Swiss business travelers: China again second most popular

What happens in the already apparent in the first quarter, is now a fact after the 2nd quarter: Only a few months after the opening of China's borders, the country has regained its old position in the ranking as a destination for Swiss business travelers. In the first half of 2023, the Middle Kingdom ranked second among long-haul destinations after the U.S., displacing the ranks two to four from 2022 - the United Arab Emirates, India and Singapore - by one place each. That's according to the AirPlus Business Travel Index, an analysis of airline ticket transactions processed through AirPlus. Last year, China had slipped to 27th place in the long-distance ranking, after the country had classically occupied second place behind the USA prior to the corona pandemic. Nevertheless, the total number of China tickets sold is still well below the 2019 level (-65 percent). Overall, spending by Swiss companies on airline tickets increased by 46 percent between January and June 2023 compared to the same period last year.

Different price trends for airline tickets

Ticket prices developed differently in the first half of 2023: Business Class tickets cost an average of CHF 4319 in June, 3.3 percent less than in January. In contrast, there was a price increase in Economy Class: Prices averaged CHF 641 per Economy ticket in June, an increase of 12.9 percent since the beginning of the year.

Business Travel Trends: Longer Trips, More Business Class, Workation

The habits of business travelers have changed permanently since the pandemic, as the evaluation of the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2019 once again proves:

• Proportionally, employees of Swiss companies flew more often in business class (17.4 percent vs. 14.1 percent in 2019) and less in economy class (81.5 percent vs. 85.5 percent)
• Fewer domestic flights were used (0.2 percent vs. 1.0 percent in 2019), but more long-haul flights were used (26.5 percent vs. 24.2 percent in 2019)
• Companies booked tickets earlier (30.5 vs. 26.6 days)
• More and more trips started on a weekend (22.4 percent vs. 18.7 percent in 2019) - an indication of the "bleisure" and "workation" trends, the combination of a personal trip and a business trip
• Trips lasted one day longer on average (6.5 vs. 5.5 days), but the share of one-day trips decreased significantly (4.8 percent vs. 9.9 percent in 2019)

Switzerland ranks 6th as a business travel destination in Europe

For European business travelers*, Germany was clearly the most popular destination in the first half of the year - one in five trips headed for a German airport. Around one in twenty trips was to Switzerland, which put it in sixth place on the popularity scale for European business travelers (behind Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Spain).

Andy Stehrenberger, Managing Director of AirPlus in Switzerland, comments on the latest results of the AirPlus Business Travel Index as follows: "The travel activity of Swiss business travelers picked up again in the first half of the year. In this context, companies were quite willing to spend more on airline tickets. In addition, travelers have made lasting changes to their habits compared to 2019, as our evaluation shows. Swiss companies and their employees are increasingly aware of taking multiple appointments as part of a longer trip and reducing one-day business trips as well as flights within Switzerland. For their part, employees are enjoying the flexibility of location-independent working established during the pandemic. One result of this is the increasing combination of private and business travel."

*Evaluation of the European core markets of AirPlus International (Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Italy)

Source: Air Plus