The Asia Pacific business travel industry is on the up and up,
according to industry sentiments at the recent GBTA APAC Conference 2024
in Singapore.
Hosted by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), the two-day
conference held at Raffles City Convention Centre was co-located with
the Worldwide ERC Regional Summit, attracting over 800 attendees from 28
countries to network.
Key topics discussed over the two-day conference included
sustainability integration in corporate mobility programmes, an
increasingly diversified workplace culture and its influence on
corporate travel, and challenges and opportunities for harnessing
artificial intelligence (AI) and technology.
Bleisure travel vs work-life balance
Speaking at
the conference, Suzanne Neufang, CEO of GBTA, shared how a recent survey
conducted by GBTA indicated that APAC business travelers are 45%
likelier to blend leisure travel with a business trip – higher than any other region surveyed.
The survey also showed that Taiwan (52%), Singapore (40%), Thailand
(36%), New Zealand (34%) and Hong Kong (31%) represent the top five APAC
markets with the highest year-over-year growth in business travel
spending between 2022-2023.
In other words, she said, face-to-face meetings “remain unmatched”
for positive outcomes and connections: “The workplace and workforce
continue to evolve as we see a shift in hybrid schedules, changing
priorities and the increased desire to align with socially and
environmentally conscious companies, but there’s no doubt that people
want to travel for work, even if how they travel continues to change.”
Shalabh Arora, director of marketing at the Four Seasons Bengaluru,
agrees. “People are trying to catch up with the time they lost during
the pandemic and the people they couldn’t meet – now they’re meeting
their teams across the globe.”
Bertrand Saillet, managing director (Asia) at FCM Travel, shared that
although post-Covid recovery has been tremendous, one of the current
key issues in the corporate travel industry lies in striking a balance
to achieve satisfaction of the traveller and the company.
“These two are not necessarily looking for the same thing,” he
stated. “You need to find a way, and with technology now you can make
sure you don’t neglect one or the other. Right now you can see that AI
is a driver of more technology enablement, but you have to remember that
it’s not a magic formula, it’s not like you install it and you’re
done.”
GBTA ACTS up
At the conference, the GBTA
announced a partnership with the Australia Corporate Travel Summit
(ACTS), a collaboration of the Association of Travel Management
Companies and Greener Airlines, for a conference and exhibition taking
place in Sydney on 13 November 2024.
“Entering this partnership with ACTS underscores GBTA's commitment to
the APAC region and allows us to be part of a high-quality event that
focuses on the unique trends and issues affecting the business travel
industry Down Under,” said Catherine Logan, GBTA regional senior vice
president for EMEA and APAC.
GBTA also announced it will host its 2025 APAC Conference again at
Raffles City Convention Centre in Singapore on 27-28 May 2025.
“There’s definitely a good appetite for business travel in the APAC
region,” said Elle Ng-Darmawan, regional director, APAC for GBTA.
“Having spoken to our regional members and industry professionals to
better understand what’s important to them, I’m optimistic about the
future.”