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Programme optimisation: why the best travel programmes put people first
The highest-performing travel programmes aren't always the ones with the biggest budgets or the strictest policies. They're the ones designed around the people who use them.
From improving compliance and online adoption to creating better traveller experiences, programme optimisation is increasingly about removing friction rather than adding more rules. During a recent discussion at Business Travel Show Asia Pacific, three of APAC's top travel buyers shared how they tackled complex operational challenges—and while their organisations were very different, their approaches revealed a common philosophy.
*Insights from the Innovators in action panel session, presented at Business Travel Show Asia Pacific 2026 - published as a marketing piece by Business Travel Show Asia Pacific
🎥 Watch on demand: from the show floor
1) Make the right choice the easiest choice
Travel policies exist for a reason, but policy alone doesn't guarantee compliance.
Instead, leading travel managers are designing programmes that make the preferred option the simplest one. Whether that means improving online booking adoption, automating expense processes or integrating local travel content, the objective is the same: reduce the effort required for travellers to follow policy.
Rather than asking travellers to change their behaviour, successful organisations are changing the experience around them.
2) Better experiences create better programmes
Traveller experience isn't competing with business objectives but can help you achieve them.
By simplifying booking and expense processes, they can achieve higher online adoption, improved policy compliance, and greater visibility across your travel programmes. In doing so, you will receive stronger data then enabled stronger supplier negotiations, more informed decision-making and greater operational efficiency.
In other words, removing friction doesn't just improve traveller satisfaction, it improves programme performance.
3) Think globally, design locally
Another key lesson was that global consistency doesn't always require identical solutions.
Travel managers operating across multiple markets recognised that regional differences in traveller behaviour, regulation and supplier ecosystems often require local approaches. Instead of forcing global processes into markets where they didn't fit, they adapted technology and workflows while maintaining consistent governance, reporting and policy.
The result was stronger programme adoption without sacrificing global oversight.
4) Optimisation is a business-wide effort
The most successful programmes weren't built by travel teams alone.
Procurement, finance, HR, legal, IT and supplier partners all played important roles in delivering change. Travel leaders focused on building business cases that addressed organisational priorities, rather than presenting travel improvements in isolation.
By aligning travel initiatives with wider business goals (e.g. operational efficiency, compliance and employee experience) they secured the support needed to drive meaningful transformation.
5) Start with the problem, not the technology
Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that innovation isn't about implementing the latest technology for its own sake.
Top travel buyers don't begin by asking how they could use AI or automate another process. They started by identifying the biggest barriers facing their travellers and their business. Technology simply became the tool that helped solve those problems.
That's an important distinction. Organisations that begin with business challenges are far more likely to implement solutions that deliver lasting value.
Final thoughts
The strongest travel programmes aren't necessarily those with the strictest policies or the newest technology. They're the ones that make travel easier.
By putting travellers at the centre of programme design, organisations create better experiences, stronger compliance and more efficient operations. Ultimately, programme optimisation isn't about asking people to work harder, it's about building systems that work better for everyone.