Corporate Travel News For Asia

IKEA global travel leader Victor Lim, speaking at the CTC Singapore Corporate Travel Summit, stated (27-Jun-2023) he advises corporate travel managers sending employees on international business trips to China to have those employees "just use cash" during their trip, noting "cash is still widely accepted in China". Mr Lim acknowledged "China is so driven by mobile payments today", which is convenient and efficient for Chinese nationals, but urged corporate travel stakeholders to remember that using these services can be fraught for foreign nationals, especially non Chinese speakers, and inaccessible for employees unfamiliar with using QR codes and Chinese mobile applications. He commented: "Even if you manage to somehow secure a way to put money in an Alipay or WeChat Pay account, accessing those services might not be so easy" upon arrival in China for a foreign national corporate traveller, concluding: "I think the simplest answer is to just use cash, because cash is still accepted everywhere".

BCD Travel senior VP global sales Asia Pacific Ben Wedlock, speaking at the CTC Singapore Corporate Travel Summit, stated (27-Jun-2023) "From May-2023, we actually eclipsed domestic capacity out of China, so we matched 2019 levels". Mr Wedlock continued: "Just right now, as of today's date, we're actually sitting at 108% capacity coming out of China, domestically. Which I think is an incredible number, and reflects that pent up travel demand from those Chinese travellers wanting to get back onto metal". He added: "I think we are sitting at about 40% international capacity, compared to 2019".

Trip.Biz director of global strategy Sherwin Dai, speaking at the CTC Singapore Corporate Travel Summit, stated (27-Jun-2023) "China is still the largest corporate travel market in the world". Mr Dai noted China recorded USD286.9 billion in business travel spending (BTS) in 2022, more than any other country worldwide, ahead of the US, Germany, France, Japan and the UK. He acknowledged that China recorded a relatively low year-on-year increase in BTS for 2022, at 6%.

Trip.Biz director of global strategy Sherwin Dai, speaking at the CTC Singapore Corporate Travel Summit, stated (27-Jun-2023) following the lifting of COVID Zero policies by China's Government in late 2022 "by the end of December, basically everybody in China got COVID, so everyone stopped travelling for a month", followed by a recovery in travel in Jan-2023 and a "major rebound" from Feb-2023. Mr Dai said based on travel numbers in China thus far in 2023, "we are projecting a 60% year-on-year increase for 2023, which would push us to around 85%-90% of 2019 levels". He noted "the majority of the recovery is coming from domestic travel", with international travel in China "still only at around 30%-40% of where it was in 2019". Mr Dai said travel in China may recover to 100% of 2019 levels by mid 2024, but more likely this will occur towards the end of 2024.

Aviation Week Network regional director of air transport Asia Pacific Lu Luo, speaking at the CTC Singapore Corporate Travel Summit, stated (27-Jun-2023) northeast Asia's post-pandemic recovery rate is still "well below" other Asian regions, especially mainland China and Japan. Mr Luo noted US-China flights are currently only operating at 6% of pre-COVID-19 levels.

Aviation Week Network (AWN) regional director of air transport Asia Pacific Lu Luo, speaking at the CTC Singapore Corporate Travel Summit, stated (27-Jun-2023) China's reopening will have a large impact on the recovery of both global and intra-Asia traffic post-COVID-19. Mr Luo added routes between neighbouring Asian countries were among the most traffic-intensive routes in 2019.

Singapore Tourism Board executive director Edward Koh, speaking at the CTC Singapore Corporate Travel Summit, stated (27-Jun-2023) sustainability is of "great importance and priority", noting the pandemic has driven the MICE industry to adopt technology "at a speed never seen before". Dr Koh said: "Hybrid meetings could be here to stay or not, but we are using a lot more of the technology we have learned during the pandemic". He said Singapore Tourism Board is working with industry partners and associations to do more on the sustainability front.

Singapore Tourism Board (STB) executive director Edward Koh, speaking at the CTC Singapore Corporate Travel Summit, stated (27-Jun-2023) "As demand for in person events returns, the industry is obviously operating under immense pressure to deliver events with shorter turnaround times amidst economic uncertainty and rising costs". Dr Koh said: "It's crucial to consider how existing resources are managed and how human capital is managed". He added: "The business events sector is all about people on the main event floor and behind the scenes, to sustain the growth of this industry there needs to be a pipeline of manpower. We have been trying to get our fair share of talent back to the industry".

Singapore Tourism Board executive director Edward Koh, speaking at the CTC Singapore Corporate Travel Summit, stated (27-Jun-2023) "China's recovery is stronger than expected, driven by a pickup in domestic service consumption following the lifting of restrictions". Dr Koh said Southeast Asia's growth prospects "remain strong", particularly for economies including Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, supported by "very resilient domestic demand and continued tourism recovery". He noted Vietnam has been a "star performer" in terms of visitor arrivals.

Singapore Tourism Board executive director Edward Koh, speaking at the CTC Singapore Corporate Travel Summit, stated (27-Jun-2023) Singapore's tourism sector expects to receive around 12 to 14 million visitors in 2023. Dr Koh said as of May-2023, Singapore welcomed 5.15 million visitors staying on average four days. He added: "Barring unexpected circumstances, we expect tourism activity to recover to pre-pandemic levels by 2024".