TripActions is introducing several new tools and functions
to help travel managers and individual travelers assess safety measures and
minimize costs as they prepare for business travel to resume.
Over the next few days, TripActions will launch an enhanced
administrative dashboard, more fine-tuned policy controls, destination and airline
safety and hygiene data, automated integration of unused tickets and travel
waivers and a free, public-facing COVID-19 data site.
Co-founder and chief technology officer Ilan Twig says these
products developed out of a need to access this type of data internally and the
realization that there is no “single source of truth.” Instead, TripActions
began curating data from multiple sources, such as the Johns Hopkins University
coronavirus dashboard, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization
and others, and also used epidemiological models to calculate the reproduction
(R) number – the number of COVID-19 cases directly generated by one case – for every
state in the U.S. and all countries that have adequate public-facing data.
Now all of that data is available to TripActions users
through multiple channels. Finance and travel managers have an enhanced
dashboard showing CDC ratings, government restrictions, R number and cases per
100,000 residents for all locations where employees have traveled in the last
two weeks or will be traveling in the future.
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TripActions has also added more customization for its policy
settings, so administrators can enable or blacklist specific destinations and
can also enable travel by specific employees within the company.
For travelers, TripActions is adding more information in the
booking tool so users see what actions specific airlines are taking to address
COVID-19. The system also shows the destination data - CDC ratings, government
regulations, R number, etc. – and sends updated information via email before
and during a trip.
To address clients’ financial concerns, TripActions has
automated the redemption of unused tickets and waivers.
“When
travel came to a halt due to travel restrictions around the world, many
organizations saw mass cancellations of booked travel by their employees. The
major airlines waived their normal cancellation and change fees, allowing
travelers to rebook travel in the future with no penalty,” Twig says.
“By automating
unused tickets and waivers in the booking flow, TripActions is ensuring that its
clients don’t leave any money on the table, helping with both business travel
and financial recovery.”
And after aggregating this data, TripActions says it decided
to make it available to the public. The free “TripActions
Business Travel Recovery” site will launch next week, enabling anyone to input an origin and destination
to get real-time data including R numbers, number of active cases, government
restrictions and more. The site is launching with data for all U.S. states and
top global destinations by country.