Jo Sully, Vice President & General Manager, Australia and South Asia
It seems that in every newsletter, we acknowledge the huge transformation that is underway in the business travel industry. Just as we seem to be coming to terms with an operating environment, a new technology emerges, an exciting development is made, or a global event occurs. While it certainly keeps us on our toes, it indicates that we are all working in a very exciting space.
Most importantly, we’re seeing that business travel remains a consistent growth driver for organisations across the globe. Despite businesses operating in an increasingly digital world, face-to-face communication remains paramount to business success.
So as we continue to look at ways to optimise this spend and make the most of your valuable travel investments, in this first edition of the Atlas Newsletter, we are pleased to cover subjects that are impacting us all.
Business travel in today’s landscape requires state of the art technology. As such, we are very excited to announce that Neo™ will be available for our customers in Australia this year. Following the acquisition of KDS, American Express Global Business Travel developed an industry first in seamless end-to-end experiences for modern business travellers. I trust you’re going to enjoy this technology and the opportunities it will bring to your organisation.
Interestingly in today’s market, we are seeing increasing mega-mergers and joint ventures in air travel. With that, it may be time to look at consolidating your contracts, our Global Business Consulting team provide their recommendations.
Looking across the globe, the new European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is in effect from 25th May. These regulations impact all companies offering goods to EU citizens, so it’s important to be aware of the strict, new processes. We have developed a report to ensure our customers in Asia Pacific are ready for the new regulation, and are pleased to share details in this edition. To further assist companies with the impending changes as a result of GDPR, we also recently held events in Sydney and Melbourne, and include details of these events.
While we’re on the topic of events, we recently participated at the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) event. I took part in two special panels on data and accommodation programs, and Adeline Kang discussed strategic meetings management. Adeline discussed the four stages of strategic meetings management and we are pleased to include an article that explores this further, and provides access to a recent report and an online meetings program assessment.
Finally, we’re sharing a guide to Singapore. As an increasingly important destination (in fact, it was American Express Meetings & Events’ top destination in Asia for 2018), it’s a good time to look at how your travellers can get the most out of their trips to Singapore.
I trust you will enjoy this first edition of the Atlas Newsletter!
Kind regards,
Jo