Regional Differences Highlight Higher U.S., Flat Global Per Diems

The 2013 edition of the Corporate Travel Index, Business Travel News' annual effort to establish business travel per diems for 200 cities around the world, underscores the regional nature of the industry's fragile economic recovery. For every location where hotel and food costs showed strong growth—like those in South America and Canada—there were those where such prices declined, like in Europe and India. In fact, when averaging all the non-U.S. cities listed in the 2013 Corporate Travel Index, the per diem derived from daily food, hotel and miscellaneous costs is $366—exactly the same as the per diem listed in the 2012 Index.

[Please click here to view the digital edition of the 2013 Corporate Travel Index, featuring all per diem listings, downloadable as a pdf.]

With higher year-over-year hotel costs outweighing declines in average daily costs for meals and car rental, the average per diem for the 100 U.S. cities listed in this year's Index in aggregate rose to $292.41, about 1.6 percent higher than the figure presented in the 2012 Index. A full listing of those 100 U.S. cities—an identical roster as was presented last year—can be found here.

All per diems are based on hotel prices paid by BCD Travel corporate clients and food cost benchmarks supplied by consulting firm Mercer Inc. U.S. per diems also include car rental prices paid by BCD corporate clients, while non-U.S. per diems include miscellaneous costs calculated by Mercer. The full 2013 Corporate Travel Index methodology is detailed below.

BTN this year included two new cities in its roster of 100 locations outside of the United States: Lagos, the most populous city in Nigeria, and the northern Chinese city of Tianjin. They replace the Dutch city of Eindhoven and Toulouse, France. While this year's total average prices include Lagos and Tianjin, the total year-over-year percentage changes in all charts do not incorporate prices from the four cities. The full roster of non-U.S. cities can be found here.

BTN this year again separated non-U.S. Corporate Travel Index per diems into geographic regions: the Americas; Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and Asia/Pacific, with year-over-year percentage change figures for each.

Spurred by sharp hotel cost increases in several South American cities, the average per diem in the Americas is 5 percent higher than in the 2012 Index.

The average 2013 Corporate Travel Index per diem in Europe, the Middle East and Africa declined by more than 2 percent from last year's figures, illustrated perhaps most notably by sharp declines in several German cities.

In the Asia/Pacific region, a rebound in pricing in Japan helped outweigh sharp cost declines in India to produce an average regional per diem 2.2 percent higher than in last year's Index.

METHODOLOGY

The 2013 edition of the Business Travel News Corporate Travel Index is based on actual prices paid in 2012 by corporate clients of BCD Travel, provided to Business Travel News by BCD's Advito consulting arm, as well as research conducted by The BTN Group and New York-based consulting firm Mercer Inc.

U.S. Corporate Travel Index

Total U.S. per diems listed here and here are compiled by adding the average hotel, car and food costs listed on subsequent pages. BTN calculated year-over-year percentage changes in relation to total per diems listed in the 2012 Corporate Travel Index, which were compiled in the same manner as this year's data.

Hotel: The U.S. hotel cost charts display average upper upscale, upscale and midprice hotel rates paid by BCD Travel corporate clients from January to November 2012, in addition to an overall average daily rate. That overall rate is calculated by averaging rates from the three listed tiers as well as luxury and economy tiers. Average hotel costs include 2012 sales and occupancy taxes and surcharges based on information collected from each city's convention and visitors bureau, chamber of commerce or other public data. Year-over-year percentage changes are calculated inclusive of tax and surcharge data.

Car Rental: The car rental costs listed are averages for each city based on actual rates paid by BCD Travel corporate clients from January to November 2012 for compact, intermediate and full-size rentals, and include taxes and surcharges, also calculated by Advito. Year-over-year percentage changes are calculated inclusive of tax and surcharge data.

Food:BTN commissioned consulting firm Mercer Inc. to survey restaurateurs and calculate the cost of standard meals in each location. Totals reflect January 2013 pricing for a breakfast of two eggs, meat, toast, orange juice and coffee; a lunch of soup, a hamburger or chicken sandwich, a slice of pie and a soft drink; and a dinner of soup, filet steak, a glass of red wine, dessert and a cup of coffee. The listed costs do not include tax but do include a 15 percent gratuity.

Americas, EMEA & Asia/Pacific Corporate Travel Index

As with U.S. Corporate Travel Index data, per diems for the 100 listed cities outside the United States are based on prices paid in 2012 by corporate clients of BCD Travel, provided to Business Travel News by BCD's Advito consulting arm, as well as research conducted by Mercer. For the Americas (excluding the United States), Europe/Middle East/Africa and Asia/Pacific regions, Business Travel News calculated year-over-year change percentages against total per diems listed in the 2012 Corporate Travel Index, which were compiled in the same manner as this year's data. Those changes were not calculated using constant U.S. dollars; instead, local prices were converted to U.S. dollars using exchange rates from Nov. 22, 2012, and measured against 2012 Corporate Travel Index per diems, which used exchange rates from Jan. 12, 2012. Year-over-year change figures exclude Lagos and Tianjin, which this year replaced Eindhoven and Toulouse.

Hotel/Miscellaneous: Advito provided to BTN average upscale daily hotel rates paid by BCD Travel corporate clients from January to November 2012. Rates do not include taxes. For the miscellaneous category, Mercer included the costs of two taxi fares, a newspaper, a bottle of water and a magazine.

Food: Mercer provided to BTN actual January 2013 menu item costs for hotel continental breakfasts; lunches of sandwich, salad and a nonalcoholic drink; and dinners of a fish, chicken or beef entree, salad and a nonalcoholic beverage.

This report originally appeared in the March 18, 2013, issue of Business Travel News.