Business tourism is an actively developing industry. This is not surprising – business interests force companies to send their employees to different cities and countries to participate in negotiations, attend conferences, etc. Where do employees of Russian companies most often go? Let’s study the current geography of business trips.
The recent trend is an increase in company expenses on business trips, especially foreign ones. According to OneTwoTrip for Business, over the past year, the growth in spending on business trips abroad reached up to 43%, and companies allocated, on average, 11-16% larger budgets for trips around Russia.
This is largely due to the growing popularity of bleisure travel. This type of trip involves combining work tasks with relaxation. Typically, this means that the company allows the employee to stay in the new city for the weekend after the official end of the business trip.
The trend bleisure is subject to seasonality. For example, in winter, bleisure trips with weekends are most active in January with its New Year holidays. In summer, Russia is more popular for bleisure – in the warm season, the number of business trips using weekends can reach 82%.
Let’s talk about where employees of Russian companies most often travel within the country and abroad.
Popular destinations in Russia
The geography of business tourism and business trips in Russia does not change very significantly from year to year. Moscow and St. Petersburg consistently occupy the two leading positions. This is logical, because it is in these cities that the offices of leading companies, including foreign ones, are located.
But then the list of top destinations within Russia changes more actively. So, if in 2018 the top 5 destinations for business trips in Russia included Samara, Sochi and Novosibirsk, then a year later the places from third to fifth were distributed as follows: Ekaterinburg, Samara, Krasnodar.
Popular destinations in Europe
The geography of business tourism in Europe may also change, but there are also stable leading countries in the number of trips by employees of Russian companies. This is Germany, Cyprus, Turkey.
Turkey
The most popular country among Russian business travelers. This is not surprising – there are a huge number of high-class hotels, which host a large number of exhibitions and conferences.
In addition, Turkey has a strong economy and industry, so Russian companies do business and look for partners not only in resort cities, but also, for example, in Istanbul and Ankara.
Germany
This country is the most important economic partner of Russia; many companies of the two countries are actively interacting. According to statistics, 60% of the world’s leading industry exhibitions are organized in Germany. The largest exhibition centers in Europe are also located here. 10 million business tourists a year come to the country just to participate in events.
An important point is that industry is very developed in Germany, so a large number of business trips are concentrated in this industry. Russian business travelers visit factories, negotiate the supply of German equipment, etc.
Cyprus
This island is located at the crossroads of trade routes and historically played an important role. Today, business here is actively developing, including due to favorable financial laws – Cyprus has become one of the popular offshores.
A large number of conferences are also held here – most business travelers come here to participate in them.
