Research and white papers

Expertmarket has published a study on the cost of business travel around the world. This city-by-city ranking, based in particular on BCD Travel data, is dominated by Caracas. The Venezuelan capital is ahead of Geneva and Stockholm, with Paris in 8th place. 

BCD Travel has published its traditional annual top 10 business travel destinations, which show that Paris remains the most popular destination for Benelux business travellers. London, Brussels and Frankfurt occupy the top three places for French business travellers.  

The publication of Egencia's very first "Business and Travel Technology" study highlights the growing trend towards mixing business and leisure travel. Bleisure" now systematically involves 24% of French business travellers: a significantly higher ratio than our German (20%) and British (10%) neighbours.

HRS has published a study comparing the attitudes of female business travellers and their male counterparts to business travel. It shows that men are more likely than women to refuse a business trip... 

KDS has published a focus on the UK market, examining the importance of automated expense management tools. We learn that handwritten notes have not disappeared, and that Excel is still often the standard format...

On Thursday, on the occasion of the Business Travel Show its first Business and Technology Travel Study. The aim is to explore some of the new trends in business travel by interviewing a thousand business people in the UK, Germany and France. 

PrivateFly publishes a classification of the most popular routes for private jet hire in Europe and the United States. Le Bourget-Geneva and Los Angeles-Las Vegas would be the most popular routes. 

The French hotel industry had a mixed 2014, according to results presented today by Deloitte In Extenso. The first half of the year in particular was difficult, with a general decline in occupancy. By contrast, mid-range and top-of-the-range hotels returned to more appreciable levels of performance in the second half of the year.

Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) has published its traditional annual "CWT Travel Management Priorities" report, aimed at identifying the major business travel trends for the next twelve months. The security of business travel data and its use for benchmarking purposes are the two key factors to watch out for in 2015, according to CWT. 

PrivateFly has published its top 20 busiest airports for business aviation in 2014, with a special focus on French hubs. Le Bourget and Nice are on the podium.

The new white paper published by Advito, "Sharing Economy: Does it have a place in your managed travel programme?" looks at a topical issue that is reshuffling the cards in business travel and travel management. By comparing the solutions proposed by the two giants of the sharing economy - Airbnb and Uber, not to mention them by name - with the imperatives of business, the BCD Travel subsidiary points out both the potential and the limits of these new alternatives. 

Low-cost air travel in Germany is costing passengers more because of the rise of airlines offering a more upmarket service.

Meetings booking site book2Meet has published a white paper entitled "2015 Buying Meetings As Easy As Buying Travel? The paper, written by Sam Versele, provides an interesting analysis of the situation and attempts to identify the keys to achieving this "new frontier" in travel management.

The 24th edition of the EVP barometer, unveiled on Thursday at the Palais Brongniart in Paris, confirmed the slight upturn in the European business travel economy. On average, business travel expenditure rose by 0.9% in 2014 across the 10 European countries surveyed. This slight upward trend is expected to continue this year (+0.7%).

Munich Airport recorded the best punctuality rate for 2014, according to the "OAG Punctuality League 2014" ranking published by the aviation statistics specialist. Air Baltic came out on top in the large airline category. 

Multimodal travel platform GoEuro has published an Accommodation Price Index, comparing prices in the world's main business and leisure destinations, including Airbnb. 

This week, accounting departments are facing the busiest period of the year in terms of expense reports. That, at least, is the analysis published on Tuesday by Concur, based on an analysis of Travel & Expense data from 2013. Friday 19 December is expected to see a doubling of the average daily number of claims in France and other key business travel markets. 

An infographic published by American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) draws on the day-to-day experience of its travel advisors to shed light on the habits, preferences and even quirks of US business travellers.

A majority of business travellers (62%) can now - or will be able to in the near future - book their business trips independently, according to a survey of 179 travel buyers carried out last October by the Business Travel Show. This figure represents a significant increase on the previous survey carried out by the London-based show, which will be held on 25 and 26 February.

2015 will not be a good year for French MICE professionals. That's the view of American Express Meetings & Events, which forecasts a decline in the market in its "Global Meetings Forecast 2015" study published on 18 November.