By Sonia Michaels, head of business travel services and events, The Advantage Travel Partnership /
27 May 2021
Sonia Michaels, head of business travel services and events, The Advantage Travel Partnership
Finally there is some optimism for the meetings and events industry, with even the largest of conferences being able to take place in the UK – all being well – from 21 June.
But will we suddenly see a spring back to the old ‘normal’ with large meetings, conferences and trade shows back on the calendar for the autumn? Let’s hope so. However, business meetings and events budgets are not expected to return to pre-Covid levels until at least 2023, according to research by the Meetings Industry Association, and in the meantime they re going to look very different.
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Advantage Travel Partnership and WIN Global Travel Network have agreed a partnership with AI technology provider Grapevine to use their Marvin AI engine to target travellers who have booked a flight but not an associated hotel or other in-destination spend.
Advantage says 70 per cent or more of bookings have no attached hotel and TMCs often capture little to no in-destination spend. Marvin will make personalised recommendations to travellers that are in-policy and in the preferred booking channel.
The organisations say the tie-up will “deliver a consumer-grade, total-trip user experience for travellers, enhanced duty of care for TMC customers and increased revenues for TMCs”.