Brisbane stings business travellers most in world

Brisbane … the city saw a sharp rise in hotel costs. The study was based on $US50 billion of global travel spending by corporate clients tracked by Concur software.

Jamie Freed

Brisbane was the most expensive city in the world for business travellers last year, and Sydney, Perth and Melbourne also ranked in the top 10, says a study by expense management group Concur.

The cost of an average day of business travel in Brisbane rose by 19.6 per cent to $US547.53 ($595.60) last year, with a sharp rise in hotel costs to more than $US300 a day lifting it past other costly cities such as Tokyo and London.

It was clear vendors in Brisbane had been taking advantage of strong demand associated with the mining and energy boom, said Michael Eberhard, Concur’s Singapore-based Asia Pacific head.

“If you look at Brisbane, it is really the highest in this category for lodging and for ground transportation,” he said. “Those are two categories that typically move with supply and demand with high volatility.”

Sydney ranked the highest in the world on dining costs at $US70.27 a day, but accommodation costs of $US260 a night were significantly cheaper than in Brisbane.

The study was based on $US50 billion of global travel spending by corporate clients tracked by Concur software, of which $US1.24 billion of the transactions took place in Australia.

The Australian dollar averaged about $US1.03 in both 2011 and 2012 but has since fallen to US91.7¢.

Mr Eberhard said the recent fall in the dollar would make some difference but Australia would remain “really expensive” in the global context this year.

Sydney still top of the costs

“If you look at Sydney, of the top 25 cities visited internationally outside of the US, Sydney was the single most expensive,” he said. “It is a pretty strong statement.

“Depending on currency changes, you probably will have some impact, but it is not going to bring it away from being one of the most expensive this year.”

Concur’s data from Australian clients, which include engineering firm Hatch Associates and share registry group Computershare, shows that spending by travellers on dining and entertainment fell last year.

“I think companies are doing what they can to manage their second-largest controllable expense beyond payroll, which is travel and entertainment,” Mr Eberhard said.

Local small- and medium-sized businesses spent a higher amount on lodging than their larger counterparts, which, he said, might be attributed to less strict travel-budget policies and a lack of bargaining power with hotels.

Mr Eberhard said mining, financial services, retail firms and the Australian government were among those taking the hardest look at their travel budgets in an attempt to save costs.

He said that could lead to fewer trips or the need to book lower-priced hotels and dining options in an attempt to maintain the same number of trips.

“Most of our discussions with regards to costs and managing costs, a lot of that has to do with Asia,” he said.

“I think you continue to see a trend where Australia’s growth is still tied to the ability to succeed in Asia.

“Many of our customers are looking for ways to manage costs as they are getting a much higher volume of their employees travelling back and forth to Asia.”

Brisbane stings business travellers most in world