The “Informed Traveler” initiative provides dynamic trip-related information to agents, travelers and travel managers across channels.
With travel risks and requirements seemingly changing by the minute, real-time information is a must-have for confident decision-making. That’s why, as part of its ongoing commitment to duty of care and traveler confidence,
BCD Travel has introduced the Informed Traveler, a wide-ranging global initiative aimed at helping travelers, travel managers and agents make smart decisions amid a landscape of constantly changing rules, laws and procedures.
With borders opening and airlines ramping up capacity, travelers face new questions and concerns.
- What is my health risk?
- Do I have to self-quarantine?
- What if a border closes unexpectedly?
- What should I pack?
Governments and travel providers have instituted varying regulations and requirements to protect people and contain the spread of COVID-19. But navigating these evolving rules is complex.
With the Informed Traveler, agents, travelers and travel managers gain easy access to real-time information designed to help them navigate the maze, such as destination risk alerts, airline and hotel policies, ground transportation protocols and travel restrictions.
– The sheer volume of COVID-19 information available to consumers is astonishing, says John Snyder, President and CEO at BCD.
– Our content engine pulls information from more than 800 sources, curates and distributes it across all traveler touchpoints including agent point-of-sale, the TripSource mobile app, and the responsive COVID-19 Information Hub on TripSource.com. This gives agents, travel managers and travelers a single source of shared information to better provide seamless support and duty of care.”
The Informed Traveler is based on extensive traveler research and customer interviews that illustrated a change in the way travelers plan for a trip.
– Pre-COVID-19 programs focused primarily on two phases of the trip cycle: the booking process and the actual journey, says Heather Wright, Vice President Product Marketing at BCD.
– Now we have new areas of focus that are just as, if not more, important. The first is the decision phase, where a traveler looks at trip variables such as risk, cost and route and makes a conscious decision whether to book the trip. The second is the preparation phase, where the traveler monitors trip details—which could change between booking and the journey—researches guidelines and requirements and gathers travel tips.”
Informed Traveler is rolling out in phases, with ongoing enhancement based on the changing needs of customers. The first phase, available now, includes agent access to destination content and travel requirements, a COVID-19 Information Hub accessible from TripSource.com, itinerary communications and mobile notifications.
The second phase (launching in August), will allow travelers to enter their itinerary details to generate more personalized search results on the latest COVID-19 related information.
