2018's Top Business Travel Destinations

Image: PHOTO: Manhattan Bridge New York City Skyline. (photo by: sansara/iStock/Getty Images Plus)
Image: PHOTO: Manhattan Bridge New York City Skyline. (photo by: sansara/iStock/Getty Images Plus)
Janeen Christoff
by Janeen Christoff
Last updated: 4:00 PM ET, Thu December 20, 2018

After a global study, Egencia flight data confirmed that New York is the most popular business travel destination globally. The Big Apple is followed by London and Paris.

London hasn't held the top spot since 2014 and Paris, is solidifying its spot as a business travel hub with air travel to the City of Light up by more than 20 percent from January 1, 2018, to December 1, 2018.

Forecasts show that New York will continue to dominate the business travel market. Egencia flight data shows that business trip flight bookings to New York were nearly 10 percent higher than bookings to London in 2018.

Fourth on the list is Asian business hub Shanghai. China's pre-eminent commerce center and, while Europe holds two spots in the top three and the U.S. takes the top spot, Asian destinations dominate the top 20. Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo rank sixth, eighth and ninth respectively, and Beijing came in at number 15, Mumbai was 17 on the list and Seoul was in the 20th spot.

The Middle East, South America and North Africa all have taken spots in the top 20 as well. Dubai came in at 11, according to Egencia data. Sao Paulo was 18 and Casablanca was number 19.

Overall, business travel is on the rise. Between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2018, total business travel flight bookings increased globally by nearly 110 percent.

"While U.S. and European cities retain the top three spots, the most interesting takeaway is how global business travel has truly become with five of seven continents represented in the top 20 destinations," said Andrew Dyer, Vice President of Global Supply at Egencia brand. "As business travel continues to grow, it's never been more important for companies to have a traveler-friendly program that also provides unified global tools for travel managers to assist their travelers."

Here are the official Egencia top business travel destinations:

-New York

-London

-Paris

-Shanghai

-Toronto

-Singapore

-San Francisco

-Hong Kong

-Tokyo

-Chicago

-Dubai

-Mexico City

-Boston

-Montreal

-Beijing

-Los Angeles

-Mumbai

-Sao Paulo

-Casablanca

-Seoul


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