Note: This blog was originally posted on LinkedIn, which we’ve republished below.
For decades, corporate travel has been forced to operate within the limits of outdated infrastructure and legacy systems. We’ve all been working with technology built for another era, patched together across continents, and held together largely by human expertise and sheer will for far too long. Travelers have felt the friction, travel managers have carried the burden, and companies have paid the price.
That era is ending.
At Direct Travel, we believe the industry is ready for more than incremental improvement. It’s ready for reinvention with a new foundation built for the world we live in today. A foundation that’s modern, flexible, and capable of evolving as fast as our customers need it to.
This is Why We Chose Spotnana as the Backbone of Avenir
Spotnana has done something bold and necessary: they rebuilt the plumbing of travel. Not another user interface. Not another bolt-on feature. But a fundamentally new travel infrastructure that’s designed from the ground up to replace the legacy systems that have limited this industry for decades.
Where others optimized around constraints, Spotnana removed them.
Spotnana delivers what the industry has been waiting for:
- A unified travel platform for travelers, agents, and travel managers
- The broadest access to content with the deepest integrations — GDS, NDC, LCC, aggregators, OTAs, and direct connects built into a consumer-grade shopping experience for air, hotel, rail, and car bookings
- True global readiness, with one software instance deployed everywhere
- A single profile globally per traveler
- A system-of-record built outside the 60-year-old PNR structure
- Consumer-grade booking and industry-leading self-service
- Open APIs that let companies integrate, extend, and innovate rapidly
From Modern Infrastructure to Real Outcomes: Introducing Avenir
For me, the decision to closely align with Spotnana is deeply personal. I’ve seen what happens when people are asked to compensate for broken systems; when travel managers are expected to hold everything together without the tools they deserve, and when travelers are left stressed, stranded, or unsupported in moments that matter most.
That’s why modern infrastructure matters. And it’s why we chose Spotnana. It is, in my view, the most advanced travel infrastructure in the world — built to be open, agile, transparent, and future-ready.
But technology alone doesn’t create The Perfect Trip. Even the best platform still needs someone to stand behind it — to operationalize it, govern it, optimize it, and help organizations realize its full value. That is the role Direct Travel has chosen to play.
Through Avenir, Direct Travel turns this powerful foundation into a comprehensive travel solution, applying service and operational excellence at a global scale.
Driving Better Travel Outcomes with Avenir
- Outstanding global service with deep expertise and empathy
- Local specialization through Direct Travel’s expanded global footprint with the acquisition of ATPI
- Data intelligence and insights that help companies steer their travel program in real time
- Negotiated rates with leading global suppliers: preferred agreements globally coordinated
- Operational rigor and program governance to ensure consistency at global scale
- Proven implementation and change leadership that de-risks transformation
- Human-led service delivery that prioritizes traveler wellbeing and productivity
Direct Travel is the Only Premium Supplier of Spotnana’s Groundbreaking Platform
Direct Travel is uniquely positioned as the premium supplier of Spotnana’s platform because:
1. We understand the power of open architecture and how to make it real.
Our product, engineering, and implementation teams know how to build on top of Spotnana’s open infrastructure and address the full range of needs for complex travel programs. We don’t stop at “installing software.” We are equipped to integrate ecosystems that might include technology for expense, duty of care, re-shopping, guest travel, meetings, analytics, and more.
2. We serve companies on a global scale.
With ATPI now an integrated part of the Direct family, we deliver truly global servicing, regional expertise, and in-country support across Europe, APAC, LATAM, the Middle East, and North America.
3. We bring the human element that technology alone cannot.
When the world turns upside down – storms, strikes, disruptions, emergencies — our people step in. Technology should remove friction, not empathy. Our service amplifies the value of Spotnana’s self-service capabilities by providing an essential, expert human touch whenever it’s needed.
4. We’re building the future together.
We’re investing all our R&D efforts into bringing new innovations to life with Spotnana and working to integrate innovative 3rd-party technologies. We believe the advantages of Spotnana’s modern architecture will only grow over time as AI, modern airline retailing, and other advancements transform the travel industry. Direct Travel is committed to being at the forefront of this change.
5. We’re aligned in vision and values.
Like Spotnana, we believe travel should be:
- Frictionless and intuitive
- Personal, not transactional
- Open, not constrained
- Predictive, not reactive
This alignment is rare in our industry. It’s the foundation for a long-term partnership that benefits customers and travelers alike.
What Avenir, Powered by Spotnana, Means for Travel Managers
Travel managers carry one of the most complex, high-stakes roles in any organization, often without the clarity, tools, or support they deserve.
They’re expected to manage cost, policy, compliance, risk, sustainability, traveler experience, and real-time reporting, all while responding instantly when things go wrong. Too often, they’ve been asked to compensate for fragmented systems with sheer effort and ingenuity.
Avenir, powered by Spotnana, is designed to change that.
It gives travel managers a single, global foundation they can trust, one platform, one service model, and one source of truth so they can lead with confidence instead of constantly putting out fires.
At Direct Travel, we see supporting travel managers as a responsibility, not a feature. Our role is to reduce the noise, absorb the complexity, and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them as partners. We want to protect their time, elevate their impact, and help them focus on what truly matters: creating value for their travelers, their finance teams, and their organizations.
What Avenir, Powered by Spotnana, Means for Travelers
Travelers feel the impact of infrastructure most clearly when something goes wrong.
Avenir, powered by Spotnana, gives travelers an experience that finally matches how they live and work today — intuitive, transparent, and responsive — without sacrificing care when it matters most.
Travelers benefit from:
- One place to shop with all content in a single, clear view
- Transparent pricing that builds trust and eliminates second-guessing
- Self-service changes, cancellations, and unused ticket redemption
- A mobile experience that feels modern, fast, and familiar
- Real humans available 24/7 when plans change or disruptions occur
This is not technology instead of service. It’s technology that empowers travelers to do more on their own, backed by expert people who step in with empathy and precision when a helping hand is needed.
A Turning Point for the Industry and an Infrastructure Built for What Comes Next
If the last era of corporate travel was defined by closed systems, rigid workflows, and workarounds, the next era will be defined by openness, intelligence, and adaptability.
Spotnana built the infrastructure the industry needed; one open by design, cloud-native at its core, and built to evolve as travel itself evolves. Its architecture makes it possible to continuously integrate new capabilities, new partners, and new innovations without disruption or replatforming.
That openness matters.
Because the future of travel won’t be delivered by a single system or vendor. It will be shaped by an ecosystem: AI-driven intelligence, modern airline retailing, smarter expense and payments, predictive duty of care, sustainability tools, and innovations we haven’t yet imagined.
Through Avenir, Direct Travel is intentionally harnessing that openness to ensure our customers are never locked into yesterday’s thinking. We evaluate, integrate, and operationalize the right technologies as the landscape changes so our clients can stay ahead of it.
This is not a static solution. It is a living infrastructure, one designed to grow in value over time.
Spotnana provides the foundation. Direct Travel brings the expertise, accountability, and empathy required to turn that foundation into a lasting advantage.
Together, we are delivering something the industry has long promised but rarely achieved: a travel program that is effortless, personal, rewarding today, and ready for whatever comes next.
