Intro:
Welcome to Connections with BCD Travel, an ongoing conversation about the modern day travel program, the impact of technology, and how travel buyers can take control and drive change. What are we waiting for? Let's start connecting.
Chad Lemon:
Hello, everyone, and if you're listening to this on the 14th of February, happy Valentine's Day. I'm Chad Lemon and I'm one of the hosts of the Connections podcast.
Miriam Moscovici:
Happy Day of love everyone. I'm Miriam Moscovici. Speaking of love. We'd love to hear from you. See what I did there? So head to bcdtravel.com/podcast to send us some feedback or suggestions.
Chad Lemon:
Now, Miriam, we are publishing this episode on Valentine's Day, and you know how much I love a themed event, so we're really going to run with this. And to all of our listeners, if you are not a lovey-dovey kind of person, I apologize in advance. We'll also be promoting this episode on BCD social media channels with some video clips. So to everyone watching, hello, you finally get to see me and Miriam rather than just hear us.
Miriam Moscovici:
Did you know that Valentine's Day is celebrated in many, but not all, parts of the world and the origins are likely from Rome?
Chad Lemon:
Well, did you know that this holiday is old, like really old, like in the 1300s old? But the first mass-produced Valentine messages began in the mid 1800s.
Miriam Moscovici:
And since we're a global company and a global podcast, it's interesting to note how different countries and regions celebrate. In many Latin American countries, for example, the focus shifts towards showing gratitude to friends and family rather than just love for significant others. And in Japan, for example, women often give chocolate to their partners.
Chad Lemon:
That was interesting, but I think it's enough of a history lesson for our listeners. Let's jump right into our Quick 60 in Business Travel. GBTA recently put out a report on business travel volumes, and your team summarized it. There were some really great nuggets in there. What do you think?
Miriam Moscovici:
Yeah, well, according to the Business Travel Outlook, this is a poll that's done by GBTA, the Global Business Travel Association, on a regular basis. Their buyers this time around expect travel volumes in 2024 to continue growing, which is great news. Around six in 10 expect the company employees to take more business trips this year than last year. Almost a quarter anticipate the same volume of trips, and about 11% expect the number of business trips to go down. Two thirds of travel buyers expect to spend more on business travel this year in 2024. They also talk a little bit about their challenges. About 74% are worrying the most about rising travel costs. Next up, at almost 50%, overall economic concerns. Corporate budgets not keeping pace with the needs of the program at 40%, and then travel disruptions rounding out at 38% of the respondent's concerns for 2024. There's a lot more in that study. We encourage you guys to look at that GBTA report and learn more about what the buyers are thinking about 2024.
Chad Lemon:
Okay, that is really interesting. But enough of that serious stuff, let's get back to the love. So on today's episode, we are going to host what I like to think of as a dating game of sorts. Our guest, Simone Gray, works on the BCD marketplace team and she is here to play matchmaker.
Miriam Moscovici:
Outside of Research and Intelligence, I also lead our marketplace partnerships. So I'm excited to see where this goes with Simone today.
Chad Lemon:
Simone, welcome to our dating game of sorts. Miriam and I are going to describe some hypothetical companies with unique travel needs, and we want you to play matchmaker and tell us what type of BCD marketplace partners should be matched up with.
Simone Gray:
Got it. And I'm really excited to spread some love to our marketplace partners today, but for everyone listening, we have almost 50 unique vetted partners in the marketplace. So even if I don't mention one today that fits the bill for you, let's connect and talk because I know that we have something for everyone.
Miriam Moscovici:
Simone, let's start with a quick reminder of what the BCD marketplace is.
Simone Gray:
Absolutely. Our marketplace is a group of vetted partner solutions that you can use to extend your travel program. So it's a one-stop shop. We've got 12 different categories and growing and almost 50 partners to date. And like I said, it's still growing, so as travel program priorities evolve, we continue to add more solutions.
Chad Lemon:
All right, well, are you ready to play matchmaker? I've got your first one. I've got a good-sized company looking to build upon their duty of care policy. They want to focus even more intently on traveler wellbeing and safety. Now, they already have a travel risk management provider, but they're looking to expand their organization's knowledge and program to be more bespoke.
Simone Gray:
Okay. I think I have the right match for them. I think that would be Maiden Voyage. Maiden Voyage, they position themselves as experts on inclusive travel safety and they're all about preparing your employees for safe business travel through a range of travel consultancy and training solutions. So for example, they can offer your employees a training on navigating business travel in different regions as members of different affinity and minority groups. And they do it with the nuances to not violate the policy or privacy of protected classes. And one of the best parts about them is they can work with your existing travel risk management provider. They don't have to be a standalone option.
Chad Lemon:
Perfect. All right. Miriam, you got one?
Miriam Moscovici:
All right, I've got one for you Simone. This company's travelers take long trips with stops and layover in various airports and cities. They travel between lounges and gyms and restaurants and it costs the company more and more money beyond flights and destination accommodations. Their costs are through the roof, but there's really no way to circumvent the inevitable downtime of these travelers and they really want to up their game when it comes to health and wellbeing of their travelers. So what you got?
Simone Gray:
Well, that one's easy. That's going to be Sanctifly. Their priority is boosting employee wellbeing on every business trip, and they do it through a single membership that they offer your employees. It gives them access to hundreds of airport hotels, gyms, pools, spas, lounges, everything you can think of. And it allows those employees who are traveling to really prioritize their health and wellness without that exorbitant cost for you because they have relationships in place with all of those destinations. And I know that we had one BCD and Sanctifly client that saw over a 50% reduction in their spend on airport lounge access. We actually have a case study on that on our website.
Chad Lemon:
Well, speaking as someone who loves an airport lounge, I am a big fan of that answer. Okay, next potential suitor. I have a company that does a large amount of international travel, but their lean immigration department to help all those international travelers, it only consists of one person and they're really struggling to keep up. Their policy has some hiccups and there have been some issues with travelers not realizing that they're missing some vital travel documents until the last minute or struggling to obtain documents through their standard process. The cost of these documents is also a factor because it's eating up a significant amount of their budget.
Simone Gray:
I think that their match would probably be CIBTvisas. They are a leading global provider of visa immigration and documents legalization services. And like you said, resources matter. If they only have a small lean department, CIBTvisas has over 1,600 expert professionals. We're talking attorneys, migration consultants, and they have the ability to offer large scale assistance and 60 offices over 27 countries across six different continents. And I'm actually excited because they recently came to an agreement with BCD Travel to start consuming data through the itinerary API that we have, which will result in the ability for them to do proactive outreach to clients who have itineraries requiring essential travel documents. So instead of the employee having to know to reach out CIBTvisas can reach out to them.
Miriam Moscovici:
I've got your next one, Simone. This is a midsize company and they're wasting hundreds of hours manually compiling, inputting and submitting invoices and expenses related to their business travel. They're manually compiling expense reports and it's tedious and taking away from employee productivity. Delays in expense submissions are making it hard for this organization to stay up to date on their spend. So what do you say?
Chad Lemon:
That's a good one, Miriam.
Simone Gray:
Okay. I think their match would probably be Mobilexpense. Mobilexpense automates and streamlines the entire expense management process, and employees can actually claim out-of-pocket travel expenses in real time, which will save them that time on the backend. And they also have automated analytics to identify trends and spend. So no more not knowing what your spend trends are. They'll send you reports giving you that information.
Chad Lemon:
Next one for you, Simone. We are just firing these away at you and I am so impressed that you're just giving them right back. You are the perfect matchmaker for this.
Simone Gray:
Thank you.
Chad Lemon:
Next one is a global company and they have employees to travel to high risk destinations. They might have a travel risk management provider already, but I'm not sure. But they're looking to step things up and provide their travelers with 24/7 support in case of issues. But in order to source a new service, and this is the tricky part, it absolutely must be provided in real time.
Simone Gray:
Okay. If they need it to be provided in real time, I think they should take a look at Global Guardian. They have 24/7 supports. They have two interchangeable 24/7 operations center and on the ground teams in over 130 countries. Their platform includes, I believe, a mobile app, itinerary PNR tracking, a web-based traveler portal, and a management control center that has access to those 24/7 operation centers. So that all allows them to offer a suite of security, medical, and emergency response services in that real time timeframe.
Miriam Moscovici:
Here's one. This next company also does a lot of international travel. They have a fairly robust travel program, but they need additional assistance, specifically with cross-border compliance and risk assessment for tax, immigration and business travel. They're really looking to ensure compliance directly into their current booking processes, but they're worried about the customer experience.
Simone Gray:
Okay. I would suggest their match is Vialto. It's really hard to know all of the compliance regulations and risks associated with business travel. We get that. And so Vialto is the expert for you. So your company doesn't have to be. They embed the compliance process into your existing travel booking process by initiating some proactive assessments of potential compliance risks. And I know that they also provide related travel advice to your business travelers before their trip. And then, afterwards, they'll provide some analytics and reporting to your company and stakeholder team. So Vialto could be really helpful there.
Chad Lemon:
Okay, so switching gears on this one very hot button topic everyone's concerned about it right now, this next company is prioritizing sustainability initiatives this year. Knowing that business travel is essential to their operations, they're looking for ways to accurately measure and reduce their CO2 footprint, but they also want to take responsibility for the emissions that they can't reduce. What do you think?
Simone Gray:
Okay. I would say they should take a look at Climate Neutral Group. I know that Climate Neutral Group can help you to plan and implement strategies to address your risk and reduction. And most importantly, they can help companies invest in climate finance to help address those residual emissions that they're not able to reduce. And so I think their goal is really to help organizations reach net-zero through impactful, qualified projects. And since they have over 21 years of experience, they can really help you get it done.
Miriam Moscovici:
All right, Simone, last one. We have a large company and their travelers are struggling because invoices can't automatically populate within their online booking tool. They want to make a change and they're looking for a large scale modern solution that doesn't force them to commit to one specific online booking tool for their travel integration. What do you think?
Simone Gray:
I think I would say take a look at Emburse Chrome River. I know that they work with a lot of companies who were using another solution but wanted to make a change to something that was easier for their employees. And they are large scale, so I know they're able to handle the heavy lifting that a major enterprise company requires for that type of solution. And what immediately made them come to mind is I know that they automatically populate invoices, making the lives of your employees that much easier.
Chad Lemon:
Simone, this was so much fun. I loved this. And to all of our listeners, if you heard a scenario that relates to your travel program or you heard Simone talk about some capabilities that you're interested in, I know you are ready and willing to connect with them. So how can our listeners connect with you and the rest of the marketplace team?
Simone Gray:
Great question. They can fill out the interest form for any partner on the marketplace site, which is marketplace.bcdtravel.com, or they can ask their program manager directly to connect with us.
Miriam Moscovici:
And last question, what's the one thing you want our listeners to know about the BCD marketplace?
Simone Gray:
I want them to know that the marketplace has a solution for everyone. So whether you're looking to fill a gap in your program, supplement another solution, or make a complete change from one solution to another, we are here for you. So just visit the marketplace site today and find your perfect match.
Chad Lemon:
Miriam, I think it's pretty obvious that we should just retire right now and become full-time podcast hosts. I know we joke about it, but we might've just unlocked a new skill, game show dating host. What do you think?
Miriam Moscovici:
I don't know if I'd go that far, Chad, but this was fun. And of course, I love talking about the BCD marketplace.
Chad Lemon:
Well, we hope that all of you enjoyed this fun matchmaking Valentine's Day episode because I know we sure did. Head to bcdtravel.com/podcast to give us some feedback and download and review the connections with BCD Travel podcast wherever you're listening.
Outro:
Thank you for connecting with us. BCD travel helps companies travel smart and achieve more. We drive program adoption, cost savings, and talent retention through digital experiences that simplify business travel. Learn more about the topics you heard on this episode by visiting bcdtravel.com/podcast.
