Tokyo has been crowned the 1993 champ for giving the business to American business travelers when it comes to expenses. The Japanese capital took the title away from Paris, last year's winner, as the world's most expensive city, according to the Runzheimer International annual meal/lodging cost index.
Runzheimer, a Wisconin-based management consulting firm, has been gauging living costs for business travelers since the mid-1970s.It comes up with its numbers by figuring the per diem business rate (based on single occupancy) at a business-class lodging, along with the cost of daily meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) in business-class restaurants.
For those of you who have the yen to visit Tokyo, the per diem this year comes out to $455, according to Runzheimer. At the other end of the scale, American business travelers venturing north of the border to such Canadian locations as London, Ontario, only had to pay $100 for food and lodging. (London, Ontario, is budget paradise compared to its better known namesake, London, England, where the lodgings, lunches, etc., came in at $316 and put the British capital right up there with other of the world's most costly cosmopolitan areas).
Following Tokyo in this year's expense hit parade were Paris, where a room and meals came to $353 a day; New York City, $330; Moscow, $328; and Hong Kong, $326.
Last year, Paris topped the list at $403.85, followed by Tokyo at $392.05, Milan, $375.65, Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands, $369.25 and Stockholm, $361.50. New York, which is third in expenses this year, was 11th last year, when business travelers only had to spend $296.60; Hong Kong was 10th last year at $304, and Moscow wasn't even in the running.
Other of this year's top five international cut-rate commercial destinations are Panama City, Panama, where a daily lodging and lunch, breakfast and dinner can be had for $108; Bordeaux, France, $123; Colombo, Sri Lanka, $125, and Quito, Ecuador, $129.
Karen Batterman, Runzheimer vice president, pointed out that two major factors determine what American business travelers pay - the local economy and the foreign exchange.
"First is the local economy. What are the wages and salaries of the native population compared to the U.S., and what do these represent in purchasing power?" she said. "Second, you must consider the foreign exchange rate against the U.S. dollar. A strong U.S. dollar when exchanged for a foreign currency translates into cheaper prices for the American business traveler and vice versa."
While international business travelers continue to pay higher prices in many cities this season, costs did fall slightly in the fall in this country, according to the U.S. Travel Data Center's Travel Price Index, which pointed out that for the first time in three months, lower costs were registered in September and sustained in October. The U.S. Travel Data Center is the research and consulting affiliate of the Travel Industry of America (TIA).
The downturn in September's prices was led by lower lodging rates, which dropped by 5.3 percent, followed by motor fuel which was down 0.9 percent.
That was the good news. The bad news is that for October, the TIA reports that the motor fuel category recorded a sharp 3.8 percent hike, and that while overall business travel prices stayed about the same as the previous month, the cost of travel between October '93 and this year was up 3.1 percent, most of it caused by a 14.7 percent jump in airline fares.