Bangalore was the most visited city by business travellers in India in 2012, according to data released by Concur, the global corporate expense management firm.
Concur, which used the help of IDC to mine data about expense filings by corporate employees, also found that business travellers to India spent considerably less in 2012 compared to the previous year.
It attributed the fact to the sharp (12%) decline in the value of the rupee in 2012 vs 2011. Bangalore, India’s IT capital, was followed by Mumbai as India’s most visited city for business.
Bangalore was ranked 12th according to the number of overnight hotel stays and Mumbai was ranked 20th. Mumbai, however, beat Bangalore when it came to the average expenditure by a business traveller on one visit.
The average traveller to Mumbai spent $238 per visit for lodging, ground transport, dining and entertainment last year, down from $255 in 2011.
In comparison, the average expense claim filed by travellers to Bangalore was $227, down from $258 the year before, Concur said.
“It is important to note here that though the spending in dollar terms has declined, the actual spending in rupees may have actually increased,” it said.
Agencies like Concur help companies process and manage travel and other expenses of employees when they are on business trips.
About 31% of the expenses incurred by travellers to India was on lodging, compared to 14% in Australia and 23% in Japan. Only 2.44% was spent on entertainment – a small proportion compared to other parts of the world.
Interestingly, data also showed that business travellers are spending more on train journeys — possibly indicating that they are travelling more by trains — compared to the previous year. Railway expenses as a whole for India rose 58% – the highest jump anywhere.
Part of the reason may be the steep rise in airfare in India in 2012. The value of the average airfare transaction increased 18% in dollar terms – indicating that the average airline fare may have increased by by about 30% for business travellers in 2012. Despite this, the average airline ticket price in India remains among the lowest in Asia, Concur said.
Other interesting finds
- India is the only APAC country to show a decline in spends on lodging at -0.27%
- Dining in India saw a minimal rise whereas all other counties in APAC saw a decline in spends
- India and Hong Kong are only 2 countries that saw a rise in entertainment expenses
- India saw a significant rise in railway expenses at 58% as compared to other APAC countries.
- This rise is the highest among all nations in the report – both at the regional and global level.
- Telecom grew significantly at 24.45% in Hong Kong as compared to other APAC countries
- In 2012, the average expense report filer spent $3,244 per quarter on T&E
- All expense types declined – dining (-11.1 %) car rental (-9.1 %) airfare (-8.2 %) hotel (-3.8 %)
- Hotel spending accounted for the highest share (24 %) of all international spend.
- Airfare expenses accounted for the highest share of all U.S. spend
- The most expensive international city was Brisbane, followed by Tokyo and Sydney.