London is no longer one of the most expensive cities in the world for business travellers, new research reveals.
The UK capital has fallen out of the top ten most expensive global business travel locations based on average costs for hotel accommodation – which makes up the bulk of any daily allowance – as well as meals, drinks, laundry, taxis and daily essentials.
Geneva is the most expensive city in Europe for business travellers for a fourth year with the total cost of a standard business trip costing £554 a day, compared to £448 in London.
New York is the only location in the world more expensive for business travel than Geneva. A business trip to New York costs £611 a day on average.
London has dropped out of the top ten most expensive locations in the world for business travel, overtaken by Monaco, Basel and Paris.
The city is now also in sixth place in Europe, down from third the year before, according to research by global mobility experts ECA International.
However, the price of hotels in London and Paris is much higher than anywhere in Europe, with the exception of some Swiss locations.
A room in London costs on average £334 per night in a four star hotel, making it the 11th most expensive in the world, while Paris costs £364, making it the fifth most expensive in the world.
ECA daily rates manager Simon Franklin said: “Whilst the price of business travel to London has remained relatively static over the past few years, the strong performance of the euro in the past year has seen costs in other cities such as Paris and Monaco overtake the UK capital.
“The cost of business travel in the UK overall has continued to fall, with every surveyed UK location seeing a drop in the table.
“Aberdeen especially illustrates the sudden drop in cost for business travel to the UK, falling from 13th to 39th in the European rankings in just two years. This has been exacerbated by the recent downturn in the oil and gas industry which has led to a reduction in demand for business travel to the area, as well as having an impact on the local economy.”
Franklin said: “The high demand for hotels in New York is reflected in the premium rate that rooms are currently charged at; averaging £392 per night at a four star hotel.
“The high cost of hotels and transport, as well as mandatory 15%-20% tipping policies during meals out, contribute to the US city being the most expensive in the world for business travel.”
He added: “Swiss cities once again dominate the most expensive places for business trips in Europe, with five different locations in the top ten.
“Switzerland has always been an expensive nation for business travel, and this year is no different as the Swiss franc has performed very strongly.”