San Francisco top for Australian business travellers

San Francisco top for Australian business travellers

Australian business travellers have taken preference to San Francisco when heading to the United States, according to data from American Express Global Business Travel (GBT).

Strong links between Australia’s technology sector and Silicon Valley, as well as improved airline connectivity, appear to be driving an increase in business travel to San Francisco which has overtaken New York as the top US business destination for Australians.

The United States remains one of the most popular countries for business travel from Australia, with six out of the top ten destinations outside of Asia Pacific comprising US cities.

Encompassing all air bookings made directly with GBT for Australian-based travellers between March 2015 to April 2016, the travel destinations data provides a snapshot of business travel flows within, and from, Australia.

Sydney, Singapore and London remain the top destinations for domestic, Asia Pacific and international business travel outside Asia Pacific, respectively. Singapore, Auckland and Hong Kong have also maintained their dominance as the top three international destinations overall, highlighting the significance of regional centres for Australian businesses.

American Express Global Business Travel, Australia Vice President and General Manager, Jo Sully, said “while we haven’t seen movement across our top three international destinations for Australian business travellers, we have noticed a decline in business travel to China over the past twelve months.”

Shanghai dropped from sixth to tenth in the overall international rankings, and Beijing has dropped off the rankings entirely.

“Despite recent reports that China has overtaken the US as the world’s largest business travel market, the Chinese travel market continues to be dominated by domestic travel. The decline in Australian business travel to China is likely to be heavily influenced by the slowdown in the Chinese economy and a wane in their demand for Australian resources.”

“It’s great to see that Bangkok has returned to this year’s list as the fourth most popular destination. Bangkok was a top business travel destination for Australians during 2013-2014, however, it dropped out of our rankings last year, indicating that political unrest in Thailand had a clear impact on its attractiveness as a business travel destination over this period.”

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