REPORT
Indian business travellers among the top spenders on hotels: Accor Asia-Pacific Business Traveller Survey 2012 Research highlights modern Indian business travelers are more likely to be owners and C-level executives stay connected with frequent travel updates online and are becoming more eco-conscious.
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ccor, the largest international hotel operator in Asia-Pacific, has revealed the findings of its third annual Accor Asia-Pacific Business Traveler Research, which seeks to better understand the travel and behavioural preferences of business travelers based in the region. The survey interviewed over 2,500 respondents from nine countries in Asia-Pacific, who made business trips in the first half of the year. The survey divulges that Indian travelers have one of the highest hotel budgets in AsiaPacific, spending an average of US $399 per trip. Only Singaporeans spend more, averaging US $468. In terms of nightly spend on accommodation, Indians rank third at US $133, up from US $128 last year. Australians and Singaporeans took the top spots, at US $173 and US $156, respectively, with Mainland Chinese (US $98) and Indonesian (US $81) travelers spending the least. Survey also reveals that, compared to fellow travelers in the region, Indian business travelers are most likely to be entrepreneurs, with 17 per cent of respondents saying they own their own business. Across Asia-Pacific, the average is 10 per cent, with Australia and New Zealand tied for second place at 14 per cent each, Singapore (5 per cent) and Mainland China (4 per cent) rounding out the bottom. Indian travelers were also the most likely to take business trips to visit customers, with 58 per cent of respondents citing customer visits as a reason for travel, followed closely by Mainland China (57 per cent). Regionally, an average of 40 per cent of travelers engaged in customer visits, with Indonesian travelers the least likely to make sales calls, at 26 per cent. While business travelers from India are more likely than elsewhere to be in control 30
HOTELSCAPES September 2012
of their own fortunes they are not likely to be women. In fact, India had the lowest femaleto-male ratio among Asia-Pacific business travelers, with women making up a paltry 6 per cent of travelers. The regional average was 26 per cent, with Thailand (40 per cent), Australia (33 per cent) and New Zealand (30 per cent) leading the pack. Even countries with not-so-stellar ratios, like Mainland China (16 per cent) and Indonesia (10 per cent) led India by at least ten percentage points. Another observation is that when it
comes to making reservations, business travelers from India are the most likely in the region to book directly on the hotel's website, with 69 per cent of respondents saying they usually make reservations via the hotel's online booking channel and a further 19 per cent saying they use online travel agents. None of the respondents said they used offline travel agents or call centers. This result is substantiated by the finding that Indian business travelers believe that hotel branded websites provide the most competitive rates, Pullman Gurgaon Central Park