SINGAPORE has emerged as the top business travel destination in Asia-Pacific for 2012, based on results from the second annual Accor Asia-Pacific Business Traveller Research survey.

The survey interviewed over 2,500 respondents from nine countries in Asia-Pacific, who made business trips during the first half of the year.

While tied for first place with Hong Kong in last year's edition, Singapore pulled ahead this year to emerge as the destination most frequently travelled to for business in the first half of 2012.

Singapore also appeared within the ‘Top 3’ destinations for respondents from all key source markets, ranking as the most visited destination for business travellers from Indonesia (71 per cent), Malaysia (61 per cent), Thailand (37 per cent) and India (31 per cent).

Accor expects this trend to continue for the rest of the year, with Singapore appearing in all intended ‘Top 3’ lists. Respondents from Indonesia (60 per cent), Malaysia (57 per cent), Thailand (40 per cent), India (35 per cent) and Australia (31 per cent) identified Singapore as their top most likely business travel destination in the second half of 2012.

Thailand was another key business destination, especially among Asian travellers. The Kingdom ranked within the ‘Top 3’ destinations of respondents from Malaysia (49 per cent), Singapore (47 per cent), Hong Kong (32 per cent), India (26 per cent), China (20 per cent) and Indonesia (20 per cent).

The same survey revealed that Singapore businessmen are the biggest spenders in the region, blowing an average of US$468 on a typical business trip. Indians take second place with US$399 per trip, while Indonesians were the thriftiest, spending US$243 on average each time.

Singapore businessmen have also increased their hotel spend more than any other nationality, budgeting over 16 per cent more per night in the first half of 2012 than during the same period last year. Their average hotel allowance was US$156 per night, up from US$134 last year. By comparison, the average business traveller in Asia-Pacific spent US$125 per night, up 3.3 per cent from last year.