JTB Business Travel is partnering with travel tech provider Spotnana to enhance both its own offering and operations and those of sustainable travel specialist Goodwings in which JTB USA is a minority stakeholder.
The partnership will see JTB Business Travel begin to offer Spotnana’s booking platform to clients later this year but will commence with the integration of Spotnana’s core infrastructure with JTB USA partner Goodwings.
JTB Business Travel – which is based in the United States but has a presence in 11 European markets – says the new partnership will “enhance, simplify and modernise” business travel management for its primarily SME customers. It noted that “cost and efficiency remain pivotal” to its clients and
that Spotnana’s modern infrastructure will provide access to
comprehensive global travel content and enhanced self-service
capabilities.
Pictured: JTB USA president and chief executive officer, Tosh Tatezawa, with Spotnana founder and chief executive officer, Sarosh Waghmar
Denmark-based Goodwings – which uses its booking revenue to counteract clients’ Scope 3.6 emissions by investing in SAF and carbon offsets – is now rolling out Spotnana’s booking technology to its customers. At the same time, JTB Business Travel has begun providing offline service for Goodwings customers after it took a minority stake in the company last summer, helping to build out its capabilities as a fully-fledged TMC.
“We are powering the Goodwings platform in terms of content and servicing and that will be done using the Spotnana platform. What we’re creating with them is almost a new TMC that is very tech and sustainability focused,” said JTB Business Travel Network’s vice president of global business travel, Geert de Boo.
Prior to JTB USA’s investment in Goodwings, de Boo said it had operated primarily as a hotel booking platform but “clients told them they wanted to book everything in one place – not just hotels.”
De Boo explained that JTB USA’s investment in Goodwings marked the start of an exclusive servicing and fulfilment partnership and the creation of a temporary booking solution for all travel needs to bridge the gap to its partnership with Spotnana. “Many new [Goodwings] customers who were secured over the past few months were not implemented on the temporary platform but waited until they could go live on Spotnana now,” he said.
Many Goodwings customers, who are predominantly located in the Nordics and across Europe but are increasingly global, come from an unmanaged background and are “very demanding when it comes to the user experience,” said de Boo. “Many are very tech-focused and they want a consumer-like experience.”
He added: “Phase one of this new partnership is launching [Spotnana] for all Goodwings customers. All our energy is focused on getting that up and running well and then we will shift to JTB Business Travel’s customers. This [sort of partnership] is something we’re seeing across the industry right now – the bringing together of high-tech software and high-touch service.”
Spotnana’s founder and CEO, Sarosh Waghmar, said: “This partnership represents the coming together of pioneering industry leaders, each committed to creating the best possible traveller experience. We look forward to growing this partnership to support JTB Business Travel’s footprint across the globe.”