American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) has launched Travel Vitals, a travel briefing platform that gives travel managers a single source for all the information they need before, during and after a business trip.
Data is aggregated from hundreds of sources, allowing users to search travel guidelines by destination, airline, airport, hotel chain, train operator and ground transportation provider.
The know-before-you-go tool shows travel restrictions for specific locations, while also identifying Covid-19 infection rate spikes and hot spots.
The journey assistant is free and available to all travel managers, travel management companies and travellers.
For GBT clients and travellers, Travel Vitals powers itinerary-specific information in digital channels, including the Amex GBT mobile app, chat and online booking tools.
Travel counsellors answering calls and messages around the world have full access and are contributing in real time to the refinement of local information.
Mark McSpadden, GBT vice president of product strategy and experience, said: “Trip information is going to be central to building trust and confidence.
“We have to quickly aggregate relevant data in a world in which guidance changes daily.
“It’s dynamic, and we’re updating it daily.
“Given the fluidity of the situation, we can only be as up to date as the information available.
“For that reason, we welcome additional validated sources.
“But we are doing this because for the foreseeable future, we have to manage every trip as if we were planning an event.
“Door-to-door travel management has long been an aspiration for our industry, but that is not enough in these circumstances.”
For travel managers, Travel Vitals is integrated into the trip audit process and can trigger alerts when journeys are booked to high-risk destinations.
Reporting capabilities monitor future bookings, helping drive policy compliance when hotel stays or ground options are not booked alongside air travel. C
Conversely, reports track historical bookings, critical if an individual’s movements need to be retrospectively traced because of an infection rate spike in a specific location.
