With Ian Race, Senior Vice-President, Sales & Account Management
There’s one certainty in the world of corporate travel: constant change. Just few years ago, for example, our on-line bookings were numbered in single digit percentages. And today? Close to 40 per cent of our transactions are being managed through an online booking tool.
What certainly never changes is that our clients are looking for unique ways to save money – and that’s where we believe the partnership really comes into its own.
For example, we’ve created a tool called Vision INNfinity for our clients who regularly send crews into northern Alberta. In partnership, we created a unique solution that will allow our clients to book their “rotational” crews on their scheduled air, connecting to charter flights into the vicinity of the various camps, bus transfers from the airport to their accommodations and also the specific camp accommodations. I can easily see this expanding to any organization that needs crew rotational travel not just in the oil patch, but mining, geological, and similar crew rotational operations as well.
We’ve also introduced Vision’s Global Service Solution. A worldwide, single access number so that our clients can book transactions from anywhere in the world, 24/7, 365 days a year.
I should also mention the Vision Assure program – this has been a huge success with our clients and I cannot underestimate the value of it. Vision Assure combines the security of a mobile app with travel alert notification and tracker maps: all part of our duty of care and traveller location/communication service to you.
It’s clear our efforts to make corporate travel as cost effective and smooth as possible are paying off. We were very proud to have added close to $60 million in NEW business travel last year and as of the end of our fiscal year on June 30 this year, we have added an additional $30+ million in new, annualized business.
It appears we’re doing a pretty good job in addressing needs – and coming up with customer-based solutions. We’re here to customize a solution that works for you.