GBT lends assistance

AMERICAN Express Global Business Travel (GBT) has launched a COVID-19 information and advisory platform called Travel Vitals.

The briefing platform aggregates data from hundreds of sources to provide travel managers and travellers with important information they need before, during and after a business trip.

It is free and available to all travel managers, travel management companies (TMCs) and travellers, allowing for users to search travel guidelines by destination, airline, airport, hotel chain, train operator and ground transportation provider.

Travel Vitals powers itinerary specific information in digital channels, including the Amex GBT mobile app, chat and online booking tools.

“We’re doing this because for the foreseeable future, we have to manage every trip as if we were planning an event,” GBT VP of Product Strategy & Experience Mark McSpadden said.

“Door-to-door travel management has long been an aspiration for our industry, but that isn’t enough in these circumstances.

“The role of the TMC now begins as soon as the need to travel is first identified and ends long after the traveller has returned home,” he explained.

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 and help drive policy compliance, while historical bookings are tracked which allows for movements to be traced because of an infection rate spike at a specific location.

GBT is pursuing a mobile-first strategy to make the content easy for travellers to access while they’re on the move, with features including chatting with a travel counsellor on the mobile app, or receiving notifications while on a trip.