MOBILE TRAVEL

TRENDS
2020
Because being there matters

1
Foreword
Welcome to the fourth edition of
Mobile Travel Trends. This expert-
led eBook allows us to advise
travel brands on where they should
invest in their mobile strategy in
2020 and beyond.
This year’s trends could be coming right from a
dystopian Hollywood script: The Voice Search Takeover,
Data Revolutions, The Rise of the Machines, and—is it a
bird, is it a plane—no, it’s Super Apps. Don’t be alarmed
though, these trends will have a positive impact on your
business and the travelers you serve.
When it comes to our analysis, we’ve gone even
bigger and better for 2020. We conducted primary
research with 6,000 end-travelers around the world,
surveyed 100 senior travel professionals, and gathered
the thoughts of Travelport’s experts, who are on the
frontline of leisure and business travel.
In this year’s report, we wanted to dive deeper on
mobile trends related to the growing business travel
sector. Beyond our research, we invited a senior
industry leader from BCD Travel, one of the world’s
largest corporate travel management companies, to
share their thoughts.
We understand that few travel businesses reading this
can build a mobile strategy like BCD’s (backed by a
turnover of $25 billion). However, like in previous years,
we want to inspire new thinking and offer tangible
examples of how the industry is changing.
With a more in-depth understanding of key predictions
and travel research, travel brands can make strategic
decisions on where to make mobile investments for
2020 and onward. This could help you decide on
whether to get started with your first travel app in 2020
or inform which API or SDK you should be integrating
within your overall digital ecosystem.
Lights, camera, action... let’s get rolling.
David MacHale
Director of Marketing, Agency Commerce
Travelport
 Content

Introduction 4

Mobile travel trends 2020

The super app 5
A view from the big TMCs – BCD Travel 9
The rise of the machine(s) 13
Business travel ROI – the data revolution 17
Now we’re talking business 21
Reimagining the business travel experience 25
The 4th industrial revolution 29
Is your TMC ready for Gen Z? 33

Behavioral trends 37

Conclusion 43

Contributor biographies 45

3
 Introduction

Technology has enabled travel
brands to evolve at a rapid pace
over the last decade, with new
tech trends replacing old ones
and some growing in relevance
year on year. As we enter a new
decade, customer expectations are
evolving quickly.
make for a predictive and personalized experience for
the customer. Our experts also investigate how we are
starting to move away from a multi-channel approach,
to a new all-encompassing mobile strategy so the
traveler has everything they need in one place.
Several of our trends highlight that customers are
moving towards self-service options, with 55% of those
surveyed preferring to hear about travel disruption
via digital communications rather than speak with
a person on the phone2. This is especially important
when it comes to Gen Z, the future business traveler,
and managing their high expectations through
technology.
that surveyed over 6,000 people from six countries
across the globe. We investigate what they use mobile
for when they travel, how often they use it, and if they
are ready to use emerging technologies like super
apps and voice.
So, let’s take a look at our compilation of trends that
are ready to be embraced by travel brands in 2020
and beyond. Foot3

Voice was a hot topic in 2019 and it is set to continue

More than ever, travelers expect information to be

available on-demand and to have their needs met at
the swipe of a screen—so much so that our research
this year found 88% of travel professionals agree that
a mobile strategy is ‘critical’ or ‘very important’ to the
future success of their organization4.
In this Mobile Travel Trends report, our experts delve
further into what that will look like for travel brands
in 2020. With worldwide business travel spend set
to reach $1.4 trillion by 20201 we look to the future of
data, and how combined with machine learning, it will
to be a major focus for all industries including travel
over the next few years. Voice can help to create truly 88%
personalized experiences for the traveler.
We also get an inside look at one of the world’s
biggest TMCs, BCD Travel, to see what trends they are
focusing on in their mobile strategy for the year ahead. of travel professionals
said that having a mobile
Throughout this report we reveal the mobile travel strategy is ‘critical’ or
trends that the industry believes will impact 2020 ‘very important’ to the
and beyond, sharing opinions from industry experts future success of their
and drawing valuable insights from our Mobile Travel organization 4
Trends survey. We present our end traveler research

4
 THE SUPER APP

5
THE SUPER APP
Niall Minihan Silicon Valley has always been the West’s
Senior Commercial incubator for the biggest and brightest
Manager
Travelport
technological ideas where scrappy, garage-
based innovators emerge to become tech
giants, whose products and services spread
east. But have the tables now turned as a
new breed of tech giant is emerging from
the East that have the Western incumbents
scrambling to play catch-up? That giant is
called the super app.

If you live in Europe or the US, you may have heard of

super apps, but if you live in Asia you probably spend
most of your ‘screen time’ using one. So, what exactly
are super apps and why do we see this as being a big
mobile trend hitting the West in 2020? Let’s find out.

What is a super app?

A super app is a single gateway into an ecosystem of
virtual products and services. It’s an all-encompassing
app that removes the need to call up individual apps
to perform specific tasks. 

6
 Super app tech giants give their users a one-stop shop
to communicate, shop online, book travel, bank, find
a date, get food delivery, and pay for anything within
a single, unified smartphone app. What originated in
China is now spreading throughout Southeast Asia
and beyond. Let’s take a look at some of these regional
super app superstars:
WeChat: The original Chinese super app, which has
evolved into a quasi-operating system, dominating
messaging and file sharing. It pioneered its use of mini
programs, which are apps within WeChat (currently
more than 1 million of them). It serves as a portal for its
1 billion monthly active users4 to the wider economy,
with virtually every major brand having a presence.   
Grab: One of Singapore’s and Southeast Asia’s most
successful start-ups with 144 million users5, Grab
provides every transportation mode imaginable from
taxis to tuk-tuk 3 wheelers, as well as food, grocery and
package delivery, payments, micro-lending services,
and insurance.
Go-Jek: Go-Jek has a user base of over 25 million
across Indonesia and Southeast Asia and offers over
20 services6 including digital payments and video
streaming to supplement its core ride-hailing business.
A SUPER APP IS AN ALL-
ENCOMPASSING APP THAT
REMOVES THE NEED TO CALL UP
INDIVIDUAL APPS TO PERFORM
SPECIFIC TASKS.
7
Super apps and travel
Travel is an important segment for these super apps.
Grab has recently introduced hotel bookings directly 84%
through its app in partnership with Agoda and
Booking.com7, and WeChat’s booking service allows
users to book flights, hotels, and rail tickets. Innovative
airlines like KLM have fully integrated their mobile of travel
website into their WeChat account letting users book professionals said
flights, search their flight status, or check-in all through it was important to
the Chinese super app. Once a flight is booked, users have a super app 4
receive reminders on the app when online check-
in opens, can have their boarding pass sent to their
WeChat account, and can contact KLM’s customer
service through the app’s chat interface. 
For business travelers, this consolidation of travel 81%
products and services all under the umbrella of one
super app is certainly appealing. The current status
quo typically involves travelers needing to navigate
between a myriad of different travel apps (airline, TMC,
OBT, etc.) on their day of travel, all with slightly different
of travel brands
nuanced features. In fact, Travelport research found
intend to increase
that business travelers use eight apps on average for
their investment in
researching, booking, and managing a trip.1 4
mobile in 2020
For travel brands, delivering a frictionless experience
from the beginning to the end of the traveler’s journey
has always been the holy grail. However, with the surge
in popularity of these super apps, travel brands may
need to deliver more of these experiences through the
medium of a super app as opposed to managing the 45%
full experience in their own channel. 
 
Contenders from the West of travel
The rise of super apps in Asia hasn’t gone unnoticed professionals plan
by the Western tech giants, prompting them to try to to invest in a super
replicate the super app playbook. To be eligible as a app in 2020 4
 contender for super app status, there are two essential
ingredients a mobile app must have; a very popular
underlying service with a large audience of frequent
users, and embedded payments.
Let’s take a look at who is best positioned in the US and
Europe to achieve this super app status:
Google Maps is becoming a utility many Westerners
can’t do without, with users reflexively reaching for it to
do local searches, get directions, find attractions, and
make restaurant reservations all from one app. With the
recently added travel features including flights, hotels,
vacation packages, and trip-planning tools, Google is
aiming to be the all-in-one place where users go to
explore, plan, and share travel destinations with people.
Despite a few obvious holes, such as peer-to-peer
messaging and payment options, Google Maps is well
positioned to become a super app.
Uber has been explicit in its goal of becoming a super
app with its CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, saying in a
recent interview, “We want Uber to be the operating
system for your everyday life”8. With the core business
coming under threat from regulatory burdens as well
as posting unsustainable losses, Uber is looking to
expand its offerings beyond just ride-hailing. This new
strategy will allow users to access transport, groceries,
hot meals, banking, and more within a single app.  Will there be one winner in the race to become the
Facebook laid out a vision in 20199 to develop
“businesses, payments, commerce, and ultimately
a platform for many other kinds of private services”
within Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
With 2.6 billion users10 across its three platforms,
Facebook couldn’t be better positioned to become
the West’s first super app but currently lacks the
key ingredient of embedded payments. The much-
8
publicized pushback Facebook is getting on its Libra
payments project could limit the realization of its vision. 
Amazon is actively pursuing super app status11 in India,
where it offers e-payments, flight bookings, ride-hailing,
food delivery, and more, either directly or through
companies it has acquired. Whether it can make this
work in the West, remains to be seen. 
Will Westerners even want/need a super app?
With super apps reaching hyperscale in Asia, it’s still
debatable whether Western consumers are looking
for a similar do-it-all app—especially when there is a
backlash against big tech in some quarters on privacy
concerns. Large consolidated ecosystems tend to
hamper competition and innovation, making it difficult
for competitors to stay in the game.
Like it or not, Asia is shaping the future of the mobile
internet for consumers everywhere, and Western tech
giants are trying to play catch-up. Travel brands that
have already embraced this trend in Asia have done
well—just look at KLM’s success in China with WeChat. 
Will this Eastern trend of digital convergence make
its way West and how will travel brands position
themselves accordingly to take full advantage?
ubiquitous, all-encompassing super app? Watch this
space in 2020!
LIKE IT OR NOT, ASIA IS SHAPING THE
FUTURE OF THE MOBILE INTERNET
FOR CONSUMERS EVERYWHERE,
AND WESTERN TECH GIANTS ARE
TRYING TO PLAY CATCH-UP.
 VIEW FROM
THE BIG TMCS
– BCD TRAVEL

9
 VIEW FROM THE BIG TMCS
– BCD TRAVEL

Will Pinnell The ‘Big 3’ dominate the business travel

Vice President marketplace today, with BCD Travel
Digital & Product Strategy
BCD Travel
increasing its sales to $27.1 Billion last year.
As one of the digital leaders in the space,
we asked Will Pinnell, Vice President,
Digital & Product Strategy, what their
digital strategy will look like in 2020.

BCD Travel’s digital strategy

Our strategy at BCD Travel is to provide anytime
access to trip information and tools, from any
connected device. This means that our travelers
can plan, book and access trip details through our
native app or a web browser, from any connected
device through our engagement platform, TripSource.
Phones, tablets, PCs and Macs are all ways travelers
can engage our services.

Mobile: Four areas of focus in 2020

Mobile distribution is imperative to the success of any
consumer-based business, but particularly to BCD
Travel because of the inherit mobility of our consumer

10
 travelers.  As a frame of reference, 52.2% of all website
traffic worldwide was generated through mobile
phones in 2018—and that increases to 63% in the U.S.12
While it’s important to build for an always-on-the-go
traveler via a mobile-optimized website, our TripSource
native app also drives higher engagement through the
following:
Ease of use: Native development allows us to drive
an intuitive and engaging user experience in ways
that a browser-based product cannot. BCD Travel
engineered a massive redesign and rearchitecture
of TripSource in 2019. We listen and understand
that our travelers are more likely to use an app—and
return to an app—that’s easy, elegant and gives them
quick access to what they need. Our TripSource
native app is the highest rated, most reviewed TMC
app in the Apple App store and has a 90% retention
rate. We believe this has everything to do with the
user experience and the way we serve our travelers
through this channel.
Duty of care: In our business, mobile is instrumental
to providing duty of care for our travelers. We can
reach them with location-based risk alerts and
emergency response ‘check-in’ during a crisis. It
wasn’t that long ago that the industry relied on
email or a phone call to reach travelers in a crisis.
Through TripSource, travelers can instantly connect
OUR STRATEGY AT BCD TRAVEL
IS TO PROVIDE ANYTIME ACCESS
TO TRIP INFORMATION AND TOOLS,
FROM ANY CONNECTED DEVICE.
11
with their travel program through a connection to
DecisionSource, our proprietary data intelligence and
insight platform.
90%
Connected services: Our TripSource platform has
evolved beyond just a web and mobile app to be
accessible on voice platforms including Alexa and
Google. This platform and other connected services TripSource app
through TripSource allow us to create a personal retention rate
experience leveraging traveler profile data and
corporate travel policy. In addition, AI and other
smart-learning technologies can help drive the desired
client behaviors and influence spending decisions
on the road. Smart messages can be delivered at
the right point in a traveler’s journey based on a set
of predefined rules and criteria such as departure
airports, hotel chains or high-risk cities. $27.1
BILLION
Identity and payment information: BCD Travel
has invested in SAP’s customer data cloud to drive
our next-generation traveler identity. Authentication BCD Travel sales in 2018
of payment and ensuring our traveler’s identity and
travel data is secure, continues to grow as a top
client concern. Identity combined with payment
innovation—the idea that we must be able to offer
almost everything, everywhere, at the right time, to the
right person, that’s paid for in a variety of ways, is now
available in TripSource.
Next generation point of sale and service
In addition to messaging at the point of sale and 52%
secure payment, it is also important for BCD Travel to
optimize content inside the online booking tools. This
is true for the booking tools we build and those our
of all website traffic
clients require us to support. As such, we’re adopting
the strategy of offline retailers in our owned digital
worldwide generated
through mobile
spaces. When a brick and mortar store puts a product
phones in 201813
right next to the cash register, they’re making it easier
 for a customer to make the decision to purchase. The TRAVELERS WANT TO KNOW DETAILS
same principal applies for our corporate OBTs; don’t OF THEIR CLASS OF SERVICE FOR
make your travelers scroll through pages of content to
THEIR FLIGHT OR THE STAR-RATING OF
find the best option for their air travel or hotel, instead
optimize the content so that your preferred suppliers THE HOTEL RESTAURANT, WE CAN NO
come to the top of the list. LONGER FOCUS SOLELY ON PRICE AND
COMPLIANCE.
And to continue with that analogy if you were a
shopper in a retail store, you wouldn’t just make that
easy purchase based on price alone. As a consumer,
you would study the packaging and explore the
features of the product before you buy. The same
principals apply to business travel. Travelers want to
know details of their class of service for their flight
or the star-rating of the hotel restaurant. In other
words, we can no longer focus solely on price and
compliance.

We know that content (or lack thereof) is one reason

that travelers are booking outside of their corporate
travel program. Travelers think they can do better on
their own, shopping across sites, looking for what they
perceive as the best deal. Occasionally, they’re going
to online travel agencies or directly to supplier sites.
To combat this, BCD Travel is building an increasingly
wider set of tools and accessible content to be relevant
to travelers. We believe in blending the self-service
capabilities of a booking tool with the one-touch
access to speak or chat with an agent. We’re making
this all possible through TripSource.

2020 will be an exciting year for us as we build on an

even greater digital engagement strategy.

12
 THE RISE OF
THE MACHINE(S)

13
 THE RISE OF THE MACHINE(S)
Mike Wake Our needs as customers are becoming
VP – Technology more sophisticated. We now want
Travelport
technology to anticipate our needs
and not wait to be asked. This is where
machine learning comes in.

The application of artificial intelligence and machine

learning for travel are immense. From helping travelers
save time by simplifying search to helping businesses
save money with more effective policy parameters,
machine learning is revolutionizing what it means to
book and manage travel. Because of this, it’s crucial
that forward-thinking, growth-focused travel brands
recognize the opportunities AI is creating for them in
corporate travel.

A global TMC recently painted a picture of a

future machine learned itinerary with no human
intervention13.

Imagine you have a business trip from London to

Berlin, but you have been rerouted to Frankfurt
because of a major weather front impacting Berlin.

• Your boarding passes will update immediately

and become available in the corporate travel app

14
 • Your hotel reservations are moved to Frankfurt
based on a previous stay
• The app suggests the hotel bistro for dinner based
on your search history
• Your preferred form of local transit is already
booked for 8am the next morning based on
previous bookings.
You head toward your new gate for this unexpected
leg of your trip safe in the knowledge you would have
booked the same things if you needed to. But the
machine did it for you.
Smart predictions
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an attempt to replicate our
uniquely human ability to “think” via technology that
learns. AI-powered computer systems can perform
tasks that normally require human intelligence, such
as speech recognition, visual perception, and more.
Machine learning is a subset of AI through which
machines are programmed to independently analyze
huge amounts of data, looking for patterns, and then
FROM HELPING TRAVELERS SAVE
TIME BY SIMPLIFYING SEARCH
TO HELPING BUSINESSES SAVE
MONEY WITH MORE EFFECTIVE
POLICY PARAMETERS, MACHINE
LEARNING IS REVOLUTIONIZING
WHAT IT MEANS TO BOOK AND
MANAGE TRAVEL. 
15
making decisions based on the patterns it identifies
with minimal human intervention.
Like Amazon or YouTube can predict the content
38%
you are most likely to engage with, a corporate travel
booking solution combined with machine learning
would be able to predict options for travelers that they of travel brands
are more likely to book. It learns from each search, intend on investing
showing the customer the most relevant results, all while in machine learning
remaining in-policy by balancing cost with particular & AI In 2020 4
search variables such as location and flight times.
Travel brands such as TripActions have used this
technology to display the most relevant flights, transport,
and accommodation that their travelers are most
likely to book, cutting the booking time down from an
industry average of 60 minutes to just 6 minutes14.
60 6
min min
Smart support
Support is another critical role expected of corporate
travel managers that can be dramatically improved
by machine learning. By analyzing data, an intelligent USING AI
solution can see how much a customer travels and if
that customer needs extra assistance with the booking. Can cut average
booking time from
For example, if a traveler searches twice or more before 60 min to 6 min 15
a trip that is a few weeks away, platforms like TripActions
can tell this traveler is 95% less likely to book during
these sessions15. This identifies that the traveler needs a
more proactive approach, and here is where machine
learning can trigger human support to offer extra help.
12 taps—typical manual search
query, but with Speak now it’s
This is also true for when the traveler is in-trip.
Awareness of delays, cancellations and general
disruptions as soon as they occur can also be
COMPLETED IN
SECONDS
automated with machine learning. Programs can
immediately begin searching for and rebooking
alternative options and bringing in support such as
 live chat, so the traveler doesn’t feel abandoned whilst
on a business trip.
Smart conversations
Historically, the way we speak has always been a
massive barrier when it comes to Machine Learning.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) entails teaching
computers to understand the nuances of human
language and speech16. When it comes to Machine
Learning, NLP can assist travel brands by proactively
recognizing each traveler, understanding their unique
needs and preferences and then recommending the
best flights, hotels, car rental or train journey. Each
recommendation dynamically ranks and displays the
most relevant searches for each unique traveler.
NLP enables your travel brand to add the appearance
of a human touch to the traveler experience, helping
smash the glass ceiling of rules-based personalization.
Smart speak
One great example of this in action is the voice search
functionality on the easyJet app. Dubbed “Speak Now,”
the tool has been created using Google Cloud’s natural
language understanding tool known as Dialogflow17.
A typical manual search query takes 12 taps, but with
Speak Now, it can be completed in seconds. For now,
this voice tool is only for flight search, with booking
completed manually. But as this technology matures
you can imagine a conversation with a TMC app in the
future being a full conversation like this one:
Traveler> I have a client meeting in New York next week
TMC app < Are you going with John?
Traveler > Yes, and we need to arrive the day before preferences into account.     PREFERENCES INTO ACCOUNT.
the meeting to prep
16
TMC app < There seems to be a number of flights
arriving on Tuesday morning, would you
like to look at them?
Traveler > No, we’d prefer afternoon
TMC app < I have 3 options for you—they’re all in
policy, under $2000; the hotel is company
approved and the flights are economy
Traveler > Great, can you book a flight that arrives
around 3pm
TMC app < That is now booked for you. Confirmation
details will be emailed to you
Traveler > Thanks, we also need to book dinner for
the Wednesday night
TMC app < I’ve reserved a French restaurant near
your hotel for 8pm. John likes French
food too so this will be perfect
Smart business travel
Booking business travel is an occupational hazard
for some. Travelers simply want to find and book
the trip that’s best suited to them while remaining in
MACHINE LEARNING AND OTHER
policy, arrive at their destination without issue, and
feel supported at every step of the way. Unfortunately, INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGIES
some legacy business travel systems cannot make ARE USHERING IN A NEW AGE
these basic wishes a reality.
FOR BUSINESS TRAVEL, ONE
But machine learning and other intelligent
THAT’S ABLE TO PRESENT
technologies are ushering in a new age for business HIGHLY PERSONALIZED RESULTS
travel, one that’s able to present highly personalized WHILST TAKING ORGANIZATIONAL
results while also taking the organization’s policies, POLICIES AND TRAVELER'S
previous trip history, cost, and the traveler's
ACCOUNT.
 BUSINESS
TRAVEL ROI
– THE DATA REVOLUTION

17
 BUSINESS TRAVEL ROI
– THE DATA REVOLUTION

Sijia Li Data is our greatest asset, and it is

Senior Data Analyst being generated at an incredible pace.
Travelport
A whitepaper published by market
intelligence company IDC suggests that
the world will have 175 Zettabytes (or 175
trillion GB) of data by 202518.

How will the new data scale impact the

travel industry in 2020?
The continued growth of digital technologies in the
coming years will transform the way business and
leisure travelers plan and act. The key factor in winning
and retaining customers is providing them with
greater personalization than ever before. To achieve
this, various types of data from multiple sources need
to be processed.

18
 Today, the majority of travel brands are still gathering
data from internal sources, which are of a limited
quantity, and of relatively modest size. However, we
know these data sources are not limited to traditional
internal channels. Think about when a traveler is
planning a trip; a number of travel or social media apps
are used for research, booking is done either through a
TMC or travel agency, an OTA, or direct with a vendor
such as the airline or hotel. When at destination travelers
look up local amenities, traffic or weather, and finally
post trip experiences are shared with family and friends.
By processing social media data such as tweets,
reviews, and Facebook messages, it will be possible to
get a fuller picture in advance about which destination
is on-trend. In other words, what is the new travel
experience people are looking for?
As we mentioned above even a simple booking
process with a single user will generate a vast amount
of data from at least 10 different data sources. Most
companies are failing to leverage these data points to
make travel experiences more personalized. They need
to focus on using more external data from disparate
sources and in varied formats.
The trend for travel brands in 2020 will be to switch
from traditional statistic-based reporting solutions to
more advanced analytics solutions that can process
THE KEY FACTOR IN WINNING
AND RETAINING CUSTOMERS IS
PROVIDING THEM WITH GREATER
PERSONALIZATION THAN EVER
BEFORE.
19
all forms of data. From traveler patterns and predictive
analytics through to financial analysis and everything
in between.
52%
Personalization
of travel
Big data can help travel brands get into the mindset of
professionals
the traveler. Everybody has their own set of wants and
intend to invest in
needs and when they travel this is no different. One
big data in 2020 4
employee may prefer to stay in a hotel at the airport,
the other stay right in the city centre. This analysis
can help companies present a number of options that
best suit their employees' needs, all the while ensuring
175
that they are staying in policy and mitigating against
unmanaged travel.
Predictive TRILLION
GB
Travel managers can see a wealth of data when
it comes to the traveler’s historical choices. From
preferred airlines, hotels, destinations, and more they
can determine where budget can be managed and Expected in the global
controlled easily. They can then predict any impact that datasphere by 2025 19
future corporate travel policies could have.
Spend
Analyzing corporate credit card data by reviewing
which companies the money is being spent with, and
by whom, leads to discovering where discounts can be
made, making reporting and budgeting easier. Using
the data in this way can change how the organization
sees travel. From an unmanageable cost to a tracked
KPI by comparing the return on investment for
revenue growth. Furthermore, business managers can
ALL FORMS OF DATA
delve into this data to justify their department's travel Travel brands need
spend with transparency, enable them to eradicate solutions that can process
unnecessary costs, and give them the opportunity to travel patterns, predictive
identify costs that are delivering meaningful ROI. analytics, financial analysis,
and everything in between
 Sustainable data lake
Increasingly large and complex data volumes requires
a sustainable architecture to manage the new data
scale. Traditionally, companies use a ‘general enterprise
data lake’ approach, which dumps data from a variety
of sources into a single place, with inconsistent data
schema and formats. This approach limits business
managers’ ability to extract the key data insights. It’s
also not a cost-effective way to store such a large
volume of data in the long term.

New travel data lake architecture should take a more

sustainable approach, led by business requirements
that the technology is then built to follow. By doing
so, businesses can scale zettabyte data volume in a
manageable way and lets business managers extract
actionable insights.

Keeping up in 2020
In summary, the use of data in business travel can be
hugely beneficial for an organization at large. It can
help create a universal view of travel and can inform
travel KPIs across business departments, from sales
and marketing to HR and finance, to interpret the travel
program as a whole and the value it provides.

Through 2020 and beyond, we must continue to

focus on scaling our architecture to keep up with the
explosion of data creation and consumption. We need
to continue to leverage new technologies that will help
us capture, structure, and analyze the many new data WE NEED TO LEVERAGE NEW
sources that are now becoming available to us. But TECHNOLOGIES THAT WILL
most of all, we need to keep close to our customers, HELP US CAPTURE, STRUCTURE
so that we can understand their needs and business
AND ANALYZE THE MANY NEW
problems and turn this snowstorm of data into
meaningful, useful, and exciting new data solutions. DATA SOURCES THAT ARE NOW
BECOMING AVAILABLE TO US.

20
 NOW WE’RE
TALKING
BUSINESS
21
 NOW WE’RE TALKING
BUSINESS
Glenville Morris Like night follows day, the mobile world
Head of Consulting
of corporate travel inevitably (and
and Digital Insights
Travelport eventually) imitates what is happening
in consumer travel. Driven by an
expectation from the modern business
traveler that the same ease of use, UI, and
ultimately the functionality that they’ve
come to expect from consumer apps
should also be available in their business
life has seen mobile innovation become
the mobile everyday in the last few years.

Airport mapping, augmented reality bag scanning,

and live chat are shining examples of just how quickly
these once ‘consumer only’ mobile experiences
are flowing into the business apps' mainstream.
It’s this rapid absorption that is seeing even infant
technologies like voice move into the corporate space
in a matter of months now, not years.

22
 From missteps to machine learning
Admittedly the use cases of voice technology in
business travel so far have firmly landed in the ‘not
much benefit’ category. Premature missteps from
corporate brands excitedly using platforms like Alexa
for Business or Actions on Google quite rightly made
many in the industry dismiss voice as limited and
gimmicky19.
The chatbots and text-to-speech virtual assistants
we’ve seen in business travel apps over the past few
years have really been no more than just fancy fronts
for an FAQ database handling simple queries like
‘which terminal does my flight leave from’ or ‘what
time is checkout at this hotel’. We predict that the
machine learned interfaces of 2020 and beyond are
going to be unrecognizable compared to those early
efforts because they will leverage themes that run
deep throughout all of our mobile trends this year:
personalization and AI.
From A to Me, the future of personalization
Rich profiles, trip pattern analyzing, and even
automated recommendations from other travelers
like ‘you’ in your business are going to be the great
personalization enabler of where voice heads next
THE FUTURE OF VOICE HAS A CLEAR
LINK TO PERSONALIZATION AND
SEAMLESSNESS BETWEEN DEVICES
AS USERS START TO EXPECT A
MORE NATURAL INTERACTION.
Finnbar Cornwall, Industry Head of Travel
at Google, April 2019 21
23
year in corporate travel. Early signs of this personalized
shift are already appearing across voice channels.
Google has been showing off Duplex on the web,20
25%
booking a rental car by a user simply saying ‘book a
car for my next trip’ (knowing who you are, when and
where your next trip is, and what type of car you’ll of employee
need as you’re traveling with four work colleagues), interactions with
and brands like Kayak and Air Canada are talking applications will be
up the next generation of their skills that will allow via voice by 2023 22
travelers to say ‘has my upgrade cleared yet’?
TMC giant BCD Travel, has added the ability to assign
‘nicknames’ to traveler profiles for voice systems,
allowing for example a TripSource user's child to ask
'when does mom’s flight arrive', with platforms like
Alexa recognising who ‘mom’ is. 44%
Combine this with advances in NLP from the likes
of Serko Travel, where frustration or confusion vocal
cues can be picked up in your voice immediately
transferring you to a human agent to resolve the issue, of travelers have
and we could finally see the rule book for corporate used voice assistants
travel innovation being led by the consumer world to help while
first, being ripped up. traveling 1
Now, the ability to book complex multi-city, multi-airline
trips with hotels that stay in company travel policy,
or the rebooking of a last-minute flight cancellation
that effect an execs meeting are still a few years away
from just being handled by speech. However, what
we will see in 2020 is a move away from those simple
55%
question/answer experiments to more servicing-based
requests powered by those themes I mentioned a
moment ago. Foot20 of travel brands are
not investing in voice
A wake-up call for business travel at all 4
Next year it’s time for the corporate travel world to think
less about flight status questions and more 'can you
 book a table tonight at my favourite French restaurant
in Boston, and then I want to take the client to that play
that everyone recommends'. Add in a simple, 'expense
tonight’s receipts' spoken request in the Lyft on the way
home and then we’ll really be talking business.

For many corporates reading this trend right now,

voice in 2019 may look like a tiny channel that your
travelers are using (and for some of you it may not
even not even register at all) compared to the multiple
text based online booking tools, intranets, mobile
apps, and even social platforms you support, but this
is changing, and fast! In fact, Gartner predicts that, by
2023, 25% of employee interactions with applications
will be via voice, up from just 3% this year21.

This incredible predicted growth should be a stark

wake up call to the business world. The we’ll see/
not yet approach to voice technology taken by
many corporate travel brands in the last few years
is dangerously close to history repeating itself.
Remember when Newsweek said 'The truth is no
online database will replace your daily newspaper'22
or Blackberry’s 'not everyone can type on a piece
of glass'23? In other words, if you’re not planning on
investing in voice next year, don’t plan on talking to the
next decade of business travelers at all!

IF YOU’RE NOT PLANNING ON

INVESTING IN VOICE NEXT YEAR,
DON’T PLAN ON TALKING TO
THE NEXT DECADE OF BUSINESS
TRAVELERS AT ALL!

24
 REIMAGINING
THE BUSINESS
TRAVEL
EXPERIENCE
25
 REIMAGINING THE BUSINESS
TRAVEL EXPERIENCE
Julie O’Sullivan Now, more than ever we are seeing an
Head of Digital –
acceleration in the expectations of the
Business Travel
Travelport business traveler. Business travelers
need a consumer-like experience.
There is increasing value in agencies
thinking more like retail giants such as
Amazon, known for their exceptional
user experience, rather than competitor
online travel agencies. It’s time to
reimagine the business travel experience.

Maintaining an effective travel program to reduce

travelers from using non-approved channels is difficult
and next-generation agency solutions need to commit
to fixing this. For example, hotel content needs to
be relevant, rich, and fully transparent. This will help
reduce the 47% of travelers who are looking directly
for better rates or the 36% wanting to book a specific
hotel property.1 The UX (user experience) will play a
big role in improving the booking experience, which in
turn will reduce the need to go elsewhere.

26
 Once on their way, travel managers need to stay
connected with their travelers through the device
in the palm of their hands. One way to do this is
with smart messaging, which must be meaningful
and helpful. Ultimately the only way to increase and
maintain TMC tool adoption is by providing world-class
user experience, content, and service.
Control in the palm of your hand
Today’s travelers want an experience that is as easy
and engaging as the best retailers, products, and
services in the world. Travelport’s global digital traveler
research showed that 45% of travelers get frustrated
when they are unable to access their booking
information round-the-clock on mobile devices. This is
up 9% on 2018.1
End-to-end traveler self-service functionality is now the
‘north star’ of the biggest travel brands. Because we
live in a mobile, ‘always-on’ culture, the ability to self-
serve is what travelers want and expect. At the same
time, we must recognize that there are times when the
traveler will need to reach out to a human agent and
it’s about providing the ability to do that in one tap.
An important precursor to any strategic roadmap is
the ability to paint a clear picture of a vision for the
digital traveler experience. Given the acceleration in
END-TO-END TRAVELER SELF-
SERVICE FUNCTIONALITY IS
NOW THE ‘NORTH STAR’ OF THE
BIGGEST TRAVEL BRANDS. 
27
the expectations of the business traveler, that vision
must include future-proofing of the solution as much
as possible. 45%
Providing a next-generation intuitive and frictionless
traveler experience is a very complex undertaking.
Service providers, suppliers, and TMCs need to of travelers get frustrated
address the real-world problems experienced by when they are unable
travelers, surface personalized, relevant content, and to access their booking
design an interface that travelers love. All of this must information round-the-
be underpinned by technology that will scale and clock on mobile devices 1
allow you to deliver value early and often. It will be a
mammoth effort but the payback will be worth it.
TripSource 2.0
BCD Travel is a great example of a travel brand that,
while enjoying immense success, decided to undergo
an intense re-imagining of the digital business travel
experience. Despite being one of the highest-rated
global TMC apps, and live in app stores for five 68%
years, BCD wanted to be able to move faster. It was
a daunting prospect. Rebuilt from the ground up, the
next generation of its TripSource app went live in July
2019. of business travelers book
over half their trips using
Heading back to the drawing board, BCD Travel had non-approved channels 25
a grand vision for a world-class traveler experience.
In partnership with Travelport, the team conducted
extensive interviews and usability testing with business
travelers, investigating their habits, thought processes,
and ultimately their needs. It made sense to check
back in with real people to understand the business
travel pain points they encountered. The team distilled
a series of insights that allowed BCD Travel to look at
BUSINESS TRAVELERS NEED A
TripSource in a completely different way. Foot24
CONSUMER-LIKE
EXPERIENCE
The newly redesigned app is aimed at making the
travelers’ experience more immersive and informative
 at every step of their journey. This is achieved by The biggest challenge for TMCs and travel agencies
marrying self-service functionality with a steady feed for 2020 and beyond will be the travel experience
of timely information. The traveler can ‘search, book rather than just the journey. We know that travelers are
and go’ within minutes. They will be informed in real- never too far away from a connected device. The how,
time of any changes to their existing travel plans with when, and where TMCs and agencies communicate
in-line notifications and timeline messages guiding with their travelers will become a key differentiator.
them at every step of their journey. If they need to,
users can connect with their agent or cancel their trip It’s time to reimagine the business travel experience,
with one tap of a button, anywhere in the world. BCD already has, don’t let 2020 be the year your
agency falls even further behind.
BCD Travel didn’t just redesign the entire experience,
it re-platformed the technology to make room for
cutting edge technology and to facilitate future scaling.
This allowed it to bring new features, faster and more
frequently to the user. In partnership with Travelport,
TripSource was re-built in React Native. This allowed
the development team to adapt and change quickly
throughout the development lifecycle to deliver a
world-class travel experience. BCD put user experience
at the heart of this re-imagining of TripSource and is
extremely well placed to support further innovation
and scaling.

A window to the future

The supply of product to the travel industry has never
been better for travelers and more complex for TMCs.
The range of product choice and prices available cater
for all levels of budget and sophistication of traveler.

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR

TMCS AND TRAVEL AGENCIES
FOR 2020 AND BEYOND WILL BE
THE TRAVEL EXPERIENCE RATHER
THAN JUST THE JOURNEY

28
 THE 4TH
INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
29
 THE 4TH INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
Sharon Doyle Those of us involved in travel and
Global VP Product
technology are dealing with change at a
Management
Travelport frenzied pace. However, if we look back, we
can see waves of change that have gone
before, where new technology has combined
with social and economic changes, resulting
in transformational steps. In the travel
industry, these waves created opportunities
to those who could adapt.

The travel evolution

The first age of travel started in 1903 when pioneering
greats, the Wright brothers, launched their ‘Flyer’
aircraft. This era extended to 1933 when American
Airlines started to commercially fly the rich and
famous, and continued on to 1954 when we saw the
first airplane tickets being booked by phone.

The second age from the 1960s brought us the

commoditization of travel and the introduction of

30
 computers. The biggest leap forward in this period
was in the 1990s when the IBM 390 mainframes were
introduced, initiating major enterprise transaction
processing environments and databases.
From here on in the pace of change really starts to
speed up, and in 1995 there is a shift to the third age,
the e-enabled era. This age is defined by the growth
of the world wide web, which created the online travel
agents we know today. And it was in 2007, with the
launch of the first iPhone, where Steve Jobs promised
to ‘change everything’, that we began to see airlines
and travel agencies respond with the first travel apps.
The digital era
In 2016 we moved up a gear into a digitally immersive
era, the fourth age. The World Economic Forum
declared that this age is ‘affecting the very essence of
our human experience and transforming the business
models of each and every industry’25.
Each of these revolutions has required businesses to
overcome challenges and master new technologies;
and this digital era will be defined by hardware and
software and how to master it. Technology in this era
is evoking a human connection more than ever, and
THE 4TH AGE IS AFFECTING THE
VERY ESSENCE OF OUR HUMAN
EXPERIENCE AND TRANSFORMING
THE BUSINESS MODELS OF EACH
AND EVERY INDUSTRY.
The World Economic Forum, 2016 26
31
we are seeing a blurring of lines between the physical,
digital, and biological worlds where the experience
becomes everything.
43%
From a pure technology view, digital is still being
driven through the first five forces: from mobile and
the internet of things, and how they are interacting
with the world around us, through to artificial of travel professionals
intelligence (AI) and big data. In fact these all interact feel mobile can help
with each other, with AI taking big data so that it traveler engagement
can learn and deliver better mobile and device & retention in 2020 4
experiences, with these all happening through the
unlimited computing power of the fifth force which is
cloud. Putting this all together we can do things we
never did before.
The next five years
So what is coming down the line? $1.7
TRILLION
We are already seeing companies offer ways of
discovering and experiencing travel through virtual
and augmented reality. A recent global traveler survey The amount business travel
conducted by Travelport found that 61% of travelers spend is set to reach
believe that VR and AR experiences would help them by 2023 27
plan their trips better.1
With the emergence of 5G, travel brands will be able
to create more immersive digital experiences with
friends and families. Furthermore, blockchain is likely
to redefine the nature of business itself. This will see
contracts and payments become digital, secured in
ways that takes much of the manual checking, cost,
61%
and risk out of processing travel transactions. F26
Smarter generations. Smarter devices of travelers think AR
Social change will have a huge impact on all and VR experiences
businesses; issues from climate change to population would help plan trips
better 1
 growth, emerging middle classes, the aging population, experience are high. Our role is to deliver these
and the changing views of Gen Z to name a few. But experiences to them. Are you ready for this fourth age?
it is where technology and social change intersect
that the magic of this will really take flight; from smart
homes, to smart cities and of course the automation
of everything. These are changing how we experience
our world today; and for us in technology, meeting
these challenges head on is essential and provides us
with opportunities to redefine the travel business.

Moving from technology to trust

Looking at the travel business through one lens, that of
corporate travel, there are many opportunities that can
be explored. This part of the industry needs to redefine
itself with tools and interfaces travelers can engage
with, and we need to make it easy for them to do that
to bring unmanaged travel back in line. But it’s not just
about the app or the tool, the aforementioned social
change is also going to create new expectations.

While corporate travel has had some handle on

minimizing cost, duty of care, expense management,
and policy, what it is really struggling with now is the
concept of maximizing the value of employees. How
do we care about their wellness, their engagement, our
ability to retain talent, and the sustainability options we
offer them? This pivot point is an establishment of trust
between the employee and employer where each is
sure that the other has their mutual best interests at
heart; and part of that trust can be gained through data THE INDUSTRY NEEDS TO
and analytics which can make processes and decisions REDEFINE ITSELF WITH TOOLS
more transparent and open.
AND INTERFACES TRAVELERS
Ultimately it is the traveler that is in control; and that CAN ENGAGE WITH, AND WE
person is changing; from baby boomer to Gen Z NEED TO MAKE IT EASY FOR
and younger, the traveler is seeking simplicity and THEM TO DO THAT.
THAT.
convenience and their expectations of customer

32
 IS YOUR TMC
READY FOR
GEN Z?
33
 IS YOUR TMC READY FOR
GEN Z?
Aisling White Travel brands who think that having
Senior Marketing Manager
a sizeable Instagram following, a
Travelport
YouTube channel, and a mobile app
prepares them for Gen Z need to think
again. Because the next generation of
travelers are about to change the game
once more for what innovation means in
business travel. 

Just like the millennials who came before them, ‘Gen

Z’ has become something of a buzzword for trend-
watchers. It seems like every week there are a hundred
new articles, blogs, or videos talking about the
generation that are coming of age this year.  

When it comes to Gen Z (those aged 18-24,

although the age range is debatable), there are
a few things everyone can agree on: these
consumers were born into a digital world and when
it comes to connected experiences, no generation has
ever had quite such high expectations.  

34
 Considering Gen Z is tipped to account for 40% of
all consumers in 202027, now is the time to truly
assess how ready your travel brand is for this growing
demographic.
Get on their communication frequency  predict what accommodation a traveler will prefer29.
The average attention span of young people in 2000
was 12 seconds. Now it’s only 8 seconds28. Relevant and
personal messages are key to grabbing and keeping
their attention. Cut the long introductions and get to the
point. Sending a notification about a delayed flight to
London? Try this message: “Flight to LDN 2hrs delayed.”   re-bookings. Ultimately saving the organization costs
Gone are the days of blanket messaging and bookings.
Gen Z have grown up in the age of data collection
and they expect TMCs and travel agencies to use
this data to deliver exactly what they want in their
communications. Using data to tailor content to fit
their preferences will show your Gen Z consumers
your travel brand views them as an individual and
cares about what each one wants. 29
Anticipatory and predictive AI  messages, and emails to secondary importance in
Personalized messaging is as important as ever to the
newest generation with 68% of those surveyed saying
they value real-time alerts throughout their journey.1
These real-time alerts can be made easier with the help
CONSIDERING GEN Z IS TIPPED
TO ACCOUNT FOR 40% OF ALL
CONSUMERS IN 2020, NOW IS
28
THE TIME TO TRULY ASSESS HOW
READY YOUR TRAVEL BRAND IS
FOR THIS GROWING DEMOGRAPHIC.
35
of automation by anticipatory and predictive Artificial
Intelligence programs. TMCs and travel agencies such
as HRS are analyzing past itinerary behaviors across
travelers within a company, as well as from companies 95%
in the same vertical or geographic region. Martin
Biermann, Chief Product Officer, says it can better
of travel brands say Gen Z
As the capabilities of AI are fine-tuned and more travelers expects more
broadly adopted, companies will be able to eliminate technological advances
the reliance on pre-booking and the potential from their organization 4
complications of last-minute changes, expenses, and
and reducing the manual intervention of policy
compliance monitoring by automating previously
manual tasks. And as these systems become smarter,
automation will be enabled even earlier in the booking
process meaning everything will be done for the Gen 65%
Z traveler via predictive analytics, rich personas,
preferences, and anticipatory AI. 
of Gen Z say they value
Instamessage 
real-time alerts throughout
Instant messaging will relegate phone calls, text their journey 1
the eyes of the new generation. This will determine
how travel brands manage transactions and customer
service. They want everything now and so are hot on
fast response times, especially when problem solving,
with 31% of Gen Z surveyed saying that they would
prefer to hear about travel disruptions via social media.  1
TMCs and travel agencies will have to be proactive
31%
in keeping travelers informed 24/7 using live mobile
chat, chat bots, and messaging via social channels.
When it comes to complex questions about a trip or
of Gen Z say that they
an issue, your travel brand can score points by helping
want to hear about travel
them as soon as possible whether it’s via Facebook,
disruptions on social media 1
Instagram, Snapchat, or WhatsApp.
 Multi-device, mobile technology, communications,
and personalization are the key to building successful
relationships with the newest business traveler. We live
in an ever-evolving digital world in travel technology
and soon Gen Z will be at the forefront of these
changes. Don’t get left behind. 

THE AVERAGE ATTENTION SPAN

OF YOUNG PEOPLE IS 8 SECONDS,
RELEVANT AND PERSONAL MESSAGES
ARE KEY TO GRABBING AND
KEEPING THEIR ATTENTION.29

36
 Behavioral
trends
With our 2020 mobile travel trends
revealed, how does customer
behavior align to our predictions?
We surveyed 6,000 travelers from
across the globe to find out how
they are using mobile for travel
going into 2020.
37
We investigated what travelers use mobile and apps Q. Have you booked and paid for a trip using a
for, how often they use them and explored if they were mobile device?
ready or expected to use technology including end-to-
end booking platforms, social media messaging, and
voice search.
32%
Mobile remains mighty
Apps and mobile are nothing new but they remain 30%
a key focus for the traveler experience. Our research
found that while desktop remains paramount when it
29%
comes to researching a trip, a third of those surveyed
booked and paid for their trip using mobile. The pull
of mobile is ever increasing, becoming the ‘go-to’ for 34%
travelers across the entire trip lifecycle.
Our research found that 87% of respondents have
32% Yes for most trips
downloaded more travel apps than last year, proving
30% Yes for every trip
that apps are providing travel brands with unparalleled
29% Yes a few times
opportunity to continuously engage with customers
34% No never done this
through a device they carry on their journey.
Developing markets are leading the charge with 70% of
Indian respondents downloading more travel apps than
last year, however developed countries aren’t far behind
with respondents from the United States at 53%.
 Q. Which statement about downloading travel apps Q. How often do you use travel apps? Ancillaries are essential for revenue growth
in the last year best applies to you?
Ancillaries are critical for travel brands to increase
revenue potential. In an increasingly crowded travel
landscape, competition is coming from multiple
47% sides when it comes to business travel—online travel
13% agencies, suppliers, even super apps. To reduce
leakage, TMCs and travel agencies need to look at
25% their mobile experience. In fact in 2016 alone, travel
agencies lost approximately $468bn in potential
53% 19% revenue from leakage30, with 68% of business travelers
booking more than half their corporate trips outside of
34%
24% 11% the approved corporate booking tool.25

Our research shows that there is a massive

47% Monthly or more opportunity for TMCs and travel agencies to create
25% Weekly a full booking and itinerary management solution,
19% Daily opening a whole new ancillary revenue stream.
11% Never
53% Downloaded and have more travel apps than
last year
34% Deleted but also downloaded new travel apps
so have about the same amount
13% Deleted some travel apps so have fewer
than last year

38
 Q. Which of the following apps do you use on your Q. What features would you rate ‘very important’
mobile for booking and researching business travel? in your favourite travel apps?

57%
56%
55%
39%
37%
24%

57% OTA
56% Flight/price comparison site
55% Airline
39% Hotel
37% Accommodation
24% Itinerary management tool
47% 44% 43% 41% 40% 39% 39% 37% 36% 35% 35% 34% 32% 32% 30%

47% Ability to search & book flights 36% Loyalty programmes

44% Seeing all your trip itinerary in one place
43% Real-time flight alerts throughout your journey
41% Mobile check-in
40% Live chat with a travel representative
39% The ability to change your flight
39% Hotel and car bookings
37% Things to do at local destination
35% Booking airport transfer
35% Ability to add extras to your booking on the go
34% Airport maps
32% Personalized travel offers
32% Ability to pay using Apple/Android pay
30% Credit card scan

39
 Push your engagement potential Q. Which travel push notifications are very Q. How do you prefer finding out about any
important to you? disruption to your trip?
The power of push notifications is clear with 55% of
travelers having push notifications activated on their
travel apps.

However, while push notifications still have their part 61% 55%
to play, travel brands need to look at every touchpoint
through which they can engage their customers.
They now expect to be communicated to through
53% 45%
whichever channel they choose, primarily preferring
apps and messaging platforms. This is especially true 51% 40%
during times of disruption. Email, push, and text ranked
highest for preferred channels travelers want to be 49% 31%
communicated to both pre-trip and on the day of travel.
44% 28%
44% 27%
43% 25%
42% 22%
18%
2%
61% Trip status 55% Email communication
53% Price change of a flight you are looking at 45% Screens at airport
51% Reminder of a booking/purchase in 40% Push notification on mobile app
progress 31% Chat via text
49% New trip/flight discount, offer, or sale 28% Chat on mobile app
44% New product or service available 27% Call company directly
44% Loyalty points update 25% Social media
43% Upgrade to the app itself 22% Chat on mobile site
42% Recommendations of a product/service 18% Chat on desktop
2% Other

40
 Embrace social media and personalization Q. Which of the following activities do you use the Q. Which of the following social media platforms
We’re becoming a generation of autonomous travelers social media platforms for? do you find most influential when researching
who plan, book, and manage our travel all on a single and booking travel?
device, who find trip inspiration using a single photo
on Instagram. Our research found that 33% of travelers
used social media to book a trip. The emerging trends 4%
that will shape our industry over the next year will open 70%
new ways of improving the travel experience, with
mobile facilitating a more joined-up, frictionless journey. 12%
While travel brands must continue to understand 33% 63%
and embrace new mobile technologies, the data that
9%
sits behind them will be just as important in 2020. 24%
Personalization will be key for brands to truly engage 4%
with customers on channels like social, mobile web,
apps, and messaging platforms. This will be the way to 4%
create loyal customers of the future.

3%
63% Just to research a trip
33% To research and then book a trip 70% Facebook
4% Neither of these 12% Twitter
9% Instagram
4% Snapchat
4% None of these
3% Other

41
 Voice is vital for the future of travel Q. Which of the following activities did use voice Q. Which of the following activities would you
With chat and voice making waves on mobile, assistant for? consider using voice assistant for?
investment in these areas is going to be essential to
drive traveler engagement. Voice-powered technology
is gaining real traction with 47% of travelers finding
voice useful.
60% 40%
Travelers also expect to ‘chat’ with their travel brand at
all stages throughout their trip. Messaging capabilities 54% 40%
and voice commands are no longer ‘nice to have’ —
they’re expected. What’s more, chat isn’t just limited to 54% 36%
questions or queries, 60% of travelers have used a chat
platform to check the weather in their destination and 49% 32%
54% on how to get from hotel to airport.
42% 30%
Q. Have you ever used a voice assistant eg Siri, Alexa,
Google Assistant to help you while travelling?
18%

1% 60%
54%
To check the weather in your destination
The traffic situation to the airport
40%
40%
To check the weather in your destination
None
54% How to get from hotel to airport 36% The status of my flight
49% The status of my flight 32% The traffic situation to the airport
42% To check you in 30% How to get from hotel to airport
18% To check you in
44% 55%
24%

55% No
44% Yes
1% Don’t know

42
 Conclusion
Mobile has become the one item
travelers won’t leave home without,
and a good mobile experience
has become a central element on
which they are now judging your
brand. As we move into 2020,
new technologies will give travel
brands more opportunities than
ever before to engage with their
customers on-the-go.
43
However, those opportunities have generated a lot Q. What is the biggest challenge you feel mobile
of competition in the market, with disruption on the could help your organization address in 2020?
horizon from super apps. Travel agencies need to look
at how they can adopt technologies like voice, machine
learning, and predictive analytics to appeal to modern
business and leisure travelers. And as Gen Z come of
43%
age, these trends need to become a core priority in
your future planning to appeal to the generation that 17%
was born into a digital world.
13%
Clunky booking tools and complex user experiences
of the past are not going to cut it with 2020’s travelers. 9%
Now is the time to start using mobile technology to
simplify your customers’ experiences and truly show 8%
them your agency’s value. We hope this report has
been helpful in guiding you on this journey.
6%
There is so much potential on the horizon for 2020.
Many of the trends we have presented can be 4%
embraced now as part of your mobile strategy, so that
you remain ahead of the pack and start reaping the
rewards. 43% Improving traveler engagement & retention
17% More direct sales
13% Acquiring new customers
9% Building brand awareness
8% Disruption/IROPS
6% Customer support
4% Reducing operational costs
 Q. Which of the following accurately reflects your Q. In 2020, what areas of mobile do you intend to Q. What mobile goals are important to your
mobile strategy for 2020? invest in? organization?

52%
6%4% 69%
45% 68%
15%
43% 39% 63%
38% 58%
32%
25% 44%
44%
39%
43% We plan to invest in more than just apps
32% We have an app and want to enhance
52% Big data
33%
what we have
15% We don’t have an app and want to invest in one
45%

A full end-to-end travel management
solution
32%
6% We don’t have an app and mobile isn’t part of
39% New traveler communication channels
our strategy
38% Machine learning & AI
4% We have an app but want to replace it 69% Revenue generation
25% Voice
68% Delivering an end-to-end travel
management solution
63% Customer service
58% Customer engagement & acquisition
44% Enabling travelers to self-serve
44% Digital innovation
39% Being where the customer is
33% Owning the traveler relationship
32% Cost savings/operational benefits/
policy compliance

44
 Contributors
Niall Minihan
Senior Commerical Manager
Travelport
Niall is a Senior Manager in Travelport
where he is a commercial owner in
our professional services business
for our global TMC, OTA, and
corporate accounts. In addition to
this, he also leads initiatives to help
develop new opportunities and
revenue streams for the business.
He has over 8 years’ experience
in mobile, and prior to joining
Travelport he had his own digital
agency working with start-ups and
emerging brands to create digital
products with a focus on mobile.
45
Will Pinnell
VP, Digital & Product Strategy
BCD Travel
Will Pinnell currently serves as the
VP, Digital & Product Strategy at
BCD Travel where he is responsible
for the global strategy and
development of BCD’s traveler
and agent products. He previously
served as the Director of Mobile
Strategy & Traveler Solutions for
Sabre and was an early founder
of Handango, the world’s first
smartphone app store and
leading independent publisher
of smartphone applications. Will
presently serves on the board of
directors for GBTA, the GBTA Allied
Leadership Council, and on the
Ladders leadership board for GBTA.
Mike Wake
VP – Technology
Travelport
Mike Wake leads the Technology
Optimization & Travel Intelligence
teams at Travelport. His focus
is helping customers get the
maximum business values from the
most complex areas of the travel
industry—namely search, data,
pricing, API technologies, and new
capabilities for business growth.
Mike and his team have
established direct tech
relationships with some of the
biggest names in the industry. After
starting his career in the travel
industry with United Airlines, Mike’s
16 years at Travelport includes
positions in Product Management,
Operations and Agency Sales.
Sijia Li
Senior Data Analyst
Travelport
Sijia has over 7 years’ experience
in the data industry working
for companies such as Aon and
P&G, leading multiple accounts
on data initiatives, working
with both internal and external
senior stakeholders, designing,
implementing, and demonstrating
analytics platforms. She is also a
published writer with three academic
papers (one in English) as well as a
large number of short novels and
newspaper articles. At Travelport,
Sijia is responsible for helping
our customers understand their
customers’ behaviour from their
mobile products.
 Contributors
Glenville Morris
Product Director
Digital Insights
Travelport
Glenville has over 14 years’
experience as a mobile
professional in the travel,
entertainment, and retail sectors.
Before joining Travelport, Glenville
worked across analytics, SEO, and
mobile at easyJet, primarily as a
product owner for their apps and
mobile site.
At Travelport, Glenville heads up
the Digital Insights team where he
looks at market trends, operating
system updates, and how new
technologies will affect the travel
industry and customers now and in
the future.
46
Julie O’Sullivan
Head of Digital
Business Travel
Travelport
Julie joined Travelport in 2014
where she served as Director of
Professional services and since
2016 holds commercial and
relationship responsibility for
digital professional services
customers and new digital
verticals. A senior leader with
10 years’ experience in the
professional services technology
sector, Julie’s prior experience
includes senior technology
delivery roles at US companies
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and
Lionbridge Technologies.
Sharon Doyle
Global VP Product
Management
Travelport
Sharon is a globally experienced
senior leader and has spent over 20
years in technology across a number
of industries including travel, finance,
and telecommunications. She has
a deep understanding of both
technology and the travel industry,
and how these come together to
drive innovation and new ways
of thinking about distribution. In
her role at Global VP of Product at
Travelport she works closely with
senior commercial and technology
leadership teams to define and
execute the overall product strategy,
ensuring Travelport delivers world-
class, customer-centric, digital-first
product propositions to its customers.
Aisling White
Senior Marketing Manager
Travelport
Aisling is a senior marketing, brand,
and PR specialist with over 16 years’
experience working across a number
of sectors, primarily in tech and
B2B, both agency and in house.
Before joining Travelport Aisling
worked at Hostelworld.com and
Sage Software.
In her role in Travelport she
manages the marketing strategy,
content, and communications to
drive customer engagement.
 Sources

1 Win Travel, GBTA Review: Global Travel Forecast 2020, 2019 2 PWC, Artificial Intelligence Study, 2017 3 Travelport, Mobile Travel Trends Survey, 2019
4 Nasdaq, Tencent’s WeChat, Evolves Into a Virtual Assistant, 2019 5 Skift, Google Maps Is Ready to Transform the World of Superapps: A Skift Deep Dive, 2019 6 Gojek Welcoming a Fresh Start,
2019 7 PhocusWire, Booking.com app integrates ride-hailing services via Grab, 2019 8 The Verge, Inside Uber’s Plan to Take Over City Life With CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, 2019 9 Facebook, A
Privacy-Focused Vision for Social Networking, 2019 10 New York Times, Zuckerberg Plans to Integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger, 2019 11 Entrackr, Amazon jumping on
Super App bandwagon: Why are e-comm and payments apps hung up on it? 2019 12 Statista, Global Mobile Phone Website Traffic Share, 2018 13 Egencia, Personalizing Business Travel with
machine Learning, 2019 14 TripActions, How Machine Learning Benefits Corporate Travel, 2019 15 TripActions, How Machine Learning is Improving Corporate Travel, 2019 16 Adriel Lubarsky,
Natural Language Processing is Revolutionizing Travel and Business, 2017 17 Google Cloud, easyJet: Transforming how customers search for flights with the help of Google Cloud, 2019
18
19 Seagate, The Digitization of the World from Edge to Core, 2018 Finnbar Cornwall, Concur and Amazon Alexa Demo (YouTube), 2017 20 TTG, Voice-Based Travel Search on the Rise, Says
Google, 2019 21 Gartner, Gartner Predicts 25 Percent of Digital Workers Will Use Virtual Employee Assistants Daily by 2021, 2019 22 Newsweek, Why the Web won’t be Nirvana, 2019
23 The Verge, Research, no motion: How the BlackBerry CEOs lost an empire, 2012 24 Skift and Expedia, ‘Business Travel Trends: How TMCs are keeping up with the corporate traveler,’ 2018
25 Frank Diana, Visualizing Our Emerging Future – Revised, 2018 26 WT, Buying Business Travel, 2018 27 Campaign Monitor, The Ultimate Guide to Marketing to Gen Z in 2019, 2019
28 Digital Marketing Institute, Is your business ready for the rise of Gen Z, 2019 29 HRS, Phocuswire article: How Artificial Intelligence is Changing Corporate Travel Management, 2018
30 HRS, How Innovative Hotel Solutions Can Reduce Leakage, 2018

47
 Travelport Trends 2020
You’ve read the mobile travel trends, now see how online travel and
consumer behaviors are shaping up for 2020. Our Online Travel Trends
and Consumer Trends reports are now available to download.

travelport.com/Trends2020
 About Travelport
Travel is a $7 trillion industry – and Travelport is
at its heart, powering the experiences that the
world’s leading travel companies provide. Our
platform enables travel providers, travel agencies,
corporations and developers to search, share,
buy and sell travel. We connect the world’s leading
travel providers with online and offline buyers in a
proprietary B2B travel marketplace.

In 2018, our Travelport systems processed:

* Approximately $89 billion of travel spending

* Over 4 trillion messages passed over our
networks; approx. 11 billion air shopping
requests per month
* Over 335 million segments sold by travel
agencies including:
• Over 107 million car rental days
• Approximately 67 million hotel room nights
• 45 hospitality segments per 100 air tickets
sold

travelport.com
© 2019 Travelport. All rights reserved. Travelport, Apollo, Galileo,
Worldspan and the Travelport logo are trademarks of Travelport.
All other marks are the property of their respective owners.

49