BCD Travel’s 2019 Cities & Trends report saw just changes in its top ten rankings, with Zurich, now fourth, swapping places with Paris in fifth.
Barcelona, Copenhagen, Madrid, Milan and Stockholm complete the top ten.
The top cities for intercontinental business travel were New York, Shanghai and San Francisco.
• A poll of GBTA members found nearly two-thirds have cancelled at least a ‘few’ meetings or events due to the spread of coronavirus, while 18% say they have cancelled ‘many’ events.
Nearly a quarter (24%) of GBTA’s supplier companies say coronavirus has had a ‘significant’ impact on their revenues and 31% said it has had a ‘moderate’ impact.
• Safeture has introduced a ‘Coronavirus exposure tracker’ to help companies identify travellers in high-risk areas.
The tool tracks daily Corona exposure in 5,000 global subregions.
• Travel tech specialist SABS has launched SCION, the latest iteration of its proprietary online booking tool.
SABS already has 20 UK TMCs among its customers and last year fulfilled more than 7.2million bookings.
The update features a “crisper user interface, more modern look and feel, and simplified user experience”.
• Booking platform TripActions has expanded its offering with the launch of a payments solution, TripActions Liquid.
The company says it will solve the hassles of global travel payments to deliver a ‘best-in-class’ experience for travellers, finance leaders and travel managers alike.
It is backed by Silicon Valley Bank, Goldman Sachs and Comerica Bank.
• Reed & Mackay has partnered with Deloitte to help clients identify immigration and regulatory obligations for travellers at the point of sale before completing a booking.
This solution will also ensure companies’ HR or mobility teams are notified of any Posted Worker Directive, tax or social security obligations resulting from the booking.
• Riskline has expanded its portfolio of City Safe Maps – which identify safety and security information down to street-level – to cover 250 cities worldwide.
Latest additions include profiles of Ouagadougou, Santo Domingo, Sharm el-Sheikh, Nicosia, Lyon, Monrovia, Chennai and Tripoli.
