Time To Travel
It’s time to travel. As Canada and other countries start to ease travel restrictions, business travellers are starting to hit the road again. It is a new world out there with new issues and uncertainty about travel safety. In other words, the travel experience is different. Travellers and employers need confidence and trust in a consistent, safe travel experience. Here’s what you need, and need to know, now that it’s time to travel again:
Latest Travel Information
There are many travel questions in a post-COVID pandemic world. Are there destination travel restrictions? What enhanced health and safety measures are in place? Toronto Pearson’s Healthy Airport commitment and health measures include mandatory masks, limited access to airport facilities, and continued enhanced cleaning. Virtually every airline has new and enhanced cleaning protocols as do car rentals and hotels. Air Canada’s Clean Care Program covers check-in, boarding, and on-board. In addition, they provide disposable Customer Care Kits (mask, gloves, bottled water, hand sanitizer, wipes, headset, and snack).
Enhanced Duty of Care
The well-being and safety of your travellers can only be supported with the right tools and data. Local and current information is invaluable to determine where it is safe to travel. After that, where is it a higher risk?; the health status of customer sites and offices; and more. And with duty of care and risk assessment tools, you gain reliable and actionable alerts. Moreover, travellers and employees will know what to expect when travelling. A managed travel program provides support and lets you know where your travellers are going. Duty of care and risk assessment is more important now than ever before.
Responsive Customer Service
With an ever-changing travel landscape, expect flight cancellations and last-minute re-bookings to be more commonplace. Airlines will add flights, delete flights and adjust their schedules to manage fluctuating demand. Your employees will expect and appreciate priority service 24/7/365 for changes to flights, hotels, and car rentals.
Preferred booking channel
Now more than ever, your employees need to use your preferred booking channel for all bookings. In the past, some bookings outside of preferred channels/policy/programs were tolerated. Now there is just too much at stake. Centralized bookings allow you to quickly and easily identify and alert affected employees, regardless of the circumstances. You need full control of your travel program to maximize service and savings. Above all, you will know where your travelers are, and you’ll be providing the best support possible.
Updated Travel Policy
Many corporations adopted a quick COVID-19 travel policy back in 2020 which addressed “is it safe to travel?”; “who can travel? and “when?”. This travel policy needs an update and will need to change again depending on how the COVID-19 evolves. Working with management and other key stakeholders will be vital for quick policy updates, changes, and approvals. A fluid process will enable you to move forward. Above all, travel policy needs to stay current to maintain control and reduce uncertainty for travellers.
As a travel management company, we focus on the entire end-to-end travel experience. We are uniquely positioned to cut through the new greater complexity of a COVID world. Moreover, we are ready to build the trust and confidence that is needed to get safely moving again. It’s time to travel with well-being and safety first. For more information on how Plus Travel Group can help you build traveler confidence and a new travel program, contact us.