Dive Brief:

• According to an article in the New York Times, business travelers are starting to act more like leisure travelers—i.e., accustomed to "controlling every step of a trip, from booking a flight or a car to making dinner reservations." As business travel is back in growth mode, purse string guardians are giving in to the "digital empowerment of traveling employees and tentatively embracing the sharing economy."
• Travel managers have dubbed it the "age of traveler centricity."
• The Times story explains that the result may be "intelligent services" delivered through ubiquitous apps and smartphones that will support business travelers "based on their profiles and preferences, potentially making what is typically a grind through traffic, airports and tight itineraries less stressful and more productive."

Dive Insight:

Slowly, there is a shift away from the command-and-control perspectives of the past, Greeley Koch, executive director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, told the Times. Koch explained that the "focus now is more on the traveler and the productivity of each trip, so that travelers can have the greatest return on investment on each trip.”

Despite that emerging trend, the article points out, corporate managers will face new related challenges. For example, liability issues such as using services like Uber, whose cars may not always meet all local licensing and insurance requirements, can arise. The same would hold true for a service such as Airbnb, the online apartment and home rental service.

“This is one of the big battles in the industry around these services, and what insurance or liability questions arise,” Michael McCormick, the executive director of the Global Business Travel Association., said in the Times article. “Who is liable if something goes wrong?”