More work needed to encourage the return of the corporate traveller, says Connecta

INTERNATIONAL. New research from Collinson shows that 88% travellers regard physical wellbeing as one of the most important considerations for them in considering a return to travel. This is one finding from a study called ‘The Return Journey’, highlights of which we featured last week.

Collinson claimed that pre-pandemic, over half of companies put travel cost management before the wellbeing of their travelling employees. Airport Dimensions Global Strategy Director Stephen Hay said that considerations over health could lead to potential conflict between employee and employer, and may discourage travellers from making all but absolutely necessary trips in future.

Hay said: “With the potential for trading down from front end travel to the back end, and the perks of airline elite status possibly now being lost, in many cases it is the travellers themselves that are going to be closing the experience gap themselves and paying for the travel and airport experience they want and need to turn a bearable journey into a truly enjoyable one.”

The desire to upgrade the experience was an emerging trend pre-COVID and it is likely to be a seen as a necessity when travel resumes, according to Collinson. To meet this need, it noted, some airports have been developing the capability to sell ancillaries such as fast track and lounge access.

However, while some progress is being made, these sales remains a fragmented experience, with the responsibility often left to different concessions across the airport. “As with any form of ecommerce, making the process easy and frictionless is the key to making the sale,” said Hay.

“The way forward is for airports to unify all their concession brands in a single airport eco-system,  and organise relevant services into logical bundles, which appeal to the target traveller and meets their needs on any given day. To be successful promoting such packages, airports need to understand in advance when someone is travelling, be able to connect to them and understand the price points that are going to resonate based on the travellers needs and budgets on that trip.”

Hay said that airports such as Dublin and Schiphol that have gone a step further and built benefits into annual subscription programmes, tailored to the needs of their travellers, are leading the way.

“For those banished to the back or increasingly reliant upon low-cost carriers, such approaches will start to look increasingly attractive for the traveller, driving their loyalty to the airports that do them well. And in the real world of constrained travel budgets, this will also offer a good compromise option for their employers.”