Singapore and Hong Kong top destinations for Asia-Pacific business travel

SINGAPORE and Hong Kong are the Asia-Pacific destinations most frequently travelled to for business, according to a survey carried out by Accor.

In a press statement, Accor Asia-Pacific spokesperson, Evan Lewis, said: “Based on findings from our survey, business travellers have told us that Singapore is expected to be the top business travel destination in the second half of 2011, thus reinforcing the city’s position as a key business hub for Asia-Pacific.”

“What is also interesting to note is that the survey confirmed that Hong Kong is being used as the entry point into China, and Singapore is being utilised as the gateway to South-east Asia,” he added.

The group’s inaugural online Asia-Pacific Business Traveller Survey was conducted in partnership with Hong-Kong based Cimigo. There were 10,437 respondents from Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand.

When it comes to booking travel accommodation, respondents overwhelmingly preferred booking directly online with the hotel brand (57 per cent) followed by the secretary in the company (40 per cent), while offline travel agents were used only by a minority (16 per cent). Unfortunately, the survey did not delve deeper into how secretaries made bookings on behalf of their bosses.

Prior to conducting the survey, Accor carried out a preliminary anecdotal study using a focus group. According to Lewis, discussions with the focus group panel revealed that business travellers rarely consulted peer-to-peer reviews when selecting accommodation for a business trip. However, they tended to base their decisions on peer-to-peer reviews if they were travelling for leisure.

The survey also uncovered that allocated business travel budgets for accommodation averages US$121 per night. Business travellers from New Zealand (39 per cent) and Australia (36 per cent) were the most inclined to have no defined budget for their accommodation. Indonesians (US$92) and the Chinese (US$99) had the lowest budgets for business travel accommodation.

According to the survey, business travellers took an average of 6.3 business trips in the first six months of 2011, with the Chinese having made the most trips (8.7).

Source - ttgasia