Anyone planning a business trip to Russia, Brazil, or India in the near future would do well to avoid delaying their travel plans. Or at least, they would if the new American Express Global Business Travel survey is to be believed.
Business travel costs will rise significantly in many developing nations © kalafoto - Fotolia.com
According to them, prices for travelers are rapidly going up in three out of four BRIC nations, while costs in China, Western Europe and the US remain flat.
Taken together, global travel prices are set for just a modest increase, explains Hervé Sedky, Senior VP of American Express Global Business Travel:
“We are expecting a dynamic landscape for business travel in 2013, with prices likely rising to reflect companies’ interest in doing business in growing economies such as Brazil, India and Russia but staying flat or even declining in those markets where growth is stagnant.”
Sedky’s comments reflect the fact that while economic growth in the US and Europe is largely stagnating, and China is struggling to keep up its fantastic growth rates of the last two decades, business is positively booming in some of the world’s larger developing nations.
Latin America in particular, is becoming the place to do business of late, and as a result the American Express Global Business Travel survey shows that travelers to the region can expect to see significant price increases across the board in the next few months. The survey expects airfare increases in the region of 7-10% for short haul flights, 5-9% for long haul flights, and 4-7% for business fares, while hotel room rates will also jump by around 5% throughout the region.
Things will get pricey in India too, with airfares expected to rise by around 8%, the highest in the Asia-Pacific region. American Express Global Business Travel says that these rises are largely due to the volatility of India’s domestic air industry, meaning that hotel room rates in the country will not reflect the same increase.
Finally, Russia and Poland are also set to see big cost increases across all sectors of business travel over the next 12 months. American Express Global Business Travel said that unlike the rest of Europe, these two nations have largely remained distant from the Euro Zone troubles, and can expect to see increased economic growth as a result.