Making sense of a multifaceted travel programme can be daunting. This is where data, particularly the numbers that travel management companies (TMCs) provide, can be incredibly powerful, helping make sense of travel spend, the ROI of trips and ESG goals, as well as flagging out-of-policy bookings. 

These days, businesses and suppliers are awash with data points as they digitally transform. There are four focal points for travel data: those on cost control, compliance, wellbeing and sustainability. However, as the travel industry evolves and becomes more data-led, there are more challenges. 

“Fragmentation of booking channels across TMCs, other agencies or direct suppliers can drive complexity in aggregating data sets. This often requires more advanced analysis in order to join large, disparate pools of data,” explains Sara Andell, Director of Consulting Strategy, American Express GBT. 

“TMCs also act as intermediaries to other systems including GDS. And it is common that core data provision comes in a relatively raw format. It’s important to understand what data transformation, cleaning, validating and structuring is undertaken by the TMC.”

It doesn’t help that corporates often engage multiple TMCs for different business divisions or regions, have significant travel policy leakage, or substantial expense programmes that run alongside their travel programme. 

This is why taking an active rather than a passive approach to data analytics is crucial. This involves not only querying the data on offer but where and how it’s generated. Buyers must not settle for off-the-shelf reporting.

“Travel managers should ask their TMC what technology they are using and which reporting and analytics providers they are working with to consolidate their data. Is the technology provider pulling data from every content source – including GDS and non-GDS data, NDC, ground transport or carbon emissions? How are they processing and standardising that data? More importantly, don’t accept poor data if you know something is wrong,” advises David Chappell, Chief Product Officer, TripStax. 

Eye on the prize

Real-time analysis and regular reporting, rather than quarterly reviews, can help flag some of these issues. This approach can also lead to a more agile and responsive travel programme. More importantly, having a data strategy is key.

“TMCs will have insights from multiple clients, allowing you to compare your performance and identify areas for enhancement”

“Data is most powerful if it drives action. When aligned with internal or business goals, it becomes a real game changer. It’s therefore important to understand the ‘why’ behind data trends and champion a data-driven culture internally,” advises Sam Davies, ATPI’s Director of Corporate Partnerships.

He adds: “Starting with the ‘why’ and ‘what’ is crucial, especially if a travel manager is trying to reduce costs or carbon emissions, boost online adoption or enhance the traveller experience. When objectives are clear, data becomes a powerful decision-making tool. Travel managers should also use data as a storytelling device, not just to report on the past, but to shape future strategy.”

Changing behaviour

Using data to monitor buying patterns has always been a hot topic. Late bookings result in higher costs since airlines around the globe have invested heavily in yield management. Analytics can show why flights are clicked on last minute and flag savings, while data relating to out-of-policy bookings can help travel managers drive compliance. Data on wellbeing, whether information on travel frequency, trip length or rest periods, is increasingly important too, since travel managers are now more able to quantify duty of care. 

In all these use cases, turning random data into actionable insight is dependent on benchmarking a travel programme against industry standards and best practices. 

“TMCs will have insights from multiple clients, allowing you to compare your performance and identify areas for enhancement,” states Logan LaBonne, Director, Product Management, Data & Analytics, CWT.

Carbon control

Data is essential to build an effective ESG-focused travel strategy. With sustainability continuing to be high on the corporate agenda, buyers are seeking greater visibility on their carbon emissions, broken down by route, traveller or supplier. The EU’s directive on corporate sustainability reporting (CSRD) and similar regulatory requirements have further ramped demand for this information.

This data can also be useful in supporting strategies on reducing Scope 3 emissions. Putting a price on carbon and marrying that with other data allows companies to create funds for decarbonisation projects, such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) or electric vehicles.

“In the last couple of years, ESG is an area where the demand for data has increased significantly. We see a convergence of opinion that sustainability and value often come from the same buying decision. There are anomalies, but on the whole, being cost conscious leads to better sustainability outcomes,” states Chris Truss, Global Sustainability Director, Reed & Mackay.

A different story

Companies can now strike a more calibrated and holistic approach to cost, sustainability and employee wellbeing by adopting a data-driven approach. Data consolidation across all parts of the travel spend lifecycle from pre-trip to on-trip and post-trip is a critical part of this process. Utilising dashboards to visualise data, as well as tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), can also help to analyse trends, allowing targeted action.

“Travel data should be used to tell a relevant, clear and actionable story. It generally takes an experienced consultant with a deep understanding of the travel industry, trends, company policy and underlying data sources to interpret this information. However, we’ve recently found some success in utilising AI to turn even casual users into analyst storytellers,” observes CWT’s Logan LaBonne.

“Anyone can now interact with data using natural language queries and generative AI. For instance, HR, finance, security, and sales people can easily access and interpret travel information without requiring specialised analytical skills or familiarity with corporate travel jargon.”  

“The amount of data available can be overwhelming. It is therefore important to focus on specific behaviours and data that can impact your programme”

It is likely that generative AI will help stretched travel managers. For instance, in a survey by BCD Travel, only 36% of travel managers reported that they interact with their data daily, while 10% do so quarterly or less. The main reason, cited by 44% of respondents, was lack of time. 

“The amount of data available can be overwhelming. It is therefore important to focus on specific behaviours and data that can impact your programme. Don’t ignore outliers, as this can highlight important trends,” points out Heather Wright, Vice President for Global Product Marketing at BCD Travel. “It is also important to share your insights with other key players in your company, including finance, risk management, IT and security.”

In fact, data could hold the key to elevating the future role of the travel manager. “We’re talking about connecting the dots between travel and things like project spend. I’ve found that bringing this to life means moving beyond spreadsheets. It’s about using dynamic reporting to visualise the data, telling stories around both successes and challenges, and using case studies to show tangible impact,” concludes Stuart Birkin, General Manager for CTM Europe.