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You remember that trip out west with your parents when you were ten? How it took forever, and you weren¡¯t quite sure where you were going, and all you had was a promise that it would be great when you got there?

Yeah, that trip. That¡¯s where we are again, except we¡¯re not headed to your uncle¡¯s house, we¡¯re getting corporate travel back up off the ground. And it has been¡­a¡­very¡­long¡­haul. One with enough hairpin turns to ensure that you can¡¯t take your hands off the wheel for even a moment.

But as a travel manager, this is nothing new to you. You¡¯ve perfected the art of adaptation, and as is often necessary, re-adaptation. And according to our?Global Travel Manager Report 2021, you¡¯re expecting to adapt again: 60% of travel managers in the Americas and 58% in Europe anticipate upcoming changes in government regulations that will ultimately force changes in your policies.

Add to that the fact that nearly all of you ¨C 99% ¨C expect additional challenges in the next 12 months. You¡¯ll be, as the report points out:

• Dealing with last-minute trip changes and cancellations.
• Wrangling a very literal wealth of unused tickets to (attempt) to reuse.
• Navigating the aforementioned government regulations, and well, everything else that changed in the last 16 months.

While you¡¯re busy with all that, you¡¯ll not only be restarting but reshaping your travel program. And instead of doing it in relative obscurity, the eyes of your organization will be upon you ¨C from the C-suite to every last traveler itching to get out on the road again (which, according to?the report, is 68% of your traveling headcount).

Your ability to fire up the engines of business travel is critical to regaining confidence and rebuilding business momentum.

• The boardroom is looking at you to deliver the policies, practices, and predictability that will get and keep your business moving.
• Finance is looking at you to help them ensure the efficiency they need from every dollar, yen, and euro they spend on travel.
• And your road warriors are looking to you to keep them safer and more informed than ever before.

So, while the return to travel is approaching the jetway, and you¡¯ve worked nonstop in getting us to the gate, we¡¯re not slipping the surly bonds of earth just yet. Or, to use still another tired travel metaphor, we ain¡¯t going nowhere fast.

What is getting there going to take? Flexibility.

This shouldn¡¯t come as much of a surprise to you, either; the changes mentioned above keep coming. The budget still requires nimble navigation. Compliance is more of a concern than ever. And travelers¡¯ expectations have gone from ¡°But I want to stay in a five-star hotel¡± to ¡°I need to know the vaccination policies in Vlor?, Albania¡­and I want to stay in a five-star hotel.¡±

To stay on your feet ¨C not to mention march forward at the ever-increasing pace of progress ¨C you¡¯re going to need help. The most successful travel managers will implement tools and solutions that support business priorities while providing a greater level of duty-of-care protection and the flexibility business travelers now demand. Without the right tools, any new policies you put in place will struggle. Without the right tech, you¡¯ll be left with old solutions to new problems.

There¡¯s no need to go on this journey alone, because no one¡¯s ever gone where travel managers are now going: A post-pandemic business world.

If you want to find that copilot, read the report.?