Asian cities dominate Egencia’s top 20 list of business destinations
Egencia, the business travel arm of Expedia Group, has revealed the findings of a global study on flight demand for the 20 most travelled-to cities for business travel.
Overall, Asia dominated the top 20 positions. Shanghai, China’s pre-eminent commerce centre, is the fourth most travelled-to business travel destination internationally this year. Elsewhere in Asia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo ranked sixth, eighth and ninth respectively, and Beijing (15th), Mumbai (17th) and Seoul (20th).
Meanwhile, New York continues to outpace London as the most popular business travel destination globally, as it tops the list for the fourth consecutive year. London last held the top ranking in 2014 before being overtaken by the Big Apple the following year. New York’s dominance is likely to continue, as Egencia flight data shows that business trip flight bookings to New York were nearly 10 per cent higher than bookings to London in 2018.
In North America, Canadian cities performed well, with Toronto in fifth, outranking many major commercial centres in the US such as San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston.
Meanwhile, Europe represents two of the top three business destinations, with Paris coming in third globally as the city continues to establish itself as a popular regional business hub. From 2016-2018, Egencia data showed that air travel to the French capital experienced a 20 per cent growth. London (second) and Paris (third) were the only two European cities to place in the top 20 global business destinations for 2018.
Between January 1, 2014 and December 1, 2018, total business travel flight bookings increased globally by nearly 110 per cent. Singapore saw the largest increase in flight bookings globally – air travel to and from the destination increased by nearly 160 per cent over five years.
“While US and European cities retain the top three spots, the most interesting takeaway is how global business travel has truly become with five of seven continents represented in the top 20 destinations,” said Andrew Dyer, vice president of global supply at Egencia brand.
“As business travel continues to grow, it’s never been more important for companies to have a traveller-friendly programme that also provides unified global tools for travel managers to assist their travellers.”
The Egencia data used in this study captured flight booking and reservation trends from small, mid-cap and multinational companies in more than 60 countries between January 1, 2014 and December 1, 2018.
source: TTG mice
