The travel industry has seen more than our fair share of “disruptions” ranging from ash-cloud eruptions from unpronounceable volcanos, to September 11, 2001, that grounded the global air travel system. However, nothing in recent history has been more disruptive and life-impacting to business and leisure travel than COVID-19. Now hopefully the worst is behind us as we move forward into 2Q22.

I’d like to turn the focus from “disruptions” to “Disruptors.” The difference with the latter is that these are typically corporations (vs. natural disasters, terrorism and pandemics) that focus their business model on travel – particularly business travel – and try to “crack the code.”

In cracking the code, a disruptor will look at the status-quo and find a way to insert their company in the process in a manner that may take out incumbents, or diminish their role or market share within a given vertical.

There was an interesting report from Accenture from 2019 called “Travel’s Winning Ticket,” and the quote that resonated for me was: “The travel industry has already experienced the turbulence of disruption – but a new wave is coming and may shift $100 billion of value from traditional players to new competitors by 2025.” It’s important to point out that they made this projection before COVID-19 started to accelerate globally.

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As I look back at our industry, there’s a handful of disruptors that come to mind:
•TMC Mergers and Acquisitions
•Online Travel Agency Consolidation
•New Technology Players
•Migration from OBT to SMS
•IATA’s NDC
•Blockchain

Back in 1998 I was considered a “Disruptor” because I created the concept of a Corporate Travel Department (CTD), which enabled our company (a bank) to be accredited by ARC (Airlines Reporting Corporation) like a travel agency. That accreditation allowed the bank’s travel department to issue our own tickets. The main difference is we were not allowed to sell tickets to the public; we could only “purchase them” for ourselves. There was mass concern at the time that CTD programs would completely disrupt the travel agency model. Yet 24 years later there are still fewer than 150 CTD companies. Bear in mind the number does grow a bit each year but not by much.

Let’s fast forward to the last few years. We’ve seen Online Travel Agencies disappear or be absorbed (Orbitz for Business, Travelocity for Business) and recently the last major OTA pillar Egencia has been purchased by a global TMC. A similar attrition has happened in the Online Corporate Travel space, with the majority of the market share for OBT’s (Online Booking Tools) handled by a very small number of companies.

And now to the new “Disruptors.” In that category are IATA’s NDC (New Distribution Capability), JPMorgan Chase (which just bought a large TMC), TripActions (proprietary technology plus acquisition of brick and mortar travel agencies like Reed & Mackay and others in EMEA), as well as new “marketplace” companies like Spotnana, Onriva and others like Traxo and PSNGR1. I’m not able to name all of the companies, but among the features they have in common are:
• Disavowing the traditional TMC model
• Reducing dependence on the GDS as the “sole source of truth”
• Combining the ability to book business and leisure
• Creating a system to “capture” rogue travelers who don’t book in “the system”
• Directly connecting to travel services providers (airlines, hotels, car rental)

There’s value in innovation, and competition drives that innovation. I am in favor of disruptors who can bring positive change to the business travel experience, especially if those changes result in a new form of ROI: Reduce, Optimize, Improve. In a sentence, Reduce carbon emissions, Optimize traveler productivity, and Improve the bottom-line for the shareholders.

When all is said and done, it will be the ultimate customer (the traveler and travel manager/procurement manager) who can determine which of these disruptors will survive. Ideally Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest will apply to global business travel suppliers, producing an outcome that will be of universal and global benefit to all of us.