Recent news might have been dominated by accusations of
certain politicians and union officials allegedly rorting their travel
expenses, but for the majority of Australian "road warriors"
corporate travel is far more about business than pleasure.
The Accor Asia Pacific Business Traveller Survey 2012 shows
that out of the 2,586 respondents in eight countries across Asia Pacific,
Australian and New Zealand
business travellers were the least inclined to mix business and pleasure while
travelling on company time and money.
The research, conducted by leading global research
consultancy ORC International, surveyed business travellers from eight
destinations: Australia, China, Hong Kong SAR, India,
Indonesia, Malaysia, New
Zealand, Singapore
and Thailand.
Accor is the largest hotel group in Australia
with over 200 hotels under brands such as Sofitel, Sea
Temple, Pullman, Quay West, MGallery, Grand Mercure,
Novotel, Sebel, Citigate, All Seasons, and Ibis.
Highlights of the research findings include:
Australians concentrate on business, rather than pleasure -
when asked whether they had extended their business trip to take a holiday
break or to visit friends and family or had taken a friend or partner on the
trip, Australian and New Zealand corporate travellers were the least likely of
the eight countries surveyed. Only 11% of Australians said they had extended
their trip to visit friends and relatives, a mere 11% had tacked on a holiday
and just 15% of respondents had taken a friend or partner along on a business
trip. This compares with 33% of Thai, 25% of Malaysians and 20% of Hong Kongers
who have extended their business trips to take a holiday. Australians were also
the least likely (21%) to take a long bath on the company's travel time, where
as 89% of Malaysians and 83% of Chinese say they take to the bath to while away
their hours.
Australians are also reluctant to use the corporate credit
card for "ancillary" services such as the mini bar, spa treatments
and in-house movies, though Aussie men are more likely to be profligate than
female business travellers.
However, Aussies travel on business and attend meetings more
for networking and internal purposes rather than their Asian counterparts whose
mantra is simple - SELL, SELL, SELL. For instance, while the principal reason
for business travel by Indian and Chinese corporate travellers is for
"visiting customers", Australian business travellers stated that
"internal company meetings" was their primary reason for travel.
Meanwhile, meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions
(MICE) travel accounted for 28% of all trips taken in the first six months of
2012. The quality of the agenda/program (59%) is what drives Australian
business travellers to attend MICE events rather than seek business development
opportunities.
Business travel still dominated by the boys club - almost
three quarters of business travellers who responded to the survey across the
eight countries were male. With little change from 2011, there is still a major
imbalance in Australian corporate travellers with 67% males and only 33%
females. Thailand, Australia and New
Zealand had the highest number of female business
travellers while India
had the least with a mere 6% of females travelling for work.
A comfortable bed is key - proven once again by Accor's
business traveller survey, a comfortable hotel bed is of the utmost importance
for all business travellers. Of the top three services when staying in a hotel,
Australians voted for a comfortable bed number one (74%), followed by a good
quality clean bathroom/shower (45%) ahead of free internet (30%). And that is why
the world's leading economy hotel brand, Ibis has instigated the largest ever
upgrading of beds to meet what road-warriors want. The Ibis 'Sweet Bed' moves
the brand into premium economy extending on what 5-star hotels used to provide
travellers back in the nineties to make 3-star sleeping a 5-star experience
today.
Location is still number one when determining choice of
hotel - while location was the primary reason for selecting a hotel by
travellers from all Asia Pacific countries, Australians (68%) placed the
highest importance on location well ahead of free Wi-Fi and price. As was the
case in 2011, the majority of respondents in all countries believe it is more
important to be located near to where they are doing business rather than located
close to shopping, nightlife and entertainment areas (though former executives
of the Health Services Union East Branch may beg to differ on this survey
result).
Australian corporate travellers plan more business travel in
the next 6 months - looking to the remainder of the year, the average number of
business trips planned is higher than this time last year. Chinese and Indian
business travellers lead the pack in terms of projected business travel, where
as Australian corporate travellers anticipate a marginal increase in travel,
primarily domestic, in the second half of 2012 compared to the first six
months.
Business travellers keep quiet on social media - regardless
of whether they had a positive or negative hotel experience business travellers
are unlikely to always post comments on social media websites such as Facebook
to TripAdvisor. Nearly half (47%) of Australian business travellers have never
posted reviews on social media and the majority of respondents prefer to
contact the hotel directly via comment card or email/letter in the case of a
negative experience, rather than posting comments online.
Australian corporate travellers prefer to book it themselves
- business travellers in Asia Pacific are most likely to book their hotel
accommodation themselves with online the preferred medium (82%), while only a
minority using offline travel agents or reservation centres. 50% of Australians
usually book directly with the hotel online compared to only 31% of Chinese
business travellers.
Australians not so keen to be green - while Australians are
increasing their environmental programs, it appears that Australians are the
least likely of all the countries surveyed to choose a hotel above another
simply because it is more environmentally conscious. A mere 21% of Australians
are driven by environmental factors when choosing a hotel. That said, 60% of
Australians would be willing to reuse their towels and linens if the hotel
shared its laundry cost savings with environmental initiatives.
Personalisation a key driver for choice in 'hotels of the
future' - Australian business travellers would like to see more personalised
services in hotels including a dedicated check-in and check-out counter for
loyalty card members (63%) with over half of Australian respondents (60%)
wanting to see more hotel amenities and products from Australia.
New Zealand business travellers love us (and we love them),
but Australia not so important for Asian business travellers - while Singapore
and Hong Kong have emerged in the 'Top 3' destinations for Australian business
travellers, not surprisingly New Zealand was the second most popular
destination for Aussie travellers in the first half of 2012 accounting for 30%
of all international business trips in the first half of 2011. However,
intra-Asia travel, rather than travel to New
Zealand and Australia,
was the hottest travel pattern, with neither Australia
nor New Zealand
in the top three destinations of any of the Asian countries. The good news is
that the Kiwis love us back with Australia
in New Zealand's 'Top 3'
destinations for business travel alongside Singapore
and China.
"While some of the survey results were not too
dissimilar from the 2011 survey, it does bring to light new aspects of business
travel habits and preferences such as using a business trip for added leisure
benefits and use of social media while on business," said Peter Hook,
General Manager Communications for Accor Asia Pacific.
"It is encouraging that corporate travellers across
Asia Pacific are planning to take more business trips this year, with the
increase driven largely by a greater number of domestic trips, which, for
Australians, links back to their primarily reason for travel - internal
meetings and visiting customers.
"The survey also found that business travellers in Australia and New Zealand draw quite a distinct
line between business and pleasure, which suggests that allegations of rorting
by certain politicians and union officials are more the exception than the
rule. In fact, it would appear that Australians are generally quite puritan in
their business travel habits, though it could also mean that scrutiny of travel
expenses is considerably tighter in this country than in Asia.
"One result that wasn't a surprise - but continues to
be a disappointment - is the lack of gender equity in business travel. Australia had
one of the better records in this area - with two thirds male compared to one
third female - but corporate travel still seems to be overwhelmingly skewed
towards male road-warriors.
Accor, the world's leading hotel operator and market leader
in Europe, is present in 92 countries with
more than 4,400 hotels and 530,000 rooms. Accor's broad portfolio of hotel
brands - Sofitel, Pullman,
MGallery, Novotel, Suite Novotel, Mercure, Adagio, ibis, all seasons/ibis
Styles, Etap Hotel/Formule 1/ibis budget, hotelF1 and Motel 6 - provide an
extensive offer from luxury to budget. With more than 180,000 employees* in
Accor brand hotels worldwide, the Group offers to its clients and partners
nearly 45 years of know-how and expertise.
*Including 145,000 in owned, leased and managed hotels
No comments:
Post a Comment