Accor Asia Pacific's Business Traveller Research

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Introduction

The Accor Asia Pacific Business Traveller Research is a study by Accor Asia Pacific, seeking to better understand the travel and behavioural preferences of business travellers in the Asia Pacific region. This research is now in its second year and has been updated to reflect market conditions unique to the Asia Pacific region. Accor partnered with Cimigo Ltd, a research consultancy in Asia Pacific, to conduct the research, with 10,437 Asia Pacific based business travellers from Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand were surveyed online about their travel habits in the first half of 2011, and their planned business travel for the remainder of the year. The three key areas of that the study covered include Business travel in the first 6 months of 2011, and planned for the last 6 months of 2011, the process of planning the business trip and the usage of hotel facilities.

Findings

Singapore and Hong Kong tie for the most visited destination by APAC business travelers in the first half of 2011, with Thailand and China come in third and fourth respectively. For the second half of the year, Singapore (39%) and Hong Kong (38%) are also the most likely destinations for business travel.

In terms of the number of trips made, Asia Pacific business travellers took an average of 6.3 business trips in the first 6 months of 2011. The average number of trips differed by country of residence, with Chinese (8.7 trips), Indian (7.3 trips) and Singaporean (7.1 trips) business travellers ranking the highest, and Thais (5.0 trips), Australians (5.2 trips) and New Zealanders (5.2 trips) ranked lowest. When narrowed down to demographics, the research found that Male business travellers (7.0 trips) were on the road more frequently than females (4.5 trips). That said, Hong Kong has the largest percentage of female business travelers (36%), followed by Thailand (33%). At the extreme end, only 7 percent of the Indian respondents were women. In terms of daily hotel budget during business travel, Asia Pacific's executives average at US$121 with Australian business travelers leading the pack at US$158 per night. Singaporean and Hong Kongers spend US$134 and US$132 respectively. On the other hand, Chinese business travelers are more frugal, spending a mere US$99 a night. Both Singapore and Chinese business travellers (82%) are most likely to work at the hotel during their business trips. They are followed by Hong Kong business travellers (75%). Hotel facilities-wise, Indian business travelers are most likely to use both fitness (85%) and spa facilities (64%) than any other nationalities.

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%), while offline travel agents were used only by a minority (16%). However, the survey did not delve deeper into how secretaries made the bookings.

In the area of environmental consciousness, 90% of Chinese business travellers surveyed said they would choose a hotel that is more environmentally conscious and would even be willing to pay a premium extra for it.