Takeaways from Business Travel Show America 2026

Travel Wins When It’s Connected: Strategy is most effective with cross-functional integration. Travel managers succeed by connecting with the rest of the organization and using data to improve experiences, even when leadership doesn't prioritize travel.

Accurate Data, Clear ROI: Data must be accurate and tied to ROI. Yes, a tale as old as time! Actionable insights require high-quality data, and CEOs are most engaged when travel is directly linked to business outcomes.

Human-First Service Still Wins: Human-first still wins for many service interactions. AI and new tools are more commonplace for lower-value transactions, but the recurring theme across meetings was that people helping people remains the core of a great traveler experience. Takes a lifetime to build trust, seconds to destroy. Today, humans hold this advantage over AI.

Omnichannel Depends on Your Partners:

Omnichannel is close, but depends on your tech providers. It takes partnership and transparency, and not every supplier will engage. Letting travelers book through their preferred channels remains attractive, as the proliferation of new tools brings off-channel information into the managed travel realm.

Pilot, Don’t Just Demo:

Engaging more deeply beyond sandbox-type demos provides deep insights into those tech stacks. Customized pilots reveal true cost and employee experience, considering both the obvious costs (ticket prices, room nights, etc.) and the hidden costs (touchless, service delivery for NDC/Edifact/Attribute-Based-Buying, data accuracy and completeness, etc.)