How Mid-Sized Travel Agencies Can Win Key Accounts in the Digital Era

The global business travel industry is experiencing a significant rebound. According to the GBTA, business travel spend is projected to exceed $2.0 trillion by 2028 with an annual compound growth rate of 6.95% from 2025 to 2028. While TMCs can leverage volumes and technology, small and mid-size agencies are still growing, riding on deep client relationships and personalized service. But the challenge lies in meeting enterprise-level digital expectations without the substantial investment of building proprietary technology.

Evolving Corporate Travel Expectations

A 2024 report emphasizes that companies are increasingly seeking TMCs that offer comprehensive digital solutions to streamline travel and expense management.

Modern corporate clients demand:

Online booking tools with integrated policy controls
Automated expense reporting accessible via mobile devices
Real-time analytics for spend, savings, and carbon footprint tracking
Multilingual and multi-currency support for international operations
Mobile-first workflows for approvals and itinerary modifications

The Challenges of Developing In-House Technology

Building a proprietary travel platform presents several obstacles:

High Development Costs: Custom software development requires significant financial investment, often beyond the scope of mid-sized agencies

Extended Timeframes: Developing a robust platform involves long development cycles, which can delay your entry into competitive markets

Ongoing Maintenance: Ensuring compliance with evolving regulations and integrating with various supplier APIs requires continuous effort and resources

For many mid-sized agencies, these challenges divert focus from core competencies like client service and business development.

Leveraging Plug-and-Play Platforms

Mid-sized TMCs no longer need to build proprietary systems to compete in the enterprise space. Modern travel and expense platforms offer robust, ready-to-deploy infrastructure that enables agencies to meet corporate expectations while maintaining agility and brand control.

Maintain Brand Identity: Leverage white-labeled booking portals and mobile applications to deliver a consistent, on-brand experience across every client touchpoint. Your agency remains the face of service delivery, while the technology works seamlessly in the background.

Ensure Policy and Regulatory Compliance: Support a wide range of corporate travel policies, local tax laws, currency formats, and invoicing standards - essential for servicing regional and multinational clients. Built-in compliance frameworks reduce manual intervention and minimize regulatory risk.

Deliver Strategic Insights in Real Time: Provide clients with live dashboards that surface actionable data on travel spend, policy adherence, traveler behavior, and CO₂ emissions. These tools empower corporate stakeholders to make informed decisions, optimize budgets, and align travel with broader ESG goals.

Accelerate Deployment: Pre-configured workflows and integrations reduce implementation time from months to days. Agencies can respond faster to RFPs, onboard clients with minimal disruption, and begin delivering measurable value almost immediately.

AI-Driven Capabilities Now Within Reach

Artificial intelligence is no longer the domain of large, tech-first TMCs. With modern travel platforms, even mid-sized agencies can now access enterprise-grade AI capabilities - without building anything in-house. From intelligent fare recommendations to automated policy checks, AI is helping agencies deliver smarter, faster, and more compliant booking experiences that meet evolving corporate expectations.

These tools not only enhance the traveler journey with personalized suggestions and chat-enabled support but also streamline back-office operations. Expense reports are categorized and validated in real time, policy violations are flagged proactively, and predictive analytics help optimize client budgets. By adopting AI through a plug-and-play model, agencies can offer a more responsive, data-driven service while reducing the manual workload on their teams.

McKinsey highlights that as business travel regains momentum, opportunities arise for companies that can offer tech solutions for evolving challenges.

Combining Technology with Personalized Service

Recent industry insights show that today’s corporate travel managers increasingly prefer agencies that offer the best of both worlds - efficient digital tools backed by strong, personalized account management.

By integrating advanced technology with personalized service, mid-sized agencies can:

Compete for Larger Accounts: Present enterprise-level digital capabilities alongside tailored support

Enhance Client Retention: Provide value-added services that foster long-term partnerships

Scale Operations Efficiently: Leverage technology to manage increased demand without proportional increases in overhead

Embrace Technology through Strategic Partnerships

Today, corporates expect their travel management companies to be digitally adept and innovative - it’s no longer a nice-to-have, but a necessity. However, mid-sized agencies don't need to bear the burden of developing proprietary technology. With the right technology partner like TripGain, you can offer modern travel and expense solutions that align with corporate expectations - without the heavy lift of developing your own stack.

TripGain takes care of the tech, so you can focus on what you do best: nurturing client relationships, winning key accounts, and growing your business. Book a demo today to understand how our technology can be integrated into your system.