Toward the future of global corporate travel management
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2018
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Information and Service Management (ISM)
Language
en
Pages
110 + 14
Series
Abstract
This study aims to develop the global corporate travel management. In details, it reflected the current challenges in travel programme of buyers, discovered future scenarios of business travel and recommended strategic short and long-term actions. The study used qualitative approach to recognize challenges in corporate travel management. Interviews with sourcing and travel managers/assistants from three same size corporate buyers were conducted in October, 2017. Additionally, scenarios were built based on conventional intuitive logics method. Therein, 88 macro-economic and industrial trends were identified through secondary research. Discussions were organized with experts to rank the trends. Main findings from empirical research are a list of challenges in corporate travel management. Additionally, four scenarios “Demand More”, “Brand New”, “More Opportunities” and “No Surprise” were created based on two driven factors: The distribution of airlines standard network in the market share and intensity of tailored made travel services. In each scenario, proposed main travel solutions providers are travel agencies, direct booking aggregators and travel agencies, the internet, and GDS operators respectively. At the end, short and long-term strategic actions such as rewarding travellers when savings and driving toward traveller-centricity were recommended. The study contributed new aspects to the academic world. It built four future scenarios of business travel from corporate buyer’s perspective. After that, it presented scenarios implications and strategic actions for stakeholders. Such approach was not commonly used in previous studies. Besides, the study identified new participant - NDC aggregators – and new roles of GDS operators and metasearch engine in business travel distribution channels. In practice, the study tackled real business issue. It recognized the challenges and gave solutions to improve corporate travel management through short-term actions. Four scenarios and their implications mitigate the consequences of changes and clarify the managers concern. Lastly, long-term strategy navigates the global corporate travel management, at the same time, gradually changes the mindset of manager in suppliers’ negotiation and travel management.Description
Thesis advisor
Tinnilä, MarkkuTuunainen, Virpi
Keywords
corporate travel management, travel sourcing, business travel, scenario planning, travel customization, intuitive logics method, GDS, NDC