American Express GBT launches travel briefing platform

American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) has announced the launch of Travel Vitals™, a travel briefing platform that gives travellers and travel managers a single source for information before, during and after a business trip. Data on the platform is aggregated from hundreds of sources, allowing users to search travel guidelines by destination, airline, airport, hotel chain, train operator, and ground transportation provider. The ‘know-before-you-go’ tool shows travel restrictions for specific locations, in addition to identifying Covid-19 infection rate spikes and hot spots. The journey assistant is free and available to all travel managers, travel management companies (TMCs) and travellers. For GBT clients and travellers, Travel Vitals™ powers itinerary-specific information in digital channels, including the Amex GBT mobile app, chat and online booking tools (OBTs). Travel counsellors around the world have full access to the platform and are contributing in real time to the refinement of local information. GBT’s vice-president of product strategy and experience, Mark McSpadden, said: “Trip information is going to be central to building trust and confidence. We have to quickly aggregate relevant data in a world in which guidance changes daily. It is dynamic, and we are updating it daily. “Given the fluidity of the situation, we can only be as up to date as the information available. For that reason, we welcome additional validated sources. But we are doing this because for the foreseeable future, we have to manage every trip as if we were planning an event. “Door-to-door travel management has long been an aspiration for our industry, but that is not enough in these circumstances. The role of the TMC now begins as soon as the need to travel is first identified and ends long after the traveller has returned home.” Travel Vitals™ is integrated into the trip audit process and can trigger alerts when journeys are booked to high-risk destinations. Reporting capabilities monitor future bookings, helping drive policy compliance when hotel stays or ground options are not booked alongside air travel. In addition, reports track historical bookings, helping to retrospectively trace an individual’s movement if there is an infection rate spike in a specific location. Travel Vitals™ is available to all online.