Travel News

It’s all happening in 2023, and this is what’s in store for hotels around the globe.

The return of Corporate transient travel has increased hotel occupancy to 90% of pre-pandemic levels. As corporate travel stabilises, hotel demand will remain variable in 2023. High inflation globally and corporates curbing travel spending means hotels must adopt flexible pricing models to deal with current short-booking window trends and ongoing market crises.

Veteran car rental analyst Neil Abrams famously said, “We’re in a transformative stage in the car rental industry. A radical new transportation paradigm, where the lines between car ownership, rental, and lease are blurred beyond recognition. In that world, cars will drive themselves and Apple, General Motors, Hertz, and Google will be in the same business.”

A seismic shift toward new and innovative thinking is revolutionising business models across the board and is a good reason for strategists to rethink the future. Tesla, Uber and Airbnb have all been major disruptors and proven that holding onto the tried and tested may prove to be an act of futility in these turbulent times.

Even in this world of instantaneous communication and social media connectivity, business travel is still as necessary as ever. As business travel returns after the shakeup of the pandemic, the main reason travellers are hitting the road is for ‘face-to=face’ client meetings to reinforce relationships , sales meetings and conferences. But how travellers undertake their journeys has changed..

As international travel starts to bounce back, it’s vital to make sure you’re prepared for your journey. Business trips are important, and planning your trip effectively will help you to arrive at your destination relaxed, making you more likely to create a good impression and concentrate on the purpose of your meeting.

As a Travel Management Company (TMC), we understand the importance of ensuring the safety of your business travellers. In today’s global climate, it is essential to be aware of and plan for potential risks to traveller safety. Fortunately, advances in travel technology can provide travel managers with robust solutions to evaluate these risks and provide instant support to those in need.

Each company has its own challenges and nuances, making each travel program unique. Using a Travel Management Company (TMC) can provide significant benefits for businesses with a large number of employees who travel for work. A trusted travel partner can unlock the potential in your travel program, improve the efficiency of your staff and your business as a whole.

When managing a business travel programme, the looming question remains how to cut business travel costs and improve efficiencies.
As businesses balance growth and expenses, some may see cost savings as cost-cutting, but slashing travel budgets and other key spending can be short-sighted. The key is not to reduce spending but to increase travel effectiveness towards meeting the company’s goals.

While the key aspects of creating a well-balanced travel program might not have changed, the expectations of the average business traveller certainly have. Cost and traveller safety will always underpin your approach, but it’s worth noting that there is an increased need for flexible trip options that facilitate a more personal travel experience.

For decades headlines have predicted the fall of the travel agent as the proliferation of online booking options has risen. But never before has the value of a Travel Management Company (TMC) and the expertise of its advisors been clearer.

Remote and hybrid work is now the new normal, resulting in a wide range of alternatives to help us do business remotely instead of making the trip. Equally, every aspect of the travel experience is changing, leaving business travel at an interesting crossroads.

Local and international travel has been somewhat of a rollercoaster ride since Covid travel restrictions were lifted earlier this year. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), total traffic is now at 68.7% of pre-crisis levels. But as travel has increased, so have airfares.

Against strong competition, Rennies BCD Travel has scooped the title of Best Travel Management Company in Africa in the 2022 World Travel Awards.

This award acknowledges excellence across all travel sectors and is the most prestigious, comprehensive, and sought-after award programme in the global travel and tourism industry.

Rennies BCD Travel is pleased to announce that Reece Oakes has been appointed as the CEO and he will assume his position on 01 October 2022.

This comes at a time when the business is experiencing rapid growth as travel returns to pre-pandemic levels. The appointment of a new CEO reflects the confidence that the business has in the rebound of the tourism sector.

Most industry pundits predict that business travel airfares will continue to rise through the rest of this year and even into 2023.

It is forecast that business travel prices are set to increase by almost 50% in 2022, according to a report from the Global Business Travel Association. Next year, fares are set to increase more than 8%, the organisations projected.

Quite obviously, a passport is fundamental to travel, but according to the Henley Passport Index (HPI), not all passports are created equal.
The HPI, compiled by Henley & Partners, is regarded as the authority on passport strength globally. Broadly speaking, the strongest passports are those that permit citizens to enter the most countries easily, without additional entry requirements.

September heralds Tourism Month, which is especially important in 2022 as we look to drive and support local travel and hospitality. These sectors remain key to boosting the economy and job creation, with tourism comprising 4.7% of the South African workforce pre-Covid and contributing 3,7% to South Africa’s GDP – more than agriculture, utilities, and construction.

Following on from pandemic-imposed travel hiatus, there is no doubt that people are making a point of travelling as often as they can afford. This is not mere conjecture: Consumer Price Inflation data published by Statistics South Africa in June indicates that passenger transport by air increased by a massive 49.5%.

With overseas visitor numbers to the United Kingdom projected to reach a massive 21 million people in 2022, it is heartening to see the travel sector rebounding strongly.

Imagine walking into your hotel room in a distant city before you’ve actually boarded your flight to take you there! It seems crazy, but it’s not. Through the application of online 3D technology across multiple platforms, our interaction in virtual spaces will connect us across physical boundaries and create a level of connectedness we can’t fully imagine.

Amid record cancellations and waiting times, Heathrow Airport’s CEO recently stated that it will take some time for things in the travel industry to return to order. He predicts the travel chaos could last until the end of 2023.

With flight cancellations and delays being the new normal, your luggage is more at risk of being mismanaged than ever before. In fact, the American Department of Transportation recently released an alarming statistic in April

If you’re weighing up the benefits and drawbacks of using an Online Booking Tool (OBT) for your business travel arrangements, we can make it simple for you. Whether you’re a travel manager or a traveller, the benefits of doing it this way are many.

Europe remains an extremely popular destination for many South Africans, with Paris, London, Rome, Venice, and Prague featuring amongst the top five cities visited. As a case in point: in 2019, South Africa was rated within the top 15 countries whose citizens had applied for the most short-stay visa applications.

When your workers travel for business, their safety is paramount. Before they consider heading off on their trips, you and your travellers must be mindful of the risks.

For peacefulness and welfare of all involved and to uphold your duty of care policy, it helps to prioritise your risks in line with intensity and occurrence.

When your workers travel for business, their safety is paramount. Before they consider heading off on their trips, you and your travellers must be mindful of the risks.

For peacefulness and welfare of all involved and to uphold your duty of care policy, it helps to prioritise your risks in line with intensity and occurrence.

When your workers travel for business, their safety is paramount. Before they consider heading off on their trips, you and your travellers must be mindful of the risks.

For peacefulness and welfare of all involved and to uphold your duty of care policy, it helps to prioritise your risks in line with intensity and occurrence.

When you travel for business your employer generally expects a lot from you . Hassle-free travel leads to happy travellers. Making the most of your onboard experience will help you arrive at your destination refreshed and ready to work. Here are some tips to maximise your comfort onboard.

With the outbreak of COVID, digital Health Passes (sometimes called a “vaccine passport”) were developed to aid safe cross-border travel by verifying a person’s negative coronavirus test result and if they are fully vaccinated.

While various options are being developed, they all do about the same thing – digitally store vaccination records.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) lifted the requirement to wear masks in airports and onboard planes.

It is a well-known fact that crossing time zones confuses the human body’s internal clock. Flying east is worse for travellers as they “lose” time

In recent years, employees have been given greater freedom over the location of their daily work, and many have made good use of this liberty.

When we consider the driving forces overseeing the strategy, execution and control of travel policies today, environmental sustainability is the primary and most prominent influence on most peoples’ lips.

In the past 20 months, a good share of day-to-day work communication moved online with little to no loss in employee productivity and company bottom lines. While business travel came almost to a complete halt, many businesses recorded high profits. Understandably, executives started wondering whether past travel volumes were needed.

In a fast expanding digital age, many are questioning the future of corporate travel.

Based on research by the London School of Economics, the more a group of people work virtually, the less effective it will be. One of the immediate objectives of business travel is to communicate knowledge and views.

The business travel industry finally seems to recognise the advantages of adopting financial technologies (fintech). The rewards of embracing fintech for travel as a whole is enormous: One estimate proposes that the adoption of fintech by all channels could grow total consumer spending on travel by nearly $80 billion annually. It resonates most with business travel because of its prospect to save time and money.

In addition to protecting your health when you travel, also remember to protect your devices. In recent years, cybercriminals and hackers have targeted several leading travel brands, including airlines, hotel companies, IT companies, travel companies, airports and fuel suppliers.

As companies continue to manage hybrid workforces, they must extend their responsibility of care outside business travellers to include all employees. The tendency of workers becoming digital nomads, working remotely and frequently changing their location further reinforces the need for risk management beyond business travel.

The number of remote, screen-based interchanges has grown incrementally since the onset of the pandemic. Technology has perpetually altered the way we work. But online isn’t the most suitable solution for all meeting types. Video calls perform well for certain meeting types, but occasionally it’s more effective to conduct business in person.

The International Air Transport Association is asking countries to re-assess the travel restrictions put in place to prevent the transmission of the Coronavirus across borders. With the virus now prevalent in most countries, testing rules have made travel safer around the world, and most travel restrictions have begun to ease.

The travel industry is well known for combining words to express a new trend or experience – think of bleisure, glamping, babymoons, etc. Covid-19 saw new words like ‘social distancing’, ‘self-quarantine’, ‘super-spreader’ and ‘contact tracing’ added to the dictionary.

2021 ended with the Omicron-induced travel bans reducing international travel to South Africa just when the country was hoping for a bumper holiday season to boost the ailing tourism sector.

Just as the travel industry was starting to recover from the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, the announcement of a new Covid variant under investigation in South Africa has dealt a massive blow to the country.

It seems today that as one country re-opens for travel, another closes or changes its entry rules. Even domestically, planning a basic trip has become more complicated. The endless changes are daunting for even the most experienced travellers.

As the world gets its balance back and employees start returning to work, one thing is clear – employees have missed human contact and personal interaction. We surveyed some of our travellers earlier this year, and 85% of clients expect their companies to retain a hybrid working model.

The race to innovate and digitise travel has always been competitive. While the events of 2020 put the entire value chain under pressure, the travel industry has always been resilient and used the challenge to accelerate innovation in digitisation, develop new technologies and enhance business models to get business back on track. Here are the three biggest drivers of change:

Travel and visas go hand in hand. And if truth be told, obtaining a visa to travel is a tricky experience at the best of times. Add to this the fact that many business trips are affected by constantly changing travel restrictions, and the main challenge for travellers today is how to get a visa in time. Covid-19 complications Covid

Like travel, face-to-face meetings and events were among the greatest casualties of the pandemic. But as travel restrictions start to relax across the globe, meetings and events are starting to regain traction. Despite this, travel rules are regularly changing, so there is a risk that delegates may not be able to travel at the time of the event. As a result,

Next to air travel, accommodation usually makes up the bulk of the business travel budget. But what has changed post-COVID? And what are the best practices for optimising your business hotel program now that it’s become more dynamic? Here we discuss what we feel is the best path for sourcing and driving intelligent buying decisions. Sourcing Strategy It is doubtful

In the past year, the global pandemic and resultant economic crisis have changed nearly every industry. In terms of the travel industry, COVID-19 has devastated the airline sector and forever changed consumer behaviour. Airlines will be required to rebuild their business models in order to survive, and whilst they grapple with how to re-build, there are three key areas predicted

Since the dawn of the Internet made it easy for travellers to book their own travel, “the end of travel agents” has been predicted. But that hasn’t happened. In fact, 43% of travellers still choose to use a Travel Management Company (TMC) when booking flights.* This may seem old-fashioned, but while technology helps make routine travel tasks easier – which

In South Africa, 09 August holds great significance for our nation as we celebrate women’s achievements on this day. It is also a day to remind us of gender equality. The tourism sector* has been a female-dominated environment for many years, with Travel Management Companies leading the way. For example, at Rennies BCD Travel, over 80% of our workforce is

There is no denying how the global environment improved when the world went into lockdown in 2020, which is why Covid-19 has taken sustainable business travel practices from being an important consideration to an essential one. Interestingly, aviation’s contribution to climate change – 3.5% of warming, or 2.5% of CO2 emissions – is less than one would think. Be that

The key objective of the EU Digital COVID Certificate is to facilitate free movement inside the European Union by allowing those who hold one to be exempt from quarantine or testing requirements when crossing a border into a participating country. The EU Digital Covid Certificate officially launched on 01 July 2021 and will remain valid until Jun 2022. The certificate

Nothing in the history of the world has fast-tracked the adoption of digital solutions like the COVID-19 crisis has. It changed human movement patterns, forced industries to re-evaluate their efficacy, challenged traditional ways of life and created an opportunity for previously reluctant sectors to embrace change and evolve. For years travel technology has been evolving to make travel more seamless

The COVID pandemic has resulted in a swathe of strict safety measures being implemented in airports across the globe, most of which are unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. Travellers have entirely embraced the need for social distancing measures, wearing masks, temperature checks, and COVID testing as a pre-requisite to a safe (not to mention healthy) journey. But if

Duty of care is a simple concept. Employers must help keep their travellers safe and healthy whether in the office or on the road. In the wake of Covid-19, having a duty of care policy is no longer an option but a necessity. It’s worrying, then, that a GBTA survey found that 46% of UK and USA business travellers work

Navigating travel has always had its challenges, but since Covid, a new era of travel has been defined. With vaccinations proceeding at breakneck speeds, travel rules around the world are changing equally fast. With borders opening and airlines ramping up capacity, travellers face new questions and concerns. What is my health risk? Do I have to self-quarantine? What if a

With travel risks and requirements changing by the minute, real-time information is a must-have for confident decision-making. Pre-COVID-19 programs focused primarily on two phases of the trip cycle: the booking process and the actual journey. Now there are new areas of focus that are just as, if not more, important. The first is the decision phase, where a traveller looks

Tourism accounts for 9% of South Africa’s GDP and contributes over R2 trillion to the African continent’s economy. As one of the most mature digital commerce sectors, the Travel and Tourism industry is at the sharp edge of global technology and economic shifts. The fact that travel ground to a halt globally because of COVID-19 has irrevocably highlighted this. In

The COVID-19 pandemic has refocussed the spotlight on sustainable business practices. Choosing a carbon-neutral partner is expected to become an essential consideration in supply chains to help companies reach their sustainability goals in the coming decades. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), aviation contributes about 2-3% of the world’s global human-induced carbon emissions. When it comes to travel,

For years travel management teams have applied the same formula for driving travel savings. One thing is for sure, doing more of the same won’t deliver the supplier savings you hope for. A recent study conducted with travel managers across different industries established that 84% of companies currently allow only essential travel. Historically supplier negotiations used a  volume-based contract model,

You would think that in the era of the internet, wi-fi and mobile phones, staying in touch is easier than it’s ever been. The reality is that communicating with travellers in other countries still has its challenges. Add to this the unpredictable environment post-COVID-19 and travellers need more responsive support than ever before. A recent BCD survey* asked what type

As travel restarts post-Covid, Travel Managers are better positioned to assess what will work best for them in the future, considering the lessons learned from the pandemic.  Before COVID-19, many business travellers booked their journeys outside the company’s travel policy program. In the future Program Managers will need to ensure that employees align more closely with their companies preferred channels to

Boarding the plane is often the last of many steps in the business traveller’s journey. Before travellers get to this point, ensuring their safety has become a complex process. Even before COVID-19, Duty of Care was high on the priority list for most businesses. Add to that the challenge of navigating the pandemic’s constantly changing travel restrictions and it is

A year after the COVID-19 pandemic engulfed the world, the travel industry is slowly starting to regain momentum. While tourism to South Africa has dropped dramatically, domestic travel has reached up to 25% of pre-Covid level travel volumes – almost double that of regional and international air travel volumes, according to South African Tourism’s Road to Recovery report published in

Our recent Linkedin survey revealed that over 50% of travellers currently prefer to attend business meetings via a video conference rather than in-persons, and this view is supported by our global survey. Here’s what we know now, courtesy of BCD Meetings & Events. The return of face-to face meetings ‘Studies show that face-to-face conversation is an important aspect of a

COVID-19 has flipped airline contracting models on their head. In the new travel landscape volume-based models no longer exist simply because travel has been forced to a grinding halt. Add to this the fact that fares are expected to increase because fleet capacity is reduced and sustainability depends on inevitable alliances, it stands to reason that airlines must find creative new

If you are planning to travel internationally, you will have to provide a certificate confirming that you have tested negative for COVID-19 and the test cannot be taken more than 72 hours before arrival at your destination. Your health comes first and that is why Rennies BCD Travel is making the experience easier for you. We have expanded our home

Business travel programs have historically focused on controlling costs. But in the chaos, the Covid-19 virus highlighted the importance of protecting the workforce. This has resulted in a major shift to duty of care and traveller wellbeing. How does this change your preferred supplier agreements? Based on a recent BCD Travel survey, the majority of Travel Managers are re-negotiating existing