Last week, I met a fellow entrepreneur who asked me, “What do you think the travel industry will look like 10 years from now?” It was a triggering question in a lot of ways. Considering how little the industry has changed in the past few years, you probably won’t expect any major transformations in the next decade. But then I remembered a quote from Bill Gates I once read:
“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.”
-Bill Gates
To avoid doing nothing (which you really should), you might want to develop a strategy (if you haven’t already). What do you want your travel program to be like in 10 years? Think about it long and hard. Then ask yourself whether you are willing to put your money where your mouth is. That, by the way, reminds me of another change-related quote:
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
-Barack Obama
At Roadmap, we do have a strategy. Unsurprisingly, it has a lot to do with travelers: we aim to help corporations maximize their travel program’s value while creating traveler happiness. Sounds great, but how on earth do we go about it? And can we actually deliver on that promise? Well, in Obama’s words – “Yes, we can.”
1. Simplify
The Roadmap all-in-one travel platform integrates all your suppliers into one single platform. It maximizes your travel program’s value and reduces cost while minimizing the manual steps required for organizing business trips. You – the corporation – can add any supplier and maintain service consistency when it comes to your travelers.
2. Customize
Roadmap provides you with a fully customizable platform powered by your own travel policies. Share benefits, discounts, and partner deals with your travelers while sticking to company guidelines. The platform comes with a fully branded app, so all negotiated benefits can be viewed by your travelers in real time and are one click away.
3. Personalize
We use behavioral data to understand your road warriors’ needs. Basically, we lift the curtain so you can look beyond transactional data and see personas, destinations, and supplier quality. How this works? We measure, analyze, improve, and repeat. You get to own your data so you are in control and have the insights required to improve your travel program.
All right. Back to the initial question: What will the travel industry look like 10 years from now? Well, we believe that by then, technology will help business travelers spend their time on things which are truly important to them and the company they work for. How that will be accomplished? By simplifying, customizing, and personalizing.
A final word: start with the end in mind, and you’ll see the first step won’t be as hard as you thought!
Markus Emmer
