The Indian subsidiary of Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), Australia, FCM Travel Solutions and KPMG released industry’s first insights on disrupting technologies in the travel industry via an analytical whitepaper titled ‘The Digi-Smart Indian Business Traveller’.
According to Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), India is the world’s fastest growing business travel market. With business travel rapidly evolving and technology fore-fronting the business spend for corporates, the whitepaper focuses on how technology is rapidly revolutionising travel by maximising efficiencies, improving experience and increasing choice and options for the average traveller worldwide and increasingly in the Indian market.
Image source: Travel Daily News Asia
The report also details how growing smartphone, internet and digital networking penetration, combined with ever-growing plethora of online travel choices accessible have made technology a part of a business traveller’s DNA. Business travellers are increasingly veering towards technology for virtually all answers for their travel needs. Thus, leading to the emergence of a new age digi-smart business traveller, that implies “a technology-empowered traveller, who leverages technological touch points and tools to minimise encumbrances in his travel journey, improves his/her travel experience while also ensuring a safe, compliant and cost -effective business travel”.
Rakshit Desai, Managing Director, FCM Travel Solutions, Indian subsidiary of FCTG, Australia, said, “Digital technology today is rapidly growing. Rapid penetration of smartphones, Near Field Communication, in flight WiFi, faster networks and many such advances are only accelerating the penetration of technology into every aspect of travel. Self-booking tools, travel analytics, Artificial Intelligence and sharing economy services are not only here to stay but hold myriad and exciting possibilities for the future. The whitepaper launched in collaboration with KPMG intelligence aims to assist organisations that wish to serve today’s digi-smart travellers, understand their needs and make strategic decisions, based on these insights”.
Jaideep Ghosh, Partner and Head, Transport, Leisure and Sports, KPMG in India, commented, “Globally, technology has penetrated deep into business travel practices — it finds a host of applications in travel, including online booking tools, sharing economy services, travel analytics, virtual assistance, payments and compliance. India is also witnessing a gradual rise in the adoption of these technological advancements, which have led to the birth of what we call the ‘digi-smart Indian business traveller’. With this whitepaper, we have set out to explore the concept of such travellers, technology trends in business travel, their enabling ecosystem, as well as some potentially disrupting developments that could transform business travel landscape”.
The Indian business travel market is on the cusp of technological innovation led by its fast growing millennial workforce, smartphone usage, internet connectivity and Indian organisations’ growing investments in state-of-the-art IT infrastructure and compliance levels given the heightened physical and cybersecurity risks.
By presenting these insights from this data in the context of key trends – a first in the industry – the objective lies in making this information more relevant and actionable for corporates in India.
