The future of the TMC
This is a preview of the full report The Future of the TMC.
By: Norm Rose
The business travel market has seen a significant rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic, with business travel spending for many corporations recovering to pre-pandemic levels at a total volume of $1.48 trillion expected for 2024, according to the Global Business Travel Association. In today’s competitive market for business travel services, the traditional travel management company (TMC) model (referring to travel agencies that focus on the managed corporate travel segment) is being challenged.?
Changes in airline distribution have prompted a reevaluation of the tech stack needed by TMCs, as new market entrants push the industry towards different models while more traditional TMCs refocus their efforts on automating online and offline processes. The introduction of AI is having a ripple effect, bringing new levels of efficiency to the travel booking and support processes. Labor shortages continue to impact offline call center performance, while new agent tools seek to alter the traditional online versus offline distinctions.??
Traditional vs. New Entrant TMCs?
There is a lot of rhetoric surrounding “next generation” versus “legacy” TMCs. For this report, we use the term “traditional” instead of “legacy.” A traditional TMC simply means a TMC that has been servicing clients for multiple decades, while new entrants have emerged within the last 10 years. The term legacy implies old and is a misnomer, since the large mega-TMCs have invested millions in updating their technology architecture to meet the new evolving distribution environment. The three large mega-TMCs are American Express GBT, BCD Travel and CWT.?
Please note as of this writing American Express GBT is attempting to acquire CWT. There is resistance from the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, which is concerned with promoting competitive markets and address unfair behavior. If successful, the combination of American Express GBT and CWT would further limit choices for multinational corporations requiring global coverage. There are also regional TMCs that are challenging the megas by launching more global services. These include FCM (a division of Flight Centre) and CTM. Other regional players with strength in specific markets include Omega, Christopherson, Andavo Travel, Lufthansa City Centre and ATPI.??
Rather than “next generation” TMCs, we use “new entrants” to classify those TMCs coming on the scene within the last 10 years. These include Navan, Travelperk and Spotnana. The fact that many of these TMCs have built their tech stack around the IATA New Distribution Capability (NDC) reflects an embracing of an Application Programming Interface (API) architecture. Click here for Phocuswright’s historical reports on NDC. This infrastructure change is often referred to as the API economy, wherein an organization's digital services and assets are exposed through APIs in a controlled way.???
Embracing a new tech stack represents a shift in the way technology is deployed, bringing a new level of independence from the traditional GDS infrastructure. The new entrants’ tech stack design enables the handling of non-GDS information (e.g., NDC API, hotel APIs) across their platform facilitating the sharing of information between online and offline operations. This change has not gone unnoticed by the large mega-TMCs, as each has invested heavily in redesigning their tech stacks and promoting their owned online booking tools (OBTs).
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