“Technology is leading the drive to give companies more visibility and control over their spending”
American Express Global Business
Travel also piloted an ‘engagement and gamification platform’ as a way of encour- aging better behaviour from travellers and rewarding them when they booked within policy. But this concept has been slow to take off outside the US. Amex GBT direc- tor Philip Haxne says: “Originally, people thought gamification could solve the problems of compliance in and of itself. However, the perception has changed now, and it’s seen as just one part of the solution. “Gamification now plays a supporting role in driving behaviour, but it’s still far from the norm and is not seen much in EMEA coun- tries. The US has been quicker to incorporate it, since in general it fits more easily into the culture of the American travel industry.” Hotel booking specialist HRS says it has seen “a few” clients using elements of gami-
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
fication within their programmes. UK and Ireland managing director Jon West adds: “One notable area is to encourage employees to control spend while on business trips. Using the expense claim process, employees are awarded credit if they underspend on the designated budget on any given trip. These credits are then banked and can be put towards a reward, such as staying in a more prestigious hotel when enough credits have been saved up.”
SECURING SAVINGS
So if gamification has yet to take off in Europe in a major way, what about other creative ways of improving travel manage- ment? All buyers, no matter what sector they work in, can understand the obvious benefit of securing quantifiable savings from their programmes.
Technology is leading the drive to give companies more visibility and control over their spending, as well as leading to the emergence of new ways of buying corporate travel, beyond the usual round of corporate deals. Foremost among these are the development of platforms such as hotel comparison shopping tool Tripbam, and Rocketrip, which sets a real-time budget for trips and then rewards employees with cash or other incentives for beating this figure. Despite grabbing headlines, these tools
have yet to establish a huge presence within the European managed travel eco-system. However, Business Travel Direct became the first UK-based TMC to sign a partnership with Tripbam last year. Under this deal, Tripbam monitors hotel rates within defined criteria and looks for savings up to the day of arrival. These
BBT September/October 2016 81
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