California and Florida cities are dominating the top 10 most expensive cities in the U.S. for business travel, while New York and London remain the busiest business travel destinations domestically and internationally, respectively, according to data published on Monday by Hickory Global Partners.
The data, based on hotel nights booked from January through June by the more than 2,500 travel management companies, corporate travel departments and corporations, showed that cities in the two states made up nine of the top 10 most expensive for business travel, with New York, ranked ninth, as the sole exception. Beverly Hills, Calif., topped the list, followed by Menlo Park, Calif.; Miami Beach; Santa Monica, Calif.; and Key West, Fla.
Only New York, however, was among the most expensive that also ranked in Hickory's list of the top 10 most popular U.S. cities for business travel, ranking at the top as it did in last year's ranking. Houston, Chicago, San Diego, Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte, Orlando, Miami (not Miami Beach) and Las Vegas also were among the most popular for business travel bookings.
Outside of the U.S., two Italian cities, Florence and Rome, ranked as the most expensive for business travel, followed by Athens, Geneva and London. Also the same as last year, London ranked as the most popular international city for business travel, followed by Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Paris; Rio de Janeiro; Sydney; Tokyo; Toronto; Singapore; Melbourne, Australia; and Bangalore, India.