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Egencia Names 2018 Top Business Travel Destinations

Egencia Confirms New York Outranks London as Top Business Travel Destination

4 min
Posted: 15 September 2020
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  • For the fourth year in a row, Egencia flight demand data verifies that New York is the most popular business travel destination globally, followed by London who last held the top spot in 2014, and Paris rounding out the top three.
  • Paris has solidified its status as a European business hub, with air travel to the French capital increasing by more than 20 percent from January 1, 2018 to December 1, 2018.
  • Asia dominates the rankings with four cities in the top 10 this year, and seven within the top 20, including the reemergence of Seoul, which had fallen out of the rankings last year.

London, UK. December 20, 2018 – Today, Egencia®, business travel from Expedia Group™, releases findings from a global study on flight demand for the 20 most travelled-to cities for business travel. 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 percent higher than bookings to London in 2018. 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 shows that air travel to the French capital experienced 20 percent growth. London (second) and Paris (third) were the only two European cities to place in the top 20 global business destinations for 2018. Shanghai, China’s pre-eminent commerce centre, is the fourth most travelled-to business travel destination internationally this year. Asia overall dominated the top 20, with Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo ranking sixth, eighth and ninth respectively, and Beijing (15th), Mumbai (17th) and Seoul (20th). The Middle East, South America, and North Africa also all have important global business hubs, with Dubai (11th), São Paulo (18th) and Casablanca (19th). In North America, Canadian cities performed well, with Toronto in fifth, outranking many major commercial centres in the U.S., including San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston. Montreal, Canada’s second largest city by population, is the 14th most travelled to destination for business travellers across the globe. Between January 1, 2014 and December 1, 2018, total business travel flight bookings increased globally by nearly 110 percent. During the same period, flight bookings for New York increased by more than 120 percent, for London by nearly 80 percent and for Paris by nearly 120 percent. Meanwhile, Singapore saw the largest increase in flight bookings globally - air travel to and from the destination increased by nearly 160 percent over roughly five years. “Over the last few years, New York has become the go-to business travel destination globally, indicating that international business travel is booming,” said Scott Chapman, Managing Director, UK at Egencia.  “In Europe, global travellers are taking more business trips to Paris, which is perfectly in line with President Macron’s drive to position France as a global commercial hub”.  The Egencia data captures 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. The complete list of 20 most travelled-to destinations is as follows.

1. New York11. Dubai
2. London12. Mexico City
3. Paris13. Boston
4. Shanghai14. Montreal
5. Toronto15. Beijing
6. Singapore16. Los Angeles
7. San Francisco17. Mumbai
8. Hong Kong18. São Paulo
9. Tokyo19. Casablanca
10. Chicago20. Seoul

  Egencia has created city guides featuring several of these top business travel destinations, accessible here.

About Egencia

Egencia, corporate travel from Expedia Group, is reimagining business travel management to make business travellers happier and corporate travel programs more successful. Egencia offers more personalised experiences through curated access to the world’s most relevant travel options. Putting our customers at the centre of everything we do, Egencia provides exceptional customer care and innovative travel manager tools to increase savings and compliance. Egencia serves businesses large and small in more than 60 countries. Connect with us on egencia.co.uk and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn and see what we’re reimagining next on our blog.

© 2018 Egencia LLC.  All rights reserved.  Egencia, and the Egencia logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Media Contacts

Harry Ashcroft | Ballou PR UK | harry.ashcroft@balloupr.com | +44 203 735 8758 

Siarah Khan | PR Manager | sikhan@egencia.com    

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