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American Express eyes business travel market
By Jiang Jingjing (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-11-14 11:11
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Survey results
The survey reveals that China's rapid economic growth is the major driving force in terms of the T&E market's development.
Corporations in China spent US$7.41 billion on air travel last year, making China the fourth biggest business travel market in the world after the United States, Japan and Germany.
The manufacturing industry reported the largest business travel spending and growth in 2006.
Business travel growth is largely driven by the domestic market, with 28 per cent of the surveyed organizations reporting an increase in their T&E expenditure. 87 per cent of these expenses occurred in the mainland and Hong Kong.
According to the survey, T&E has become the second-largest controllable cost for organizations, accounting for 24 per cent of total controllable expenses, with the first being salaries (51 per cent) and the third being information technology (15 per cent).
Meals and entertainment remained the largest expense category, accounting for 42 per cent of total T&E expenditure, followed by air travel at 24 per cent.
About 53 per cent of surveyed companies said T&E is considered an investment to acquire new clients, while the remaining 47 per cent believed T&E can maintain existing business relationships.