The Switch live The Business Travel and Future of Work summit was a timely affair, hitting the 1 year mark of the pandemic. In March 2020, it seemed irrelevant to include the “future of work” on a conference agenda, but Wednesday’s virtual event made it clear how important it is to the entire travel industry, and hotels in particular.

Travel managers slip into other parts of their organization, some more willingly than others. There is more interaction with HR and real estate teams as they take stock of post-pandemic work habits.

On the flip side, it’s a wake-up call for hotels and travel management companies who need to meet these new business needs and are equally committed to redefining the future of business travel.

Here are three large food stalls that emerged from the summit.

The emergence of the cultural budget

In the past year, companies have saved billions of dollars by not having their employees travel. At Microsoft alone, the global travel director Eric Bailey said this corresponds to 100 million US dollars per month.

Further savings are imminent in 2021 as the offices are phased out. Where is the money going?

One area should be a culture budget, says Rafael Museri, CEO and co-founder of Selina. He believes remote workers will need more attention in the future to keep team spirit and productivity alive.

Companies reducing the size of their offices will need to reinvest some of those savings in this new budget, which will include meetings and events where employees can continue their offline relationships, he argued during the How hospitality will evolve to meet the future of work.

Speakers at the panel What a decentralized future of work means for travel. Source: Skift.

Is it an antidote to the loneliness and depression many will face in the past year? Is Selina exhausting this emotional deficit, asked moderator Skift President Carolyn Kremlins.

“We look at the percentage of friendships,” Museri said. “The best business strategy is to be the best place to socialize. Selina is a content and programming focused brand that delivers experiences that increase the chance for social experiences. “

Does the measurement of friendship take place in the business world? It has to, replied Museri.

Microsoft’s Bailey later agreed, “I see a lot of value for hotels, they’ll be in this central location and create an atmosphere that helps people be more productive.”

Facebook made a business of “friends”. Why not hospitality?

Travel agents will rebound more strongly

At the event on Wednesday, the leaders of some of the largest agencies shared their views on the future.

Egencia, part of Expedia, reiterated the idea that the crisis was indeed shaking many companies without a managed travel program and decided to go with an agency.

“We had a great year in customer acquisition,” said Ariane Gorin, group president at Expedia Business Services, while rebuilding the trust and tracking growth as the industry recovery panel.

Then there are companies that decide they need larger agencies to consolidate their data in one place or to ensure wider coverage rather than relying on multiple smaller agencies, she told moderator Dennis Schaal, founding editor and chief editor of Skift .

HR consulting company Randstad was one of those customers who embarked on the consolidation path.

Gorin reiterated an earlier point of view made by the CEO of American Express Global Business Travel.

“Last year was a record year for us as we closed over $ 3 billion in new business, including some of the largest tech companies in the world,” said Paul Abbott during the How will TMCs recover and adapt to Business Travel’s New Needs Panel?.

There is tremendous pressure on vaccines and digital health passports to deliver them

Vaccines dominate the headlines, especially regarding new proposals from the European UnionBut one of the leaders in digital health passports has warned that it will take a while before large parts of the world agree to use them.

“When you put yourself in the shoes of a government policymaker, they clearly want to open up, they want travelers,” said Paul Meyer, CEO of Commons Project Foundation, which is behind the CommonPass. “But they have to protect their people and the health of their people. Health ministers are examining prevalence rates and emerging variants. If they can’t trust the data, it will be more difficult to enforce this policy. “

But he told presenter Ned Russell, Skift’s airline reporter, that with Aruba is now fully accepting CommonPassand after leaving a test phase, a significant milestone had been reached.

Participants were asked when they expected to use a digital health pass for travel.

Speak during the Find a path to security and better standards for digital credentialsHe added that he spoke to groups of countries in East Africa as well as the European Union, and delved into individual nations such as Japan and the UK.

These passes are an important first step, said Suzanne Neufang, the new managing director of Global Business Travel Association. A recent survey by the association found that 85 percent of travel buyers feel comfortable traveling again after vaccination.

“We believe this is the way to get the business going again,” she said during the What a decentralized future of work means for the travel panel.

A live poll during the summit found that 45 percent of attendees expect to use a health passport in the third quarter of this year.

Neufang said she is reviewing the association’s forecast this summer to see if there are any changes from the association’s forecast previous study looking to return to pre-pandemic levels by 2025.

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Photo Credit: Suppliers are now playing an important role in helping organizations redefine their travel programs with an emphasis on socializing and networking. Remote year