Macau (MNA) – The Macau SAR was the tenth most expensive location for business travel in Asia in 2017, the latest report by ECA International, a foreign labour management company revealed.
With a cost of some US$388 (MOP3,118) on average per day, the city has kept the same position in the ranking from 2016, .
Hong Kong displaced Tokyo as the most expensive city for travelling on business, with the Regional Director – Asia for ECA International, Lee Quane, claiming the change “was 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 remained unchanged from a year earlier, with the typical business trip costing US$508 per day on average.
The ECA’s Daily Rates provide average costs for hotel accommodation, which makes up the bulk of daily allowances, as well as meals, drinks, laundry, taxi transport and daily essentials.
Singapore has continued to rise in the rankings and joined third position – together with Seoul, South Korea – in the 2017 ranking after a slight increase in the price of business travel.
Overall, ECA noted, Chinese cities have seen an increase in costs for a standard business trip, with Shanghai now ranked as the ninth most expensive location for business travel in the region.
“Increased prices of goods and services commonly consumed by business travellers has led to the rise of many Chinese cities in our rankings,” said Lee.
Despite the general increase, Shanghai is still a much cheaper destination than Hong Kong or Tokyo for business travel, being slightly over US$100 a day less expensive on average.
ECA claims the information is used by companies to determine daily expense allowances for staff that undertake business travel.
