Corporate Travel not on fast lanes in 2012

MUMBAI, INDIA: In 2012, the average expense report filer spent $3,244 per quarter on T&E. A Concur study had found spending in almost all expense types declined at least slightly, including dining (-11.1 per cent), car rental (-9.1 per cent), and airfare (-8.2 per cent); hotel spending dropped the least (-3.8 per cent).

Hotel spending accounted for the highest share (24 per cent) of all international spend, while airfare expenses accounted for the highest share of all U.S. spend. The most expensive international city for business travel was Brisbane, Australia, followed by Tokyo, Japan and Sydney, Australia.

Concur, a player in integrated cloud-based travel and expense management services released its third annual global report on corporate travel and entertainment (T&E) spend. The report analyzes more than $50 billion in corporate travel and entertainment (T&E) spend.

The spend data was analyzed for nine nations worldwide, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and India.

India's data threw up some interesting facts based on the analysis. The rupee declined 12.4 per cent against the dollar from 2011 to 2012. Accounting for this change in exchange rates, we can see that India saw an 18 per cent increase in the average airfare transaction, which is the highest recorded increase globally. Rail costs also increased greatly - nearly 58 per cent, which is the highest recorded increase across the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia. Surprisingly, the average gas transaction declined 4.2 per cent suggesting that rising fuel costs were not the only factor behind the higher airfare and rail amounts

Bangalore once again emerged as the most visited city in India for business travel ranked at no. 12 in the 25 most visited cities followed by Mumbai ranked at 20 in terms of number of overnight hotel stays.

The average percentage spend on lodging (31 per cent) was the highest in India as compared to other APAC countries like Japan (23 per cent), Hong Kong (25 per cent) and Australia (14 per cent). India ranked the lowest in average entertainment spend at 2.44 per cent and the highest being 8.14 per cent in Japan

Other key APAC Region highlights show that India is the only APAC country to show a decline in spends on lodging at -0.27 per cent, though percentage spent on lodging remains the highest in India compared to other spend categories. India saw most significant rise in airfare for APAC at 18 per cent but average transaction cost remains the lowest in the region. Dining in India saw a minimal rise whereas all other counties in APAC saw a decline in spends. India and Hong Kong are only two countries that saw a rise in entertainment expenses. India saw a significant rise in railway expenses at 58 per cent as compared to other APAC countries. This rise is the highest among all nations in the report - both at the regional and global level.

Christopher Juneau, Senior Director, Marketing, APAC, Concur Technologies said; "Through this report we aim to help our customers in understanding and organizing their employee spends accurately. The report is a study of travel and entertainment spend across important business hubs of the world including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan, United Kingdom and the United States."

The Concur Expense IQ Report also finds corporate travelers spent 93 per cent more on ancillary fees in 2012 ($58 million) than they did in 2011 ($30 million) - challenging companies with nearly twice as much hidden or low-visibility spend.

He further added, "Ancillary fees are a relatively new area of spend that many organizations are still not capturing accurately, however, Concur Expense enables clients to categorize and capture these specific categories with increased granularity, enabling them to truly understand all the costs involved in air travel. The total for this area of spend captured by Concur clients increased from just over $30 million to about $58 million from 2011 to 2012, with only "Onboard Entertainment" seeing a marked decline and "Seats/Upgrades" remaining relatively flat."