5 Top US Business Travel Destinations

If Kalamazoo, Michigan isn’t already on your short list of destinations, you might want to reconsider. It’s just one of the top five business travel destinations in the United States.

Which five U.S. destinations are becoming popular destinations for business travelers today? While they may not be the first popular business travel destinations that come to mind, keep an eye on Princeton, New Jersey, Durham, North Carolina, southwest Michigan (Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids), Sacramento, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii, according to the recent American Express Trends: Business Travel Edition. While some of these cities may be a little surprising, American Express has found that these places have seen the most business activity year over year, based on business client hotel transactions.

What’s driving the growing interest among business travelers? The key seems to be encouraging the development of specific business sectors and educational institutions to attract more business travelers. Princeton, New Jersey, is making a big push for companies to move to the Garden State, with plans underway to establish it as a hub for artificial intelligence researchers, industry leaders and private companies. Sacramento, the capital of California, has been working to grow its semiconductor and life science industries, and has added new direct routes to Sacramento International Airport, which is also undergoing a $1.3 billion expansion.

Durham, known for biotech, is growing its tech corporate sector while also developing its airport, which recently added four airlines, 25 destinations and 49 routes. Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids are investing $5.5 billion to upgrade corporate offices, event centers and other facilities, while Honolulu has finally rebounded sharply from its pandemic-era tourism decline and remains a popular destination for incentive travel and corporate retreats.

While these destinations have been upgraded to make them more suitable for business travelers, the increase in business travelers looking to combine work travel with vacations may have something to do with this. Since they may be paying for part of their trip out of pocket, 85% of them said they tend to be more frugal when traveling.

Other findings from the Amex Trendex study include:

• Today’s business travelers may be more budget-conscious, but that doesn’t mean they’re not willing to spend on extra comforts. More than three-quarters say they’ve paid for a hotel or flight upgrade—and this is especially true for Millennials and Gen Z, who are nearly twice as likely as their Gen X and Baby Boomer colleagues to pay out of pocket or use personal points for an upgrade.
• Speaking of points – 80% of people said that traveling would be more appealing if they could earn some airline or hotel loyalty points.
• Managing expenses is easier than it used to be. Business travelers say this is especially true when it comes to expense reporting. While automation of T&E spend management has driven much of this improvement, companies are increasingly looking to AI to further improve the experience in everything from T&E expense management to travel booking and contingency planning.

“Travelers are taking advantage of amenities to make their journeys more convenient and comfortable, corporate policies are adjusting to trends like remote work, and investments in technology are improving expense management,” said Fernando Iraola, executive vice president and general manager of global and U.S. large enterprise at American Express. “Business travel continues to drive connections between colleagues and partners, fuel company business, and even help drive economic growth in emerging business travel markets.”

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