31 Oct 2016

Supplier payments need to be flexible as Brits adjust plans post-Brexit

A WEX survey of UK travellers before and after the Brexit vote has found they are adjusting rather than cancelling travel plans for the coming months as they become more cost-conscious.

NB: This is a viewpoint by Lee Jackson, head of European new business, WEX Europe.

Post-Brexit: Confidence Remains The Key To Success In The Travel Industry” explores the central role of confidence in the UK travellers’ decision-making process and explains how the right supplier payment solution can help win this confidence.

By comparing responses from before and after Brexit, WEX is a position to confirm that UK travellers are rethinking their travel plans in light of the known impact on exchange rates and the unknown impact on personal economic circumstances.

But other factors – such as terror incidents – influenced travel choices before Brexit and continue to do so.

Having said all that, WEX’s research shows that Brits are still willing to travel. It’s just that they are reducing spending on travel, changing destination preferences and they need to be confident that their chosen travel company can accommodate any changes to their plans.

But in order for travel companies to be flexible with their clients, the travel companies need flexibility in business models and operations, especially when it comes to quickly and efficiently switching suppliers.

Long-haul travel, for example, has become more popular post-Brexit. Travel companies can flex their inventory accordingly, but need to have a supplier payment solution which is both accepted by new and existing suppliers via existing systems and facilitates savings to be made on international payments.

Customers need to be confident the travel company they have booked with can deliver on price, destination and experience.

A key part of delivering on that confidence is having the inventory in place, and travel companies need a flexible and scalable payment infrastructure in place with suppliers to satisfy changing demand patterns.

To download the research, click here.

WEX Europe will be discussing the research and the importance of B2B supplier payments in a FREE webinar co-hosted with Tnooz. The webinar takes place on 3 November. Sign up, here.

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NB: This is a viewpoint by Lee Jackson, head of European new business for WEX Europe. It appears here as part of Tnooz’s sponsored content initiative.

NB2: Image by Kasto/BigStock