Fox World Travel First to Adopt 'Traxo for TMCs'

Fox World Travel has become the first travel management company to adopt travel data aggregator Traxo's tool for capturing off-channel booking data, the companies announced Wednesday. Fox has made Traxo's service available to clients, effective immediately. 

The move will allow Fox clients access to travel spending data for itineraries booked outside the TMC, according to the companies. Traxo interfaces with corporate mail servers to identify email travel confirmations, then collates included data without requiring the traveler to forward the email. 

Traxo founder and CEO Andres Fabris told BTN that other TMCs had used Traxo's email parsing engine in the past to draw itinerary details from emails forwarded by travelers. "Functionally that works great if [the email] arrives," he said. "The issue is around adoption. Our numbers show less than 20 percent will take the extra step."

Fox is the first TMC to use Traxo's new "Traxo for TMCs" offering, and according to Fabris, the technology company has several more agreements in the pipeline, including a large TMC.  

"The cost of having a data gap is unacceptably high. Companies can't afford not to know where their travelers are," said Fabris about the Covid-era business travel environment. As a result, he said, more TMCs are acknowledging that off-channel bookings are inevitable, and with heightened duty-of-care demands from clients, they are looking for solutions. "TMCs like the filter," he added. "They like it better because it takes a measurement of activity without implying that booking off channel is OK." 

Corporates have hesitated in the past to engage off-channel data capture for the same reasons: Implementing an alternative process that included any traveler involvement could give an impression that booking off channel is acceptable. With capture happening behind the scenes in the Traxo solution, Fabris said process should no longer be a stumbling block.

"Companies can use this tool to police off-channel bookings or they can choose to open up the program. Traxo is agnostic about that. What we do know is that you shouldn't have data gaps," he said.

Traxo for TMCs will come in two configurations. One is a referral model, which is the model adopted by Fox World Travel. In that program, the corporate engages with Traxo to install the tool. When that is done, Traxo "instantly" makes available to the TMC "via online reporting tools and API integration" the off-channel booking data it captures. The TMC then can consolidate that data and support the traveler with its own services according to Traxo. A reseller model also will be available, wherein the entire relationship is managed through the TMC.

Either way, said Fabris, gaining access to off-channel bookings opens up the horizon for TMCs and for corporates looking for more control over their programs. 

"A lot of nice benefits come from having the data," said Fabris. "Mobility, data lakes and analytics, traveler profiles… that's in addition to the duty-of-care piece. Then you can start to enable potential shifts in the business model, including whether to provide service and support for off-channel bookings. I think that's where the industry is going." 

Fox World Travel is now in the position to make those decisions. The Oshkosh, Wis.-based agency claims $520 million in 2019 sales and last year introduced Cognition, a data platform for clients into which data from Traxo will be integrated.

"Complete visibility into every traveler's business trip itinerary data is a luxury many travel managers have long desired,” Fox World Travel CEO Chip Juedes said in a statement. "Now, in a more safety-conscious and risk-sensitive environment, our clients will have the insight and thus the ability to support all their travelers through enhanced duty-of-care initiatives. Full visibility is not simply a luxury as it once was; it's an essential need in today's business travel landscape."

Traxo in late 2019 secured an undisclosed equity investment from the Airlines Reporting Corp.; the aggregator's board members include ARC COO and EVP Lauri Reishus and former Sabre chairman and CEO Sam Gilliland.