The travel management company industry is fundamentally broken, stuck in outdated processes, and unable to meet modern corporate travel needs
Feb 25, 2025
Instead of providing a seamless service, TMCs add complexity, operate with archaic business models, and fail to leverage the vast amounts of data at their disposal. Their focus remains on managing crises rather than preventing them, leading to inefficiencies, hidden costs and declining service quality. Without a radical overhaul, TMCs risk becoming obsolete as newer, AI-driven solutions emerge.
Key takeaways
- TMCs add complexity, not streamline business travel: Companies must compensate for TMC shortcomings, resulting in duplicated efforts and higher costs;
- Focused on failure, not innovation: The industry excels at crisis management, but does little to prevent problems in the first place;
- Underutilized data and legacy systems: Despite access to vast amounts of travel data, TMCs fail to optimize processes and rely on rigid, outdated technology;
- Structural conflicts weaken the ecosystem: Airlines, hotels and procurement departments contribute to inefficiencies, creating a broken system;
- Revenue model prioritizes transactions over value: Hidden fees and inefficient expense management persist because it’s not profitable to fix them;
- Incremental change isn’t enough: The industry needs a revolution, not an evolution, with AI-driven platforms, automation and real-time expense integration.
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