Why have you joined TAG as Chair and why now?

I’ve long been an admirer of TAG and I’ve always had a good relationship with the founders. It’s always been very client focused, with a deep personal service and a high touch offering. I’d even go as far to say client obsessed. Being an advocate of excellent client service, there was a natural affinity.

This is also a really exciting time for TAG, which is expanding its senior team with some key appointments and is making a huge investment in its internal and client-facing technology. These changes will revolutionise the experience, both for its agents and for customers.

Interestingly, while TAG is very well known for being a leader in the entertainment and music sector, it’s not as well known for managing corporate travel and events, which actually makes up around half of its business.

Do corporates require the same high-touch, personal service that TAG’s entertainment clients demand?

Yes. While not everyone needs that, there’s a huge number that do. That’s why they come to TAG. These are typically clients with complex travel, which might sometimes be the whole business, like a private equity firm or an investment management firm. But what we’re seeing more and more is some of the bigger corporates looking for a tech solution for their more generic, high volume transactional bookings but then coming to TAG for the 10% of their travel, which is more complex and needs that more personal, high-touch service.

We see that particularly polarised in the corporate events space, where companies – particularly ones with hybrid working – want to have a meeting for a small number of their staff, which is more simple. But they will come to TAG for their larger, global events where you need people on site, where it’s more complex and where there are really high stakes. That’s where TAG is really rich.

What are clients now demanding from their TMCs and how is TAG evolving to meet these needs?

I think there are now table stakes, which any TMC has to offer, and that’s the data and reporting and so on. Corporates want more control over their travel and they’re wanting to make sure their staff are fully protected, that they meet duty of care. They are also looking for shorter response times. Travellers today expect pretty much instant response.

These are the basics but the other piece that is quite interesting is that we’re increasingly getting asked for advice, for our expert view and recommendations.

“TAG is not as well known for managing corporate travel and events, which actually makes up around half of its business”

Corporates are looking to travel smarter and are asking us how they can combine trips to save time and money, or to cut their carbon footprint, or reduce leakage. They’re looking for more of a professional service than a transactional one and that’s where we’re seeing TAG coming to the fore.

We’re doubling down on that by ensuring our agents are fully trained, while using tech in the background to do some of the heavy lifting and to help speed it up.

How difficult is it to strike a balance between tech and the human touch?

It is an age-old question. I don’t think it’s a one-size-fits-all. My view of the market is that there are some players who are wanting to use tech only. They’re at one end of the scale. Then you have those who purely just want the personal service. They don’t want any tech, they’re still using spreadsheets. And then I think the area where it’s really galvanising, and where TAG sits, is a combination of both. Again, it’s about offering a high-touch service but supported by good tech in the background.

What impact is AI having?

It’s all about speed. Tasks that would have previously taken hours of research, agents can use AI to do in a fraction of the time, which is dramatically improving response times. It means we can offer that real high-touch service but at a much faster pace, and that’s what the clients are asking for.

AI can definitely bring benefits, and over time it will evolve further, but I think it’s risky to go into AI overload. There’s a role for it, and it’s maturing, but there’s still a place in the market for a service-led TMC like TAG.

In your opinion, what are the key challenges currently facing travel managers and how is TAG helping to overcome these?

I’ve been in the industry a while and the travel manager’s role used to be about simply booking travel. Today, I think it’s one of the hardest jobs out there, genuinely, because they’re not just looking after the travel, they’re looking at budgets, costs, sustainability, data, data security, expense management, payments, leakage management and internal noise. Today, everyone is a travel ‘expert’ and thinks they can go online and find a better option, and that’s obviously what leads to some of the leakage. So, this all comes back to the advisory piece, where we are helping them deal with some of these challenges

There’s one word I would use here, and that’s trust. It all comes down to trusting that your TMC is doing the right thing, getting the best deals and explaining to people why you’re doing things. Travel managers are looking for a partner, with a high level of engagement and communication, and that’s why we hold workshops with our clients.

And the other vital piece to gain that trust is breadth of content. Without it, the travel manager’s job will be even harder.

What’s coming next in the TMC space?

The million-dollar question! I think we’re going to see is the TMC industry polarising. That tech-led and service-led divide is going to become even more pronounced as we move forward and for corporates, there will be less choice of TMCs as they are absorbed. I would advise corporates to look carefully for a TMC, based on their particular needs, and commit to a long-term relationship – five or 10 years – and to get in quickly. TAG is continuing to invest in its service first approach because clients are coming to us now and are saying, ‘We can see that ‘glossy’ tech-led world over there, but that’s not what we want’, which gives us confidence that the demand is there for our high-touch service, and that clients are prepared to pay for it. tag-group.com

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