The Asia Pacific region is the largest business travel market in the world, comprising 40% of global business travel. But despite the boom in the industry Asia remains relatively cost-effective for business traveler compared to other global hotspots.

ECA’s Daily Rates reports provide average costs for hotel accommodation, which makes up the bulk of any daily allowance, as well as meals, drinks, laundry, taxi transport and daily essentials. This information is used by companies to determine daily expense allowances for staff who undertake business travel. And the results are quite interesting.

Hong Kong is the most expensive location for business travelers in Asia, overtaking Tokyo which drops to second in the rankings. Singapore and Seoul are each tied for third. 

Lee Quane, Regional Director – Asia for ECA International explained, “Although Hong Kong has overtaken Tokyo in the rankings, this change is mostly due to the overall price of business travel in Japan decreasing in Dollar terms after the Yen fell in value over the course of 2017. The cost of business travel in Hong Kong has remained unchanged from last year with the typical business trip now costing USD 508 per day on average.”

But these prices compare favorably to the world’s most expensive destinations like New York where the average business trip would cost a total of USD 793 per day. This makes Asia seem like a bargain.

The study showed that Malaysia was the cheapest country to travel to for business in Asia with Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru at the bottom of the rankings. Bangkok movie As well into the top 50 most expensive cities in the region for the first time as he average business trip to Thailand’s capital now costs USD 278 a day.

As well Chinese cities have seen an increase in cost for a standard business trip, with Shanghai now ranked as the 9th most expensive location for business travel in the region.