel agencies has not diminished. They become especially important for those who travel for work. These travelers may not be as invested in booking travel for themselves as they are traveling for business rather than pleasure. This type of traveler is more likely to use a B2B travel agency as it provides many benefits while traveling to accomplish their business goals.
According to Zippia, business travelers make up about 12% of travelers in the U.S. as of 2022, while millions of people travel for business annually in the U.S.
The human touch in the digital age
Travel agents provide a fully personalized service that can take care of exchange rates, travel insurance, translators, frequent flier miles, dietary restrictions, and more things that the average business traveler does not have time to worry about when they are scheduled to travel for work. Especially the fact that the travel agencies handle the front and back office parts of travel to make it easier for the company’s accounting department.
Not only do travel agencies provide 24/7 assistance with travel needs when something goes awry, but agents can also easily adhere to corporate travel policies that companies outline. This can be anything from staying within spending limits, specific airlines to use, or hotel class rates, and it's almost guaranteed that travel agents will ensure they get the company and the travelers the best deals for all travel needs.
The agents also do all this so the traveler doesn’t have to worry about anything but their business objective. Taking away time and stress for the traveler from figuring out all their arrangements and preparing for their meeting, conference, or any other event they are traveling for.
Thus, travel agencies may not remain popular for business-to-consumer (B2C) customers but will remain a standard service for B2B travelers.
| Related: Business Travel: The Beginner’s Guide → |
Simplifying travel processes with travel arrangement software
Three Travel Arrangement categories on G2 cater to B2B customers. These are Travel Agency Software, Tour Operator Software, and Other Travel Arrangement Software. There is also a Travel Management category under the Travel & Expense Software category that is tangentially related but focused on the corporate travel booking and expense portion for business travelers.
Focusing on travel arrangement software, however, there have been a lot of peaks and valleys in page view interest within these G2 categories. It is mainly aligned with popular business travel times rather than the travel time for B2C travelers.
According to travel expense management professionals, October is the busiest time for business travel. That is supported by the significant growth in page views leading to October. There is also a lot of interest in traveling for work in March, possibly due to the new fiscal year starting then for many companies.
It will be interesting to see the trends for the rest of the year, especially with the end of the U.S. COVID-19 emergency declarations.
Where to next?
Traveling is very much here to stay. However, the manner in which it is being planned and managed seems very much in question, especially considering travel technology continues to adapt and change every day. Ultimately both B2B and B2C travel agencies shall continue to adapt since travel technology constantly evolves, leaving various paths open for travel arrangement software.
B2B travel agencies have the most promising future opportunities, with travel being utilized for businesses more than ever. This may seem bold, considering the market does show a constant fluctuation of interest vs. decline. However, commercial and private organizations still send employees to travel for business objectives. Keeping that in mind, it is almost guaranteed that B2B travel agencies will continue to service these organizations since there are more benefits to using a travel agent than not.
Edited by Shanti S Nair
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Marina Schlosser
Marina is an Associate Market Research Analyst at G2. She is fascinated by the world of technology, how it affects people on the day to day, and how it continues to influence our future. Prior to joining G2, Marina worked as an AmeriCorps volunteer as a Community Partnership Coordinator at an elementary school in Philadelphia. In her free time, Marina enjoys traveling, playing volleyball, painting, watching sports, hiking, binging a lot of tv and movies, and taking on whatever adventure or challenge comes her way.
