Managing business travellers' use of mobile travel applications

Managing business travellers' use of mobile travel applications

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  University of Pretoria Managingbusiness travellers’ use of mobile travel applications Anneli Douglas Berendien Lubbe Adrene van der Merwe
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  Overview • Introduction • Literature •Business travel and mobile applications • The use of mobile applications during the business travel life cycle • Methodology • Results • Discussion and conclusion
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  INTRODUCTION • Corporate travelis receiving increased attention from management • “Corporate Travel Management (CTM) is responsible for the administration of the enterprises' strategic approach to travel, including the travel policy, day-to-day operation of the corporate travel programme, traveller safety and security, credit-card management, travel and expense reporting and data management”. • Mobile travel applications play a role in corporate travel management by supporting business travellers at any stage of the travel cycle (Morosan, 2014). • ¾ business travellers possess a smartphone. Will use +/- 2 travel applications on a trip. • Mobile applications have been researched in the context of leisure travel (Morosan, 2014; Posland, 2001; Anuar, et.al. 2014) • Little is known about the use of mobile applications by business travellers. • Industry publications provide valuable knowledge (yet are perceived as somewhat biased): – airlines’use of loyalty programme mobile applications to differentiate themselves in the market (Amadeus, 2011), – travel managers’ attempts to incorporate mobile travel applications into the travel programme (Airplus, 2012), – the impact of mobile applications on travel management companies (Boucher, 2013:15; CWT Travel Management Institute, 2013) – and the readiness of travel suppliers to use mobile travel applications to their advantage (Cowen, 2008).
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  • From anacademic perspective, corporate travel management, and more specifically the use of mobile applications in business travel has received little attention among social scientists interested in travel and tourism management (Gustafson, 2012). • Budd and Vorley (2013) investigated how mobile applications will be affecting the airline industry and their relationship with international business travellers. • Thus, there is a need to understand why and how business travellers use mobile applications. • Overall aim: to investigate business travellers’ use of mobile travel applications pre-, during and after their business trip. • Objectives: • To compare the frequency with which business travellers use an application with the importance that they attach to said application at each travel stage, • To ascertain whether differences exist in terms of the demographic profile of business travellers and their use (as it relates to frequency of use and importance attached) of applications in the various travel stages (Why? Management of an organisation must understand these demographical differences since it could affect traveller behaviour and in turn have an impact on the travel management programme).
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  Business travel andmobile applications • Business travel takes time away from the business traveller during which he/she could have been productive (Gustafson, 2012b). • Mobile applications allow business travellers to use their time to keep up with business requirements. • Average business traveller: 3 mobile devices with him/her during travel; most common are smartphones. • Travellers would typically need mobile applications for the following purposes: – Travel essentials: Info relating to various parts of the trip, from fare searches to exchange rate information, also assisting with the booking process; – Sightseeing: Info on tourist attractions and access to street maps; – Electronic services: Allows service providers to push info to the user based on his/her preferences; – Emergency and medical services: Health and safety info – Trip planning: Design travel packages according to the travellers’ preferences and needs. • Use of mobile applications could differ according to demographic profile (in terms of age, gender and level of education).
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  The use ofmobile applications during the business travel life cycle
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  METHODOLOGY • Overall aim:to investigate business travellers’ use of mobile travel applications pre, during and after their business trip by – comparing the frequency with which they use an application with the importance that they attach to said application at each travel stage, – as well as ascertaining whether differences exist in terms of the demographic profile of business travellers and their use (as it relates to frequency of use and importance attached) of applications in the various travel stages. • Target population: South African business travellers that have booked their travel with a large travel management company between 1 August 2013 to July 2014. • Non-probability convenience sampling was used to distribute the survey via an email link. • Mann-Whitney U-test and Kruskal-Wallis test are utilised to test the differences between the demographic profile of the business traveller (in terms of age, gender and education level) and their use of mobile applications (in terms of frequency of use and importance of application).
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  • The surveywas distributed to 13098 business travellers, with 937 undelivered due to unknown reasons; therefore 12965 emails were successfully delivered. Two hundred and thirty two (232) responses received- a response rate of 1.7%. Every attempt was made to increase this response rate. Demographic profile Percentage Gender (n=221) Male 68.3 Female 31.7 Age (n=219) Generation Y (19-38 years old) 30.6 39-48 years old 33.3 49-58 years old 27.9 59 years old + 8.2 Level of education (n=222) Grade 10 or Equivalent 0.5 Grade 12 (Matric) or Equivalent 10.8 Post Matric Certificate/Diploma 25.7 Graduate 19.8 Post Graduate 43.2 Table 1. Demographic profile of respondents
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  RESULTS Very Important Important Not Important Futile The importance of mobile travel application duringthe travel life cycle Searching (n=197) 32.5 46.2 18.3 3 Booking (n=197) 39.1 45.2 13.2 2.5 Travelling (n=199) 40.7 48.2 9 2 Post Travel (n=198) 10.6 31.3 49 9.1 • Mobile travel applications are most important while on the business trip. Table 2. Importance of mobile travel applications in the travel life cycle
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  ACTIVITY MOST IMPORTANT FUNCTIONS MOSTFREQUENTLY USED FUNCTIONS PRE-TRAVEL Planning 1. Travel requirements (e.g. visa, vaccinations etc) (n=45) 1. Destination applications (e.g. weather-, exchange rate applications, general destination information) (60%) 2. Door-to-door planning (Applications supporting address-to- address travel using various modes of transport opposed to point-to-point travel where only hubs(like airports and train stations) are considered). (n=37) 2. Travel approval (Approval of travel requests by relevant person within the company) (59%) Pre-travel booking 1. Make air bookings (n=75) 1. Make air bookings (51%) 2. Preferencing (The ability to select preferences (e.g. preferred mode of transport or preferred hotel group) (n=38) 2. Loyalty programme manager (view points/status) (47%) Itinerary consolidation 1. Flight details (e.g. boarding gate changes) (n=95; 59%) 2. Consolidated itinerary information/Automated itinerary sync (where your travel schedule is synced with your business diary) (n=76; 41%) • Next, mobile travel application functions that respondents indicated to be the most important and most frequently used are listed. In many cases, if a function was indicated to be the top two most important, it also featured in the top two most frequently used list for that activity.
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  DURING TRAVEL During travel cancellation/modification 1.Make air bookings (n=67) 1. Alerts on delays/cancellations (37%) 2. Alerts on delays/cancellations (n=55) 2. Search for alternative flights (29%) Continuous support 1. Flight details (e.g. boarding gate changes) (n=109; 52%) 2. Flight status notification (n=28) 2. Destination applications (e.g. weather-, health-, exchange rate applications) (50%) Check-in/Check out 1. Advanced check-in (flight/hotel) (n=114; 60%) 2. Fast check-in/check-out (n=59; 59%) Transportation/Hotel comfort 1. Seat choice (n=106; 69%) 2. Lounge access (n=48; 48%) Extra travel information 1. Local restaurants (n=122;39%) 2. Advice on discount possibilities (n=35) 2. Restaurant reviews (28%) Work related supporting applications 1. Mobile e-mail (n=85; 75%) 2. Integrated expense management (Where you can submit and/or approve expenses via your mobile phone) (n=53) 2. Mobile instant messaging (E.g. Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger) (72%)
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  POST TRAVEL Reviews andpersonal experience 1. Preferencing (The ability to select preferences (e.g. preferred mode of transport or preferred hotel group) (n=64) 1. Loyalty programme manager (view points/status) (35%) 2. Loyalty programme manager (view points/status) (n=43) 2. Preferencing (The ability to select preferences (e.g. preferred mode of transport or preferred hotel group) (28%) Expenses 1. Picture upload of expenses (n=76) 1. Expense approval (35%) 1. Expense approval (n=76) 2. Upload of invoices (30%)
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  • Next, thedemographic profile of business travellers was used to ascertain whether differences exist in terms of the frequency with which they use mobile travel application functions and the level of importance that they attach to mobile travel application functions. Function Z Kruskal Wallis Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) Gender and frequency of use Mobile boarding pass -2.173 .030 Events notification and ticket purchase -1.977 .048 Gender and importance Upload of invoices -2.197 .028 Age and frequency of use Air bookings 8.778 .032 Alerts on delays and cancellations 7.866 .049 Age and importance Instant messaging 13.124 .004 Picture upload of expenses 7.960 .047 Education levels and frequency of use Travel requirements 8.300 .040 Air booking 13.466 .004 Flight details 11.181 .011 Advanced check-in 9.591 .022 Mobile boarding pass 9.404 .024 Local restaurant 10.765 .013 Advice on discount possibilities 9.011 .029 Mobile email 11.444 .010
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  The table showsthat:  Female business travelers use the applications more frequently and also attach greater importance to them than their male counterparts.  Older business travellers use the applications more frequently and also attach a greater importance to them than their younger counterparts.  Higher qualified business travellers tend to use the travel requirement, air booking and mobile email application functions more frequently than lower qualified business travellers, but at the same time, lower qualified business travellers use the flight detail, advanced check-in, mobile boarding pass, local restaurant and advice on discount possibilities more frequently than their higher qualified colleagues.
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  DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION •Despite the continued development and investment in mobile travel applications and the continued academic interest in the use of these applications in a leisure travel context, there is no academic research that examines the functionality and user assessment of mobile travel applications from the viewpoint of the business traveller. • Findings suggest that mobile travel applications are most important while on the business trip, and more important in the booking phase than in the searching phase, indicating that mobiles are increasingly being used as a distribution channel, and not merely an information channel [Contradicts a previous research study which found that the key features and functions that travellers look for in their smartphones are nearby availability and planning tools with less concern in transactional capabilities (MCDPartners, 2014)]
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  • Three waysin which mobile technologies can be applied (Senn, 2000): transaction management (which involves the selection, purchase, and delivery of a product or service), digital content delivery (e.g. real-time weather forecasts, football scores, stock market prices, or flight arrival times), and telemetry or geo-location (using satellite technology to locate individuals and provide navigation services). Our results show that transaction management and digital content delivery were seen as important and were frequently used by business travellers, with telemetry or geo-location not featuring strongly. • Seven key features of mobile airline applications to be of most value to business travellers. They are: flight search, flight booking, manage booking, mobile check-in, mobile boarding pass, flight status, and a link to the frequent flyer programme. In our research these services also featured strongly as either being part of the top two most important or most frequently used functions. For example, making air bookings was the most important function, and loyalty programme manager the most frequently used function in the pre-travel booking phase. Mobile check-in was mentioned as being the most important and most frequently used function in the check-in/check out during travel phase.
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  • The topten most important applications for hotel chains are: contact details, booking and reservation functions, directions to the hotel, maps, photos, hotel search, transportation information, check-in/out information, facilities information and hotel overview. Other research studies identified the common presented features and functions on the hotel specific mobile applications to be: room reservations, property searches, realtime feedback via guest surveys, area information, loyalty account access, restaurant and spa reservations and property maps (Adukaite, Reimann, Marchiori & Cantoni, 2013; eMarketer, 2013; Wang et al., 2015). This research study indicated that the ability to make accommodation bookings, to check-in via mobile application and to manage loyalty programmes were regarded as important or were frequently used by business travellers. • Limitations: findings cannot be generalised. • This study aids companies to develop a mobile strategy that would meet the needs of their travellers by providing them with an infinite amount of information (Travelport. 2012b) customisable to their business itineraries (Travelport. 2012a).
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  Thank you