The past few weeks have provided all-too realistic glimpses at the fallout when the technology that underpins the global travel industry creaks and even fails. Depending upon your role and experience in the travel arena, the scenarios that unfolded when government and/or supplier technology has a hiccup may not have been a total surprise. Marry the tech breakdowns with the (too-frequent) weather disruptions, and perhaps a job action by employees affecting local or regional operations, and it is easy to grasp the challenges faced by managed programs of any size as they look after their travelers.

Beyond these headline-grabbing examples of the past few months, we also find ourselves in foggy economic times from continent to continent. The finance and procurement leaders I engage with talk more and more about the uncertain economic climate, with concerns about inflation, energy costs and the continued fallout from the war in the Ukraine leaving them disinclined to make fiscal commitments. For buyers, this means most simply don’t have full-year allocations spelled out, straining the ability to coordinate with colleagues internally and plan with suppliers externally.

The very public nature of these incidences—and the cascading impact of cancelled meetings, missed connections and personal travails—does hold the strong potential for a silver lining for 2023: entities across the travel ecosystem stepping up their respective investments in technology.

Yes, many airlines and hotels are still challenged with their balance sheets when it comes to balancing the need for appropriate staff additions, food and beverage costs, training, quarterly reporting, etc. But the line for tech investment and digitizing processes that help address agility in stressful times is on the rise. It simply has to be. Long-term players cannot afford not to invest in technology as they look beyond the next quarter.

All Roads Lead to Tech-Enabled Customer Service

The digital transformation of our industry, thankfully, is already underway. A Duetto survey last year of hospitality industry executives found that 78 percent anticipate raising their technology expenditures over the next three years. Qantas Airways CEO Alan Joyce predicted in an interview that “the airline will have more digital workers than pilots or engineers in the next decade” because of the emphasis within the business on digitalization. HRS also accelerated its investments in digital solutions during the pandemic, and will continue doing so in the years ahead.

In our discussions with travel program leaders, we see a strong trend towards the interest in adopting technologies that ultimately point to increased traveler satisfaction. There’s plenty of discussion regarding how business travel has changed since the pandemic; a lot of that change is felt by travelers getting back on the road who encounter different environments. So much more self-service in airports, reduced staffing in hotels, alternative meeting spaces, new services on the phone. With the competition for talent, travel programs are pressured to navigate these changes while giving travelers a sense of security and efficiency as they head to the airport.

Seamless, under-the-hood technology has long been key to making travel programs work for the travelers they serve. That said, the importance of that technology working while programs transform with new priorities such as sustainability and virtual payment has left the service element of technology taken for granted too often in the past 18 months. Similar to the supplier scenarios mentioned above, we also see travel programs addressing technology as a key trend for 2023. Even as buyers manage to their new priorities, the public failings of travel technology in the past few months will result in a traveler workforce with more questions and concerns as they get back on the road.

Marrying Communication with Technology Investment to Showcase Program Agility

To get in front of traveler concerns, we anticipate a period of more active communication from travel and procurement leaders to internal audiences in the first half of 2023. C-level global executives to regional sales team members will take comfort in learning more about what their company has “under the hood” to support them in an agile manner when they are traveling.

This is particularly true in scenarios where a preferred supplier might have had a hiccup in performance that is known by the bulk of your traveling workforce. After engaging with the supplier to confirm the issue has been addressed, managers are best served by proactively communicating about the issue resolution, sharing a certain level of detail about the solution, and re-stating the company’s confidence in the supplier moving forward. These kinds of communications on your internal travel webpage, direct email and/or in select town halls (virtual and/or in person) may very well preclude repetitive calls and/or emails into the travel office.

This also serves to increase the overall sense of confidence in travel program leadership, and growing confidence will serve program leaders well when new program initiatives and directions are announced. Given all the factors covered at the beginning of this piece, such pronouncements are more likely in 2023 given the fluid nature of regional economies, corporate priorities and uncontrollable factors yet unknown.

Finally, we foresee more companies across travel taking a hard look in the mirror when it comes to the agile nature and dependability of the technology they have in place today. Stress-testing process models and measuring performance of supplier partners is going to be a more frequent topic. The Q&A of an RFP likely will not satisfy the rigor of a true analysis when it comes to minimizing the impact of the catastrophic outages that already took place—and may well take place again before new travel industry systems are in play.