“There are a lot of new, young players coming in across all sectors who will shake up the way business is done,” Stratford says. “Anybody who talks about going back to the way of doing business pre-COVID will probably not survive. It’s a bold statement but I believe it; the world is changing and we must change with it.
“Already we’re seeing the way Gen Z engages with technology is going to shift the way they interact with travel and their TMCs. They’ll continue to travel – business will still be won by personal interaction – but it will be smarter. They’ll be asking, do I need to travel and, if yes, how do I travel smarter?”
Stratford adds that it’s about understanding how every demographic wants to travel, a point CEO Asia Pacific Jane Warren corroborates. “There’ll still be people travelling that won’t want to do everything on an app, and we’ll see – particularly in the large professional services companies – the need to support different demographics within a business,” she says. “We have the tech to support booking online or on mobile or offline; but the important point is, it all needs to lead into one programme that a travel manager can analyse.”