Asian business travel on the rise – Accor
The number of trips taken by Asia Pacific business executives jumped 67% in the first half of the year, according to a new study by Accor.
The third annual Accor Asia Pacific Business Traveller Research study found that the average executive took 10 trips in the first half of 2012, compared to six trips during the same period last year.
Mainland Chinese executives posted the highest increase in volume, with an average of 17 trips over the six-month period. The next highest increase was Indian business travellers (13). Singapore was the only market where business travel remained flat year-on-year, with the average traveller taking seven trips in the first halves of both 2011 and 2012. Singapore has emerged however, as the region’s most popular business destination, ahead of Hong Kong and Thailand.
“In this year’s survey, business travellers have told us that Singapore is their top destination in Asia Pacific and that they expect to continue travelling to the city-state in the second half of the year. The findings underscore Singapore’s importance as business gateway to Southeast Asia,” said Evan Lewis, Accor’s Vice President of Communications for Asia Pacific.
Allocated hotel budgets increased slightly in the first half of 2012, with the average nightly room budgets rising 3% from US$121 to US$125. Singapore-based business travellers increased their average nightly hotel spend more than any other country, budgeting 16% more per night than last year, followed by Australian (10%) and Indian (4%) business travellers. Indonesian travellers had the sharpest budget cuts (-12%) and the lowest accommodation budget, at an average of just US$81 per night.
The survey also found that business travel in Asia Pacific remains dominated by men, with only one in four executives surveyed being women. Thailand had the region’s highest female-to-male ratio (40%), but this dropped to just 6% in India.