Spending on air, rail by Indian businesses sees highest rise: Concur Report

India also ranked the lowest in average entertainment spend at 2.44%, highest being 8.14% in Japan in 2012

The average percentage spend on lodging (31%) was the highest in India as compared to other Asia Pacific countries like Japan (23%), Hong Kong (25%) and Australia (14%). Also, India ranked the lowest in average entertainment spend at 2.44%. the highest being 8.14% in Japan in 2012. 

 

Concur, global integrated cloud-based travel and expense management services provider, released its third annual global report on corporate travel and entertainment (T&E) spend. The report analyses more than Rs 3 lakh crore ($50 billion) in corporate T&E spend. The report generated expense data from Concur's over 18,000 corporate clients. 

 

The spend data was analysed for nine nations worldwide, including the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and India. 

 

In case of India, the rupee declined 12.4% against the dollar between 2011 and 2012. Accounting for this change in exchange rates, India saw an 18% increase in the average airfare transaction, which is the highest recorded increase globally. Rail costs also increased nearly 58%, highest across the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia.  

 

Surprisingly, the average gas transaction declined 4.2% suggesting that rising fuel costs were not the only factor behind the higher airfare and rail amounts. 

 

Bangalore again emerged the most visited city in India for business travel (rank 12) in the 25 most visited cities followed by Mumbai (rank 20) in terms of number of overnight hotel stays. Bangalore ranked 11th in 2011. Bangalore saw the average spend also dropping from around Rs 15,480 ($258) to around Rs 13,620 ($227) for lodging, ground transport, dining, entertainment. Mumbai maintained its rank, but total average spend dropped from Rs 15,300 ($255) to around Rs 14,280 ($238). 

 

In terms of average transaction amount, Bangalore stood 25th with Rs 13,669.80 ($227.83) and Mumbai 23rd with Rs 14,302.20 ($238.37). The above average transaction amount has fallen in 2012 as against 2011 for both Bangalore (from Rs 15,522 in 2011 to Rs 13,669.80 in 2012) and Mumbai (from Rs 15,310.80 in 2011 to Rs 14,302.20 in 2012). Though the spend in dollar terms has declined, spending in rupees may have increased owing to the depreciation in the same period.   

 

Christopher Juneau, senior director - marketing (Asia Pacific) at Concur Technologies said, “Through this report we aim to help our customers in understanding and organizing their employee spends accurately."

 

The Concur Expense IQ Report also finds corporate travelers spent 93% more on ancillary fees in 2012 (Rs 348 crore or $58 million) than in 2011 (Rs 180 crore or $30 million) – challenging companies with nearly twice as much hidden or low-visibility spend. 

 

“The fact that ancillary spending nearly doubled from 2011 to 2012 reflects two key facts: customers are using automated tools to more accurately track their ancillary spending, while airlines, hotels and other providers have gotten more savvy about componentising their services to collect more cash in a down market," explained Robert Mahowald, VP of Cloud Services at IDC, global market intelligence firm. IDC has given additional insight on the data collected by Concur.

 

Growing mobile devices were also found to be a growing aspect of companies’ expense management processes. The study found nearly 73% log-ins were via Apple iOS, while Android (14.6%) and Blackberry (12.7%) were also popular.