Seamless services during lockdown
had a tête-à-tête with Sumit Acharya, Managing Director – BCD Travel LLC, Dubai about the current status of the industry and their many efforts to ensure the industry stays afloat at a time with challenges. BCD Travel focuses on corporate TMC although they have M!CE and leisure divisions in their business. What are the main issues you faced during the lockdown?
We were involved in managing health and safety issues for our colleagues; maintaining an effective service proposition like ‘work from home’ and meeting travel needs for our clients; and managing costs and cash flow required to meet our immediate needs to ensure long-term stability.
How did you keep the clients confident?
We maintained seamless services, including after regular office hours supported by technologies and processes that enabled our teams to remain safe and virtually service clients when required. We also continued with ongoing investment in innovative solutions for servicing rapidly evolving travel programmes in the new future. Our global footprint and global reporting continued to provide simplicity and consistency of service. Moreover, we came up with various webinars, surveys, briefing documents etc. that involved our customers.
Currently what are the main areas you focus on?
We are focusing on making our offices compliant with government guidelines and ready to deal with the new future effectively. We have also been adopting shortterm cost-reduction measures to endure the pandemic. Globally, BCD Travel is investing in solutions for the new future of business travel which will be rolled out in our region in time. Trip authorisation solutions that assess risks, tools that map global risks to traveller locations and capabilities to inform travellers of health & security requirements are some of the areas we are working on as a company. Also, technical, product and behavioural skills training for our team has been an area of continuous focus.
When do you think inbound tourists will start their journeys?
The UAE government, DTCM and other government departments are actively working towards facilitating a quick return of incoming tourists and I believe we are talking a few weeks. Intra Gulf travel would probably pick up quicker than long-haul.
When will tourism bounce back?
A lot will depend on inbound quarantine requirements at destinations once scheduled flights resume, but travel trends/needs are different in our region due to the population demographics, so I’m hoping things will pick up soon.
A travel bubble or quarantine free travel corridor between the GCC countries might be something the authorities could consider depending on how the current situation/pandemic changes in the near future.
Trip authorisation solutions that assess risks, tools that map global risks to traveller locations and capabilities to inform travellers of health & security requirements are some of our focus areas