Asia drives Singaporean business travel
Guest Writers are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the specific writer directly
The Asia Pacific region remains the focus for Singaporean business travellers, according to a new report from American Express Global Business Travel (GBT).
Asian cities comprised the entire top 10 most-visited destinations by Singapore-based corporate travellers in 2015, with near neighbours Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta in first and second places respectively, and Bangkok in third. This demonstrates the strength of intra-ASEAN business travel. Hong Kong took fourth place and Shanghai fifth.
According to GBT, this shows that short trips to neighbouring cities “remain a cornerstone of business operations for many of Singapore’s top executives”.
“The list of top business travel destinations from Singapore has remained broadly consistent for the past few years now, but it’s worth acknowledging emerging industries which are partly influencing the rankings,” said David Reimer, GBT’s managing director for Asia Pacific.
“Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta remain the top two destinations due to the traditional business links with Singapore, close proximity, as well as being technology and data centre hubs. Other top ranked cities such as Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo are very popular for private wealth management and banking, despite a moderate decline in travel spending within financial services in recent times.”
The rankings are based on air bookings made directly with GBT for Singapore-based travellers between January and December 2015. Manila, Tokyo, Seoul, Mumbai and Taipei completed the global top 10, while London, New York, San Francisco, Dubai and Amsterdam were the top five long-haul destinations.
And according to GBT, these ranking are unlikely to change in 2016.
“We’re not anticipating any significant shifts to the top travel rankings in the foreseeable future. Singapore remains an attractive regional base for many major companies due to favourable tax laws, and it’s also a desirable and highly liveable location for senior executives relocating from abroad. As Asia Pacific continues to grow into a powerhouse of the global economy, we are likely to continue to see the role of Singapore as a business hub develop even further,” Riemer added.
Comments are closed.