INTERNATIONAL REPORT—New York is the most expensive location in the world for business travel, according to a report by management consultant firm ECA International. New York is the only location in the world to rank higher for business travel costs than Geneva, with a trip to the Big Apple costing $799 a day on average.
“A big proportion of the cost of business travel to New York can be attributed to the high demand for hotels in the city with a room costing $512 on average,” said Steven Kilfedder, production manager at ECA International. “These costs in combination with consistently high prices for transport and at many restaurants can make trips to the city extremely expensive, contributing to the city being ranked the most expensive in the world for business travel.”
Elsewhere, for the second successive year, Hong Kong has been ranked the most expensive location in Asia for business travel with the average business trip costing an overall total of $515 per day, including hotel costs of $286, according to the report.
“Hong Kong has always been one of the most expensive Asian locations to visit on business, due to the combination of a high cost of goods and services, and expensive hotel prices,” said Kilfedder. “However, in recent years we have seen Hong Kong pull away slightly from other expensive locations such as Tokyo, Seoul and Singapore, and this year has been no different with Hong Kong now costing 4% more than Tokyo and 8% more than Seoul in second and third places respectively.”
In Europe, Swiss cities continue to dominate the top 10, with Geneva, Zurich, Basel and Bern all among the most expensive European locations for business travel. However, it is the Icelandic capital Reykjavik which saw a big leap in the cost of business travel, with the average trip now costing a total of $615. This is a jump of more than $50 in just a year, moving Reykjavik ahead of notable cities such as London to become the fourth most expensive location in Europe for business travel.
According to ECA International, here’s a ranking of the most expensive cities in the world for business travelers in 2019:
- New York — $799
- Geneva — $716
- Zurich —$661
- Washington, DC — $621
- Paris — $617
- Reykjavik, Iceland — $615
- San Francisco — $581
- Basel, Switzerland — $579
- Los Angeles — $578
- Bern, Switzerland — $576
Four-star hotel accommodations were used as the point of comparison for hotel accommodation costs in these rankings.