The French travel management company BCD Travel has once again been comparing the world's top business destinations, with a specific look at airline and train company bookings, and has compiled its top 10 lists for 2013. Over the past 12 months there have been some clear changes in the league tables for the top destinations for business travellers, with some popular 2012 destinations falling and others emerging; however, London remains the European destination of choice and New York cannot be beaten on an international scale.
The list of European destinations shows some predictably similar results to 2012 and one impressive gain.
Amsterdam will be celebrating the impressive surge in visits of 13%, which took it from 6th place to 4th in 2013, but it still cannot compete with London, Brussels and Frankfurt, who retain the top, second, and third spots respectively for the second year running. Brussels is stubbornly maintaining its position in second place and should be commended because once it is added with London, the pairing makes up 40% of the entire ticket sales of the whole European list. Elsewhere, Italian and Spanish destinations continue their slide to the lower end of the scale, with Madrid dropping from 5th to 7th, and Munich has also seen an improvement and climbed the list from the year before.
TOP 5 Eropean Destinations for Business Travellers Over the Last Years
2013 2012 2011
1 London London Frankfurkt
2 Brussels Brussels London
3 Frankfurkt Frankfurkt Geneva
4 Amsterdam Geneva Madrid
5 Munich Madrid Milan
What makes London's status more interesting is the opinion of other surveys, like the one by Concur, and its place on the international stage.
Some may question the worth of data that is biased towards French air and rail passenger, particularly when experts admit that London is always high on the list because of such easy access with the Eurostar and numerous air links, but this idea of London being a popular city is backed up by a study conducted in mid 2013 by expense management company Concur. The difference with these results is that they believed that London was the world's most visited business destination rather than Europe's, based on hotel visits for business trips, and they completed their top three with Shanghai and Singapore.
In contrast, the BCD Travel study has a top three in their international list of New York, Moscow and Shanghai, with New York retaining their position. Other notable occupants in this BCD Travel listing are the change in favour of Indian destinations from Bombay to Bangalore, a drop in bookings to Middle Eastern destinations – with Dubai seeing a big fall from 5th to 8th – and a rise for Boston, the only other American city in their top 10.
TOP 5 Eropean Destinations for Business Travellers Over the Last Years
2013 2012 2011
1 New York New York New York
2 Moscow Shanghai Hong Kong
3 Shanghai Casablanca Dubai
4 Casablanca Istanbul Istanbul
5 Bangalor Dubai Casablanca
London and New York are likely to continue their dominance in these tables for 2014.
Six months can make a lot of difference, which may explain the difference between the two surveys and Moscow's massive jump into the top ten in the year of the Winter Olympic Games, and these lists could be vastly different at the start of 2014. This is unlikely, however, as New York has been named top dog in this BCD Travel survey for three years running and it will take some major economic changes and attitude alterations to oust the English capital from the European top spot.