White Paper on new technologies in travel industry released

Titled "The Digi-Smart Indian Business Traveller", the White Paper focused on the following:

• Key business-travel technologies that balance cost control, enhanced compliance and meeting the business traveller expectations include Self-booking Tool, Artificial Intelligence, Shared-Economy, Travel Analytics and Blockchain Technology

• Other potential technological solutions include Cloud passports, Electronic Bag Tags, Virtual Reality, Wearables, Digital Wallets & Tickets, NFC, etc.

• For the Indian travel market, three potential disruptions such as Hyperloop, Cloud Based Guest Reservation System and SpaceX (anywhere on the Earth in one hour) can potentially address two most common business traveller concerns, viz., time and cost

• The government as part of its "Digital India" initiative needs to enhance the quality of the digital and physical infrastructure to keep pace with the changing needs of Indian as well as global business travellers.

According to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), India is the world's fastest growing business travel market.

FCM Travel Solutions, the Indian subsidiary of Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), Australia and KPMG released the travel industry's first insights on disrupting technologies.

Rakshit Desai, Managing Director, FCM Travel Solutions, Indian subsidiary of FCTG, Australia, said, "Digital technology today is rapidly growing. Rapid penetration of smart phones, Near Field Communication, in flight WI-FI, faster networks and many such advances are only accelerating the penetration of technology into every aspect of travel."

He added, "Self-booking tools, travel analytics, Artificial Intelligence and sharing economy services are not only here to stay but hold myriad and exciting possibilities for the future. The whitepaper launched in collaboration with KPMG intelligence aims to assist organisations that wish to serve today's digi-smart travellers, understand their needs and make strategic decisions, based on these insights.