Business travellers demand more from mobiles
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Business travellers are becoming increasingly demanding about the services supplied via their mobile devices, according to a new survey. Sabre Travel Network’s biannual mobile survey of business travellers confirmed that the explosion of mobile travel services over the past few years has led travellers to expect even greater functionality from their mobile devices. Sabre warned that corporations and travel management companies must meet those needs, or risk being left behind.
“Our survey shows that business travel today is personal. Travellers want the same functionality and convenience from their business travel tools that they have in their daily lives. People use travel services on their smart phones everyday and for every trip – before, during and after they travel,” said Chris Kroeger, Senior Vice President of Sabre Travel Network. “The corporate travel industry needs to keep pace with the services and apps that travellers can access in their personal life and incorporate those into the world of managed business travel.”
According to the Sabre’s survey, 63 per cent of business travellers want to receive destination-specific offers from local businesses – an 85 per cent increase from 2009. In addition, 47 per cent of business travellers use their smartphone daily to view or receive advertisements, a 95 per cent increase from 2009.
Consumers also want to access navigational tools and maps on their mobile devices. According to the survey 72 per cent of business travellers are interested in ability to view hotels on a map, an increase of 26 per cent from 2009. Meanwhile 43 per cent said they used their smartphone daily to access navigation services, and 71 per cent said they wanted to receive driving directions to a specific location via their mobile device.
“Consumers already rely on their mobile devices to help them navigate their way through cities around the world,” Kroger said. “In the future, they’ll look for mobile services that are not only location-based but contextually-aware such as airport navigational tools with the ability to find in-airport businesses but also have deals and offers pushed to their smartphone.”
Another part of the survey revealed that nearly three-quarters of business travellers are interested in shopping and booking air options. More than two-thirds want to shop for and make hotel reservations via mobile devices and 66 per cent of respondents reported interest in the ability to add a hotel reservation to an existing itinerary. The highest growth however, was seen in the ground services category. Some 62 per cent of respondents were interested in booking rental cars via their smart phone, a 32 per cent increase from 2009, and 60 per cent of respondents wanted to shop for car rentals via their smartphone, a 33 per cent increase.
“Today’s business travellers expect transactional capabilities from their mobile devices including buying air extras and in-flight amenities,” Kroeger said. “Tomorrow’s business travellers will move from physical passports, wallets and credit cards and will expect their mobile device to fill those needs as continued advancements in mobile payment, commerce and banking make it easier to electronically transact via mobile devices.”
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