This area, along with “open booking,” is perhaps the hottest area in the business travel world, and was a key area in both London and Berlin. In most cases, I perceived a mixture of a desire for the completely perfect App with all areas included, but at the same time there were reservations due to the pace at which Apps develop.

With over 70,000 travel-related apps via Apple alone, we can consider the area somewhat overwhelming, right?

WE HAVE FOUND MORE THAN 100 GOOD TRAVEL APPS FOR YOU AND CATALOGUED THEM. SCROLL DOWN UNTIL YOU REACH THE OVERVIEW AND CLICK IN.

AND WE HAVE A GOOD TIP FOR YOU WHO TRAVEL: Our recommendation is to build folders for the destinations you visit most frequently. Here you can save the apps that are good for that destination and quickly replace them if a better one is introduced. When you do the same for a destination you only visit once (vacation), you can just delete the folder when you return home.

I have looked at this area and spoken to many travelers. In many cases, they have 50-100 apps available, including several providers, but may only use 5 regularly. At the same time, the infrastructure in the industry is so complex that the “perfect” global solution just doesn’t exist. Concur (SAP) is probably quite advanced, and apps delivered by the various Travel Management Companies (TMCs) or global reservation systems (GDS) are good and useful. The problem is that they maintain development on old structures, while individual providers sprint ahead with new solutions.

Fundamentally, all companies should consider this area. I am sure that more than 95% of all business travelers in Europe have a smartphone. This fact alone means that “sticking your head in the sand” is not an option. Travelers already have a wide range of travel-related apps that they use to a greater or lesser extent.

Providers: Airlines, accommodations, local transportation, and trains.

Here is the opportunity everyone has wanted: Personal access to the traveler.

Therefore, everyone is working, both internationally and locally, to pay fortunes to make their app available on Apple, Android, and Microsoft with as much content as possible, and all sorts of quirks. The more travelers who take the app, the more traffic and revenue. All providers will be able to offer all kinds of add-ons, competitions, and points.

This means that each provider, large and small, seems to have equal opportunities. For the large ones, it will be problematic because the small ones will be able to offer much the same. For the small ones, it means that they have to keep up with the big ones. Budgets have already changed significantly in recent decades and will change much more.

The art will be to deliver precisely what each traveler considers important to themselves, and therein lies the challenge for providers. At the same time, the companies that are your customers will not just let go and let travel costs soar.

As a company/customer, the travel manager should ask themselves and management a series of questions in the following areas:

SECURITY
• What is our policy in terms of security?
• Are tablets and smartphones an integral part of our communication and data access, which means that we need to establish a closed and secure circuit?
• Do we provide tablets and smartphones for our travelers, or is it better for the travelers to take care of this themselves?

Comment: Development in this area is moving so quickly that significant resources will have to be invested and maintained not to fall behind if one wants total control.