Hickory Global Partners has named London as both the most expensive and popular city for business travel outside the US.
Florida-based Hickory’s annual rankings are based on 2025 booking data from the corporate travel consortium's platform for agencies and corporates. Destinations are ranked by calculating the average daily rate of spend per city, which includes costs for accommodation, transportation and meals.
London ranked ahead of Paris and Tokyo as the most expensive international cities for corporate travellers outside the US, with Amsterdam in fourth place and Singapore in fifth position. In 2024, Rome was the most expensive international city, with London in second place and Paris third.
The UK capital was also the most popular global city, ahead of Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Toronto and Tokyo, according to Hickory’s data.
In the US, New York was both the most expensive and popular city. While Chicago was the second most expensive and third most popular destination. Hickory also noted that secondary cities such as San Diego and Dallas also made it into the top 10 lists this year.
“Cities such as London, Paris and Tokyo continue to bolster high price tags for business travellers, but remain popular because they offer expansive metropolitan areas with ample hotel inventory and meeting space,” said Hickory in its commentary.
“Other destinations, including Amsterdam, Singapore and Toronto, maintain a high ADR (average daily rate) due to the local economy, but continue to attract business travellers from around the world due local industries and the opportunity to extend trips for ‘bleisure’ travel.”