According to the American Express Global Business Travel Forecast published recently, costs will to continue to rise in 2008 all over the world, especially airfares and hotel rates, which are expected to reach double-digits in some markets across the US, Europe and Asia.
International and long-haul business class fares are predicted to rise 5-8% the world over, while increases in Europe are expected to be in the region of 6-10%. On the other hand, domestic and short-haul economy class fares will be up 1-4% globally, and 2-5% in Europe.
Price rises are mainly due to the rising cost of fuel and greater demand, with an increasingly larger and more mobile world population.
With regard to hotel rates, those of mid- and upper-range hotels are predicated to rise globally by 11%-14%. Partly due to the Summer Olympics in Beijing, hotel rates in the Asia-Pacific region are in for increases of between 18-24%. Similar rises are expected for mid- and upper-range hotels in the UK, with increases in the region of 19-22% and 21-24%, respectively.
Although companies may also have to fulfil minimum and maximum stay requirements and there will instances when corporate rates do not apply, opportunities still exist to further control costs without curtailing business travel. The forecast also stated that rising hotel rates are likely to contribute to the expected increase of 8-10% percent in global meeting spend.
