The world of corporate travel seems to have gotten so much more complicated in 2017. The pieces had been building for a long time, but with global programs, the dramatic upswing in international business travel and the penetration of data throughout the business travel ecosystem, the stage was set for a number of watershed developments. Many of these surrounded security, both physical and cyber security, but also the innovation driven by all that data.
Trump Travel Ban
January 2017 brought U.S. president Donald Trump's first term in office. Among his first executive orders was a so-called travel ban directed at seven countries: Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria
and Yemen. The order came on the heels of geopolitical upheaval, mass migration and terrorist activity that had been impacting Europe, particularly the Nov. 2015 coordinated multi-site attacks in Paris, an attack at Brussels' main airport in March 2016 and another attack in Paris in 2016. Such incidents, at the time, were fomenting nationalist tendencies that began to impact border regulations in Europe that clearly were being felt in other regions as well.
Trump's ban prevented the citizens of the seven identified countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days so the Department of Homeland
Security could review the effectiveness of visa information requirements for each
country. The vague wording of the order and sparse details on implementation resulted in widely disparate application of the order, chaos at gateway airports and detainment of inbound travelers to the U.S.
U.S. attorneys general and the court system immediately got involved, placing injunctions on certain parts of the order or suspending it outright. Nearly 100 corporations, in an amicus brief to the State of Washington's case that ultimately suspended the order, claimed harm from stalling recruitment and curtailing business travel. Those companies included Microsoft, Amazon and Expedia. While the Trump Department of Justice claimed that a stay of the travel ban could result "in irreparable harm" to the U.S., San Francisco's Ninth District Court dismissed the claim and admonished the DOJ for giving no evidence of any alien of any of the named countries in the order had perpetrated an attack on the U.S.
The order would roil through the courts in several different revisions and configurations for months - including which countries were named in the order. The version drafted in Sept. 2017 (the so-called 3.0 version) was ultimately taken up by the Supreme Court in Jan. 2018 and upheld in a final ruling in June. The order restricted almost totally travel from five mainly Muslim countries, plus North Korea. While president Joe Biden would rescind the order in 2021, the U.S. awaits further information on how the second Trump administration might reinvent and expand border security measures in a newly crafted order. The Global Business Travel Association in 2016 claimed the travel ban reduced business travel spend by $185 million in the single week following the first version of the executive order.
GLOBAL TRAVEL DID NOT STOP
Global travel, however, did not come to heel, and business travel for the most part continued to grow throughout 2017. It grew in the U.S., yes, but it grew in China more. China had surpassed the U.S. as the largest business travel market in the world by 2015, according to the Global Business Travel Association, and its growth trajectory was more aggressive as well.
Travel in general was skyrocketing in China as the middle class took to the road and the skies, and Chinese companies began flexing their growing global stature. 115 Chinese firms appeared on the Fortune Global 500 list in 2017, representing the 14th consecutive year of growth and the most representation of any country on that list. The World Economic Forum noted the shift in 2016, and the travel industry had gotten a taste of China's growing influence that same year with Marriott in a surprise bidding war for Starwood against Anbang Insurance Group. Marriott won that round, but not without increasing its offer. Anbang itself and companies like Alibaba and Tencent made the Fortune 500 list in 2017. HNA Group invested $6.5 billion in Hilton in October 2016.
Business travel suppliers were eager to make hay in the Chinese market. Accor got a small jump on the hotel market with its acquisition of Hong Kong-based luxury hotelier Raffles/Swissotel in 2016. A good part of the Marriott acquisition of Starwood was an angle to build the former's brand presence in Asia, including China. The merger doubled its presence there, and Marriott has doubled down since then, increasing its property volume in the country by at least 50 percent. With its considerably larger footprint in the region, Marriott partnered with Alibaba for a joint venture to manage Marriott's storefront on Fliggy, Alibaba's travel service platform. It also linked the Alibaba loyalty program with what was then its several loyalty programs (Starwood Preferred Guest, Ritz-Carlton Rewards and Marriott Rewards) before launching Marriott Bonvoy in 2019. Aside from Marriott's big play, HNA's investment in Hilton resulted in ambitious expansion announcements to reach 1,000 hotels in the country by 2025. While the Chinese company exited its investment just 18 months later, Hilton has continued to pursue that goal and in 2024 opened its 700th hotel in China and claims the largest hospitality brand footprint in the country.
Airlines, too, were jockeying for their share of the Chinese market. Delta had bought a 3.5 percent share in China Eastern in 2015. By 2017 it was deepening its ties with the airline and Chinese Eastern also had come into the JV partnership with Air France-KLM by buying a 10 percent stake in the Franco-Dutch carrier. Not to be out maneuvered in the region, American Airlines in 2017 purchased a 2.7 percent stake in China Southern airlines and made plans to coordinate sales, code share and align loyalty programs, the elements of which rolled out over the next two years.
Chatbots Take Center Stage
There's a lot of chatter about AI travel assistants right now. And you might be surprised at how much chatter there was in 2017 about the same. While ChatGPT and OpenAI have pushed the envelope on the tech foundations for these applications, the vision and some of the tools were coming into play. FCM rolled out SAM (SmartAssist Mobile) in 2017; Concur acquired Hipmunk and tested its own chatbot technology in enterprise collaboration app Slack. Pana was also on the natural language model train, and was offering demos of how to prompt for itineraries that would take both personal and policy preferences into account when delivering options to the user.
Mezi was another player in the mix that forged TMC partnerships in 2017. Casto Travel, Adelman Travel and W Travel were its first TMC clients. "W" was Sarosh Waghmar's precursor company to Spotnana, a technology making waves now with the backing of Steve Singh. (By the way, 2017 was the year Singh left Concur for good. He also started the payment company Center that year. Center was just acquired by American Express payment company.)
One skeptic on chatbot technology was a former startup star himself. Evan Konwiser, working at American Express Global Business Travel as he still does today, put a reality check on the abilities of chatbots on 2017.
"There have been a lot of startups that have played in this game, but
nearly every one of them that I've seen pivots very early on to being
agent powered with a little bit of AI rather than AI powered with an
agent escalation," Konwiser said at the time. "To me, that's a very important data
point and a very important lesson for our industry. The TMCs already
have the agents." According to Konwiser, chatbot agents in 2017 did not
provide the right traveler experience to be first out of the gate in the
messaging channel. Rather, he said, it would be smarter to start with humans
working through the messaging channel and then to layer in AI.
The jury may still be out on that particular question, but Konwiser wasn't wrong in saying the tech in 2017 was leaning too far over its skis in what it could deliver to the end user. Most of the chatbot-centered travel technologies that were getting into the corporate travel business then were sold to other companies and are no longer serving the industry. However, their echoes are still sounding and the learnings they brought to the table have informed the current generative AI and agentic AI developments we are starting to see today.
Indeed, some of the same founders and players are introducing the new generation of tools. Check out Acai, Juno and Otto, all of whom have familiar founders and backers who were active in the 2017 travel technology boom.
... And More
There were plenty of other developments in managed travel in 2017.
In the microview: Virtual cards were very much coming into the visual field for travel managers. And there were a number of efforts to smooth the process for accepting virtual cards, particularly at the hotel front desk. It's been a tough road on that count, and even now there are some struggles, but certain hotel companies have broken through, with Hilton being one of the latest.
In the macroview: The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation was adopted by the European Parliament and Council in April 2016. Awareness of its implications may not have hit the travel industry for a number of months, but by mid 2017, travel agencies, travel suppliers and technology providers were deep in discussion about how to process and share data in ways that would comply with the new legislation. And this wasn't - and still isn't - an issue that was limited to Europe. It would touch every enterprise that handled the data of European citizens and, therefore, nearly all travel ecosystem participants would need to comply.
JANUARY
American Airlines introduces a Basic Economy fare like that of United Airlines. The fare
type would limit passengers to one under-seat personal item, assign seats,
place them in the last boarding group, and charge extra fees for overhead
carry-on bags checked at the gate.
SeatAssignMate launches dynamic email confirmations that update in real time with
flight and ancillary service information. This allows travelers to manage
bookings, choose seats, and make purchases directly from their inbox—while
giving agencies a customizable, sales-capable communication tool integrated
with Amadeus and Travelport.
Coupa acquired Spend360 to improve its machine
learning-driven data classification and cleansing, so that clients can analyze spend data from outside the Coupa platform.
Delta Air Lines plans to raise fares due to increased corporate travel demand
and limited capacity. The carrier also announces plans to expand Basic Economy
fares and maintain conservative capacity growth, despite a
lowered fourth-quarter and full-year net income.
Meetings technology firm DoubleDutch removes 40
percent of its workforce in a second round of layoffs. Cvent,
following its merger with Lanyon, also cuts around 100 Dallas-based jobs
but continues hiring globally for a wider reorganization.
Southwest chairman, president and CEO Gary Kelly gave
up his president title to Thomas Nealon, who was a former Southwest chief
information officer until 2006 after which time he sat on the board of
directors. Andrew Watterson took on the role of SVP and chief revenue
officer.
Newly inaugurated U.S. president Donald Trump signs an
executive order that restricts citizens of seven majority Muslim countries from
entering the U.S. Uneven implementation of the executive order at airport
checkpoints and the evolving messaging caused confusion about which travelers
should be affected as protests
broke out at airports across the nation.
FEBRUARY
The Ninth Circuit Court denies the Department of
Justice’s emergency motion to reinstate President Trump’s travel ban, upholding a Seattle district court's suspension
of the order on constitutional grounds. This sets the stage for a potential
Supreme Court review amid widespread opposition from states, corporations and
national security experts.
Concur and FCM Travel Solutions test their own AI-powered chatbots—Concur within Slack for tasks like submitting expenses, and FCM’s SAM for proactive travel assistance. These efforts show a
broader industry trend toward conversational interfaces to automate routine
travel functions, while still relying on human support for complex decisions.
Ovation Corporate Travel creates Ovation Reserve, a high-touch VIP travel service designed
to integrate with existing TMC programs. It aims to support executives and
C-suite travelers underserved by standard agency features.
Best Western works on newer brands and white-label franchise opportunities to
attract developers and expand its market presence. Meanwhile, Hilton undergoes a rebrand that includes a range of new loyalty perks.
DerbySoft partners with Conferma to enable virtual card payments for hotel bookings across its global
client network. Similarly, Wex collaborates with HitchHiker to
automate virtual card payments for airline tickets,
removing the need for manual entry by TMC agents and streamlining the booking
process across Europe.
TripActions creates an all-in-one corporate travel management platform with online and mobile
booking, policy controls, real-time support, and rewards for under-budget
bookings. The start-up hopes to attract growing midsize and larger
companies with flat-fee pricing and integrated vendor content.
American Airlines looks to grow its corporate sales force in 2017 to close the gap in
contracted corporate accounts with competitors, aiming to boost market share,
especially after seeing post-election gains in business travel from key
sectors.
Delta wants to acquire up to 32 percent more of Grupo Aeromexico’s
shares, which could possibly raise its stake to 49 percent.
MARCH
Presidential executive order revises Travel Ban details, dropping Iraq from the list of
countries affected, and revising timelines specifically surrounding refugee
applications; it also reinstated visas that the first ban would have revoked if
not halted by court injunctions.
Brexit is expected to reduce U.K. air travel from 3 to 5
percent by 2020 due to job losses and regulatory changes, though a
short-term spike from M&A activity may occur. Industry experts see rising
costs, reduced freedom of movement, and political uncertainty impacting travel
and risk planning. KPMG also notes that the Trump presidency could
"overshadow" any Brexit-related risks to travel.
Expense management players Certify, Expensify, Abacus and auditing systems like Oversee and Appzen point to “Big Data”
and artificial intelligence as the new frontier for expense approvals and fraud detection.
United Airlines will have a self-service sales portal for corporate clients and TMCs, with real-time
contract reporting, self-processing of waivers and upgrades, and access to
operational performance data, to lessen reliance on call centers.
Andrew Nocella resigns from American Airlines to
take EVP and chief revenue officer role at United.
APRIL
The U.S. and U.K. governments ban passengers from carrying
large electronic devices on flights from select Middle Eastern and African
countries due to terrorism concerns, which prompts criticism over
effectiveness, communication, and impact on business travel.
Steve Singh’s startup Center mixes virtual card
technology and traditional payment cards to launch CenterCard, a corporate payment tool that monitors spend
against budget in real time.
Alaska Airlines wants to retire the Virgin America name in 2019, operating as a single
carrier with some of Virgin's signature elements.
Concur EVP of global products Tim MacDonald talks to
BTN about carriers like United going live on TripLink in 2017, Concur’s breaks with
Egencia and Amex GBT, and branded fares. The company sees customers'
growing taste for virtual payments and plans to enable them by mid-2017.
American Will Invest in China Southern (make sure you
include context that Delta invested in China Eastern – and get the date).
American Airlines seeks to invest $200 million for a
2.8 percent stake in China Southern Airlines. It follows Delta’s $450
million investment in China Eastern Airlines in July 2015 as part of an expanded
partnership between the two carriers.
The travel industry notes a rise of Airbnbcommercial operators. In the U.S., Airbnb hosts renting out
more than one entire property generated $1.8 billion in revenue for the
company in 2016, according to a study from CBRE Hotels' Americas Research
titled Hosts with Multiple Units—A Key Driver of Airbnb Growth.
Small meetings technology gets more competitive as Bizly
shifts its focus to enterprise clients. The firm launches a new messaging platform and management app
to streamline bookings, bypass RFPs, and offer tools for tracking spend,
approvals, and venue preferences.
Chicago Department of Aviation officers forcibly remove 69-year old David Dao from a United Airlines flight, physically
dragging him off the plane; mobile phone video footage showed Dow dazed and
bloody from the altercation.
MAY
A proposal to privatize U.S. air traffic control by moving
it from the FAA to a nonprofit corporation was excluded from the Senate's FAA reauthorization bill. The House version includes it,
leaving the issue unresolved as both chambers work toward a final agreement
before the current authorization expires. But both versions would make removing
already-boarded passengers from flights illegal, a response to the highly
publicized removal of David Dao from a United flight.
As the EU's revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) approaches
implementation, stakeholders warn that its strong customer
authentication (SCA) rules could largely disrupt payments. This leads to
urgent lobbying for exemptions, review of technological workarounds, and
concerns that regulators have misunderstood B2B transaction complexities. Not
long after, the EC exempts corporate payments from PSD2's SCA rules.
Lufthansa Group debuts its first global distribution
system (GDS)-bypass connections with U.K.-based TMCs Portman Clarity andClick Travel, using IATA’s NDC APIs to offer direct content access, improve booking capabilities, avoid
GDS fees, and potentially change revenue models and distribution economics in
corporate travel.
Flybe, together with PwC, Travelfusion, HRG, and DXC
Technology, becomes the first airline to fully implement IATA’s NDC across the business travel chain, enabling API-based
delivery of corporate fares into PwC's KDS booking tool and signifying big
steps toward modernizing corporate air distribution.
Emirates cuts service to five U.S. cities due to declining demand from U.S. travel restrictions and security
measures, including the electronics ban and stricter visa policies.
As travelers make security a top priority, concerns surrounding safety
and geopolitical travel restrictions grow rapidly and become a long-term focus
for the corporate travel industry.
Steve Singh, then CEO of Concur and president of SAP
Business Networks and Applications, steps down from his roles amid a management
reshuffle. Singh plans to return to startup ventures and Concur eventually
rebrands as SAP Concur.
30SecondsToFly develops an artificially intelligent corporate travel management
employee called Claire, but it still has a long way to go before it “interacts
with everybody like a human.” Amex GBT acquires the startup in 2020.
Corporate Travel Management gets ready to launch its
own online booking tool, Lightning, in the U.S., joining a small group of TMCs with
homegrown systems, aiming to have a modern, integrated, and mobile-responsive
solution that can compete with dominant platforms like Concur.
Freebird, a startup for mobile flight disruption
monitoring, expands its partnerships with more TMCs. It raised $5 million
for its corporate-focused technology, providing TMCs a solution that
reduces agent calls by automatically tracking itineraries and letting travelers
rebook disrupted flights via mobile.
JUNE
British Airways and Iberia will charge an £8
fee per fare for bookings via indirect channels like global distribution systems. The carriers encourage use of
lower-cost direct booking like their upcoming free web-based portal and
NDC-standard APIs, while exempting certain fare types, codeshares, and some
countries from the fee.
As part of its growth strategy, HRG buys German
company eWings to offer a more flexible, digital, and
customer-focused travel platform for smaller clients.
Daimler’s FiveStar program seeks to drastically cut booking time by
offering travelers a single, optimized package that bundles air, hotel, and car
rentals while automating payment and expense processes.
More German firms are ending contracts with U.S.-based travel service providers
that store employee data in the U.S., due to issues over data privacy following
Trump’s 2017 executive order that limits Privacy Act protections for non-U.S.
citizens. Many companies seek data storage exclusively within Europe to ensure
compliance with EU regulations like GDPR.
JULY
American Airlines sales and distribution strategy VP Cory Garner speaks with BTN about how the carrier is adding
incentives to NDC adoption.
The Supreme Courtgrants the Department of Justice's request to stay the twin
injunctions that have impeded the president's Executive Order 13780 Protecting
the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States since it was set
to take effect on March 16, 2017.
K1 Investment Management purchases a majority stake
in Certify and merges it with its other spend management brands
(ExpenseWatch, Nexonia, and Tallie) to form a group with over 7,500 corporate
clients that competes with Concur, while maintaining each brand’s identity.
AI-powered travel app Mezi establishes its
"for business" product with partnerships including Adelman, Casto Travel and W Travel. It also struck a deal at the time with payment company American Express. In 2018, Mezi cuts ties with its TMC relationships after it is acquired by American Express.
Travel experts say that blockchain technology can enable secure, transparent, and
real-time payment processing, decentralized distribution of tickets and
bookings, and improved tracking through unified digital IDs. Yet widespread
adoption faces skeptics, and its impact remains to be seen.
The hotel industry rapidly increases its lobbying efforts and unifies its agenda through key
associations, gaining greater political influence in Washington to address
challenges like labor costs, competition from Airbnb and OTAs, and
infrastructure.
Major hotel companies like IHG and Wyndham expand their collection brands that bring independent hotels into their
systems with minimal branding changes, in response to travelers’ growing desire
for authentic experiences and to help independent owners gain broader
distribution, loyalty program access, and better financing.
Two studies reveal that regular hotel rate audits can prevent overspending on corporate
hotel programs. While most companies perform standard audits, far fewer conduct
the more effective monthly availability audits.
Hilton and Marriott implement a new 48-hour cancellation policy; the extent to which hotel
franchises will adopt it is unclear.
Companies with EU citizen employees need to ensure that their travel
programs comply with GDPR by May 2018.
AUGUST
Airbnb listings will soon appear alongside
traditional hotels in Concur’s search results for companies that partner with Airbnb. This
would enable travelers to see detailed Airbnb property data and sync bookings
and expenses back into Concur’s platform.
Alaska Airlines SVP of external relations Joseph Sprague updates BTN about Bay Area network growth,
alliance strategy after the carrier’s merger with Virgin America, and why
Alaska isn’t targeting basic economy fares.
HRS introduces its small meetings product Meetago in North America and starts to add South American
markets. HRS’ Suzanne Neufang walked BTN through Meetago’s goals, approach to
RFP volume, and user interface.
Australian meetings technology firm Ivvy enters the North American market, looking to build out inventory
within its global distribution platform for meetings and events.
W Travel is named the first corporate travel
management company to get NDC certification from IATA. W Travel is Sarosh Waghmar’s
precursor to Spotnana.
SEPTEMBER
BCD and CWT develop mobile air bookings as TMCs advance their role in mobile
transactions to include air, hotel, and ground booking capabilities.
Adelman Travel plans to debut MyAdelman, a managed travel solution for small businesses
with a web portal, mobile app, pre-set policies, and reporting.
Marriott embarks on a joint venture with Alibaba Group to tap the growing
Chinese travel market by managing Marriott’s storefront on Alibaba’s Fliggy
platform, linking loyalty programs, accepting Alipay, and leveraging Alibaba’s
digital expertise to attract Chinese travelers domestically and abroad.
Having secured 50 corporate accounts, China Southern Airlines extends its
global routes and prepares to leverage a major share of Beijing’s new airport
capacity in 2019. It deepens ties with American Airlines via a pending investment, all within the framework of its SkyTeam
alliance. Previously, competitor Delta bought a 3.55 percent stake in China Eastern.
Australian conglomerate Flight Centrebuys travel management companies in Mexico, Canada, and
Argentina as it continues to quickly grow its markets.
OCTOBER
Donald Trump issued a third travel ban targeting Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea,
Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen, citing their "inadequate"
counterterrorism measures, with restrictions varying by country.
Concur creates Hipmunk, its first lightweight, integrated travel and
expense solution for small businesses not yet ready for full travel management,
with the goal of eventually scaling these clients to full Concur services.
IHG begins U.S. licensing for Avid, its new midscale brand, with plans for construction
in early 2018 and openings in early 2019.
Certify acquires NuTravel’s corporate online booking tool and its 15 developers,
gaining over 50 TMC partners and 100+ corporate clients to better integrate
booking with its expense platform and bolster its position as a Concur
competitor.
Groupizeintegrates with Concur’s Third-Party Meetings and
Concur Travel Profile 2.0 API for seamless event registration, booking
autofill, travel policy enforcement, and automated booking reminders. Concur
will discontinue its Meetings product on January 1, 2018, urging clients to use
integrated providers like Groupize.
Concur’s Compleat automates CSI GlobalVCard virtual card payments
for hotel bookings and plans to extend this to air and car rentals. Meanwhile,
CSI GlobalVCard works on a mobile app that combines travel booking
with virtual card payments.
U.S. business travelers will soon get to use corporate
cards on fitness smartwatches like Fitbit Ionic and Garmin
Vivoactive 3 for contactless payments, enabled by major card networks and
pending employer approval. Tokenization and biometric security intend to
address corporate safety concerns.
NOVEMBER
Major European airlines like Lufthansa, IAG,
and Air France-KLM are challenging the traditional GDS model by adding surcharges to GDS bookings and
promoting alternative distribution through NDC and private channels.
Southwest Airlines is working to refresh its outdated
Swabiz corporate booking portal in late 2024 after the
completion of its new Amadeus-powered reservation system. Despite the enhanced
features, the airline stays committed to its direct-sales-first strategy,
rejecting change fees, baggage fees, and wider OTA distribution.
Lufthansa Group collaborates with blockchain-based travel platform Winding Tree by
providing tech access and participating in its upcoming cryptocurrency token
sale. Winding Tree, after gaining some minor traction with a startup
called Simard and also Air Canada, shuttered its project in 2024.
The travel industry reviews its own GDPR code of conduct, led by the Travel Technology
Association and involving big players like Amex GBT and BCD,
to clarify roles of data controllers and processors and ensure consistent data
protection across travel ecosystems.
Traxo introduces its Traxo Filter, a tool that
captures off-channel bookings in real time by blind-copying
confirmation emails at the server level to skip the need for traveler
action or direct supplier integrations. It also adds the data to its dashboard
for analysis, tracking, and third-party tool integration.
Longtime BCD Travel executive Bob Brindley joins AI-powered startup TripActions to
lead supply-side relations. He catches up with BTN about his career move, small
and midmarket service, and what to watch in managed travel.
DECEMBER
In an interview with BTN, Delta CEO Ed Bastian covers the airline’s broadening alliance
strategy across the globe and other objectives for 2018.
American Express, Visa, and Mastercard are racing to adopt blockchain for faster, cheaper, and more secure B2B
cross-border payments, which could soon affect the travel payment
ecosystem.
Concur and EY team up to offer real-time
tax and immigration risk assessments during travel bookings, which would help
firms proactively manage growing global compliance issues triggered
even by short business trips.
Amazon rolls out Alexa for Business, bringing its voice-activated AI
assistant into the workplace for tasks like starting meetings and retrieving
business travel details via Concur, allowing users to access custom trip
info with voice commands.
Timeline produced this week by AI and BTN editorial content and engagement manager Gianna Song
_______________________________________________________________________
Elizabeth West is the editorial director of the
BTN Group. She has reported on the business travel and meetings industries for
24 years. Beth was editor-in-chief of Meeting News from 2006 to 2008 and
director of content solutions for ProMedia Travel from 2008 to 2011, when
ProMedia was acquired by Northstar Travel Media and merged with BTN. She became
editor-in-chief of BTN in 2015 and editorial director of the BTN Group in
2019.
_______________________________________________________________________