ENTER2017 eTourism Conference presentation

1. University of Pretoria
Managing business travellers’ use of mobile travel
applications
Anneli Douglas
Berendien Lubbe
Adrene van der Merwe

2. Overview
• Introduction
• Literature
• Business travel and mobile applications
• The use of mobile applications during the business travel life
cycle
• Methodology
• Results
• Discussion and conclusion

3. INTRODUCTION
• Corporate travel is receiving increased attention from management
• “Corporate Travel Management (CTM) is responsible for the administration of
the enterprises' strategic approach to travel, including the travel policy, day-to-day
operation of the corporate travel programme, traveller safety and security,
credit-card management, travel and expense reporting and data management”.
• Mobile travel applications play a role in corporate travel management by supporting business
travellers at any stage of the travel cycle (Morosan, 2014).
• ¾ business travellers possess a smartphone. Will use +/- 2 travel applications on a trip.
• Mobile applications have been researched in the context of leisure travel (Morosan, 2014;
Posland, 2001; Anuar, et.al. 2014)
• Little is known about the use of mobile applications by business travellers.
• Industry publications provide valuable knowledge (yet are perceived as somewhat biased):
– airlines’use of loyalty programme mobile applications to differentiate themselves in the market (Amadeus, 2011),
– travel managers’ attempts to incorporate mobile travel applications into the travel programme (Airplus, 2012),
– the impact of mobile applications on travel management companies (Boucher, 2013:15; CWT Travel Management
Institute, 2013)
– and the readiness of travel suppliers to use mobile travel applications to their advantage (Cowen, 2008).

4. • From an academic perspective, corporate travel management, and more
specifically the use of mobile applications in business travel has received little
attention among social scientists interested in travel and tourism management
(Gustafson, 2012).
• Budd and Vorley (2013) investigated how mobile applications will be affecting the
airline industry and their relationship with international business travellers.
• Thus, there is a need to understand why and how business travellers use mobile
applications.
• Overall aim: to investigate business travellers’ use of mobile travel applications
pre-, during and after their business trip.
• Objectives:
• To compare the frequency with which business travellers use an application
with the importance that they attach to said application at each travel stage,
• To ascertain whether differences exist in terms of the demographic profile of
business travellers and their use (as it relates to frequency of use and
importance attached) of applications in the various travel stages (Why?
Management of an organisation must understand these demographical
differences since it could affect traveller behaviour and in turn have an impact
on the travel management programme).

5. Business travel and mobile applications
• Business travel takes time away from the business traveller during which he/she
could have been productive (Gustafson, 2012b).
• Mobile applications allow business travellers to use their time to keep up with
business requirements.
• Average business traveller: 3 mobile devices with him/her during travel; most
common are smartphones.
• Travellers would typically need mobile applications for the following purposes:
– Travel essentials: Info relating to various parts of the trip, from fare searches
to exchange rate information, also assisting with the booking process;
– Sightseeing: Info on tourist attractions and access to street maps;
– Electronic services: Allows service providers to push info to the user based on
his/her preferences;
– Emergency and medical services: Health and safety info
– Trip planning: Design travel packages according to the travellers’ preferences
and needs.
• Use of mobile applications could differ according to demographic profile (in
terms of age, gender and level of education).

6. The use of mobile applications during the business
travel life cycle

7. METHODOLOGY
• Overall aim: to investigate business travellers’ use of mobile travel applications
pre, during and after their business trip by
– comparing the frequency with which they use an application with the importance that they attach to
said application at each travel stage,
– as well as ascertaining whether differences exist in terms of the demographic profile of business
travellers and their use (as it relates to frequency of use and importance attached) of applications in
the various travel stages.
• Target population: South African business travellers that have booked their
travel with a large travel management company between 1 August 2013 to July
2014.
• Non-probability convenience sampling was used to distribute the survey via an
email link.
• Mann-Whitney U-test and Kruskal-Wallis test are utilised to test the differences
between the demographic profile of the business traveller (in terms of age, gender
and education level) and their use of mobile applications (in terms of frequency of
use and importance of application).

8. • The survey was distributed to 13098 business travellers, with 937 undelivered due
to unknown reasons; therefore 12965 emails were successfully delivered. Two
hundred and thirty two (232) responses received- a response rate of 1.7%. Every
attempt was made to increase this response rate.
Demographic profile Percentage
Gender
(n=221)
Male 68.3
Female 31.7
Age
(n=219)
Generation Y (19-38 years
old)
30.6
39-48 years old 33.3
49-58 years old 27.9
59 years old + 8.2
Level of education
(n=222)
Grade 10 or Equivalent 0.5
Grade 12 (Matric) or
Equivalent
10.8
Post Matric
Certificate/Diploma
25.7
Graduate 19.8
Post Graduate 43.2
Table 1. Demographic profile of respondents

9. RESULTS
Very
Important
Important Not
Important
Futile
The
importance
of mobile
travel
application
during the
travel life
cycle
Searching
(n=197)
32.5 46.2 18.3 3
Booking
(n=197)
39.1 45.2 13.2 2.5
Travelling
(n=199)
40.7 48.2 9 2
Post Travel
(n=198)
10.6 31.3 49 9.1
• Mobile travel applications are most important while on the business trip.
Table 2. Importance of mobile travel applications in the travel life cycle

10. ACTIVITY MOST IMPORTANT
FUNCTIONS
MOST FREQUENTLY
USED FUNCTIONS
PRE-TRAVEL
Planning 1. Travel requirements (e.g. visa,
vaccinations etc) (n=45)
1. Destination applications
(e.g. weather-, exchange rate
applications, general
destination information)
(60%)
2. Door-to-door planning
(Applications supporting address-to-
address travel using various modes of
transport opposed to point-to-point
travel where only hubs(like airports
and train stations) are considered).
(n=37)
2. Travel approval (Approval
of travel requests by relevant
person within the company)
(59%)
Pre-travel booking 1. Make air bookings (n=75) 1. Make air bookings (51%)
2. Preferencing (The ability to select
preferences (e.g. preferred mode of
transport or preferred hotel group)
(n=38)
2. Loyalty programme
manager (view points/status)
(47%)
Itinerary consolidation 1. Flight details (e.g. boarding gate changes) (n=95; 59%)
2. Consolidated itinerary information/Automated itinerary sync
(where your travel schedule is synced with your business diary)
(n=76; 41%)
• Next, mobile travel application functions that respondents indicated to be the
most important and most frequently used are listed. In many cases, if a
function was indicated to be the top two most important, it also featured in the
top two most frequently used list for that activity.

11. DURING TRAVEL
During travel
cancellation/modification
1. Make air bookings (n=67) 1. Alerts on delays/cancellations
(37%)
2. Alerts on delays/cancellations
(n=55)
2. Search for alternative flights
(29%)
Continuous support 1. Flight details (e.g. boarding gate changes) (n=109; 52%)
2. Flight status notification (n=28) 2. Destination applications (e.g.
weather-, health-, exchange rate
applications) (50%)
Check-in/Check out 1. Advanced check-in (flight/hotel) (n=114; 60%)
2. Fast check-in/check-out (n=59; 59%)
Transportation/Hotel comfort 1. Seat choice (n=106; 69%)
2. Lounge access (n=48; 48%)
Extra travel information 1. Local restaurants (n=122;39%)
2. Advice on discount possibilities
(n=35)
2. Restaurant reviews (28%)
Work related supporting applications 1. Mobile e-mail (n=85; 75%)
2. Integrated expense management
(Where you can submit and/or
approve expenses via your mobile
phone) (n=53)
2. Mobile instant messaging
(E.g. Whatsapp, Facebook
Messenger) (72%)

12. POST TRAVEL
Reviews and personal experience 1. Preferencing (The ability to select
preferences (e.g. preferred mode of
transport or preferred hotel group)
(n=64)
1. Loyalty programme
manager (view points/status)
(35%)
2. Loyalty programme manager
(view points/status) (n=43)
2. Preferencing (The ability
to select preferences (e.g.
preferred mode of transport
or preferred hotel group)
(28%)
Expenses 1. Picture upload of expenses (n=76) 1. Expense approval (35%)
1. Expense approval (n=76) 2. Upload of invoices (30%)

13. • Next, the demographic profile of business travellers was used to ascertain whether
differences exist in terms of the frequency with which they use mobile travel
application functions and the level of importance that they attach to mobile travel
application functions.
Function Z Kruskal Wallis Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)
Gender and frequency of use
Mobile boarding pass -2.173 .030
Events notification and ticket purchase -1.977 .048
Gender and importance
Upload of invoices -2.197 .028
Age and frequency of use
Air bookings 8.778 .032
Alerts on delays and cancellations 7.866 .049
Age and importance
Instant messaging 13.124 .004
Picture upload of expenses 7.960 .047
Education levels and frequency of use
Travel requirements 8.300 .040
Air booking 13.466 .004
Flight details 11.181 .011
Advanced check-in 9.591 .022
Mobile boarding pass 9.404 .024
Local restaurant 10.765 .013
Advice on discount possibilities 9.011 .029
Mobile email 11.444 .010

14. The table shows that:
 Female business travelers use the applications more frequently and also attach
greater importance to them than their male counterparts.
 Older business travellers use the applications more frequently and also attach
a greater importance to them than their younger counterparts.
 Higher qualified business travellers tend to use the travel requirement, air
booking and mobile email application functions more frequently than lower
qualified business travellers, but at the same time, lower qualified business
travellers use the flight detail, advanced check-in, mobile boarding pass, local
restaurant and advice on discount possibilities more frequently than their
higher qualified colleagues.

15. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
• Despite the continued development and investment in mobile travel applications
and the continued academic interest in the use of these applications in a leisure
travel context, there is no academic research that examines the functionality and
user assessment of mobile travel applications from the viewpoint of the business
traveller.
• Findings suggest that mobile travel applications are most important while on the
business trip, and more important in the booking phase than in the searching
phase, indicating that mobiles are increasingly being used as a distribution
channel, and not merely an information channel [Contradicts a previous research
study which found that the key features and functions that travellers look for in
their smartphones are nearby availability and planning tools with less concern in
transactional capabilities (MCDPartners, 2014)]

16. • Three ways in which mobile technologies can be applied (Senn, 2000):
transaction management (which involves the selection, purchase, and delivery
of a product or service), digital content delivery (e.g. real-time weather
forecasts, football scores, stock market prices, or flight arrival times), and
telemetry or geo-location (using satellite technology to locate individuals and
provide navigation services). Our results show that transaction management and
digital content delivery were seen as important and were frequently used by
business travellers, with telemetry or geo-location not featuring strongly.
• Seven key features of mobile airline applications to be of most value to
business travellers. They are: flight search, flight booking, manage booking,
mobile check-in, mobile boarding pass, flight status, and a link to the frequent
flyer programme. In our research these services also featured strongly as either
being part of the top two most important or most frequently used functions. For
example, making air bookings was the most important function, and loyalty
programme manager the most frequently used function in the pre-travel booking
phase. Mobile check-in was mentioned as being the most important and most
frequently used function in the check-in/check out during travel phase.

17. • The top ten most important applications for hotel chains are: contact details,
booking and reservation functions, directions to the hotel, maps, photos, hotel
search, transportation information, check-in/out information, facilities
information and hotel overview. Other research studies identified the common
presented features and functions on the hotel specific mobile applications to be:
room reservations, property searches, realtime feedback via guest surveys, area
information, loyalty account access, restaurant and spa reservations and property
maps (Adukaite, Reimann, Marchiori & Cantoni, 2013; eMarketer, 2013; Wang et
al., 2015). This research study indicated that the ability to make accommodation
bookings, to check-in via mobile application and to manage loyalty programmes
were regarded as important or were frequently used by business travellers.
• Limitations: findings cannot be generalised.
• This study aids companies to develop a mobile strategy that would meet the
needs of their travellers by providing them with an infinite amount of
information (Travelport. 2012b) customisable to their business itineraries
(Travelport. 2012a).

18. Thank you