The best cities for business tourism

Regardless of whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, travelling for business can be a great perk, if you get to go to the right places. Bustling cities, fancy hotels and incredible cultures make any business trip, local or further afield, feel better, and can easily turn a meeting into an unforgettable memory.

In 2020, business travel decreased by 61%, but still added £382 billion to the economy. Now the world is opening up again, that figure is only going to grow, with numbers set to reach two thirds of pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2022. We look at which cities are the best for business travel, based on population sizes, closest airport, average hotel ratings and more.

The top 50 global cities for business tourism

We’ve scored the 50 most populated cities around the world, and the top 20 most populated cities in the UK, using eight key metrics:

1. The cost of an average three-course meal
2. Average internet download speeds
3. Average hotel costs
4. Average hotel ratings
5. Closest airports
6. Average taxi fares
7. Reported crime rates
8. Number of WeWork spaces and hot desks available

The resulting data means that we can now reveal the best city in the world for business travel in terms of cost and convenience.

The top 20 UK cities for business tourism

Business travel doesn’t have to just happen abroad - up and down the UK, people are regularly boarding early morning trains to get to meetings, presentations and pitches. We wanted to see how our cities fared when scored under the same conditions, so we reviewed the top 20 most populated to find out.

#1 Bristol

Bristol is a stunning city, famed for the Clifton Suspension Bridge, its incredible harbour and for being the birthplace of Noel Edmonds. Now you know. It offers workers great broadband speeds of 95Mbps, five WeWork spaces, and a low crime rate of 40.8/100. On the downside, Bristol is a little on the expensive side - a night in a hotel there will cost an average of £128, while a three-course meal would see around £53 leave your pocket.

#2 Wolverhampton

Wolverhampton is a handy business hub for almost anyone in the UK. A hotel room there will cost you an average of £101 per night, and with ratings of 8.49, you could be sure of a comfy stay. The crime score is a touch higher than locals might like at 59/100, and there are no WeWorks spaces, meaning Wolverhampton hasn’t quite done enough to make top spot.

#3 Bradford

Bradford might be a surprising inclusion in our list, but it’s a city on the up. Average download speeds of 72Mbps are nothing to be laughed at, and an average price of £103.01 for a night in a 8.29 rated hotel isn’t bad either. 

Taxis in Bradford are also cheap at £6.55 for a 5km journey, and food there will only cost around £40 for a three-course meal. 

While crime in Bradford is an issue, with a score of 71.1/100, it’s certainly not a city to be ignored when planning your next business trip.

#4 Belfast

Head over the Irish Sea to benefit from business tourism in Belfast. The capital of Northern Ireland has two co-working spaces ready to welcome you, and offers incredible download speeds of 166Mbps, making it the fastest in our survey by far. Crime in the city is also a bonus, scoring only 43.9/100, although with hotel costs of £156.90 per night and a three-course meal being £50, you’ll have to pay to enjoy your time there.

#5 Birmingham

Birmingham completes the UK’s top five, benefiting from decent internet speeds of 88Mbps, an airport rating of 7.36, and six co-working spaces for all your meeting, creating and collaborating needs. Hotels in the city aren’t bad either, averaging out at 7.96, but all of that does come at a cost - a night in the city could set you back £162.72, and a three-course meal comes in at around £50.

Methodology

For the indexes we created the data was used to determine which cities in the world and the UK were the best for business tourism:

• The average costs of meals in restaurants, taxi journeys and reported crime levels (Numbeo)
• The average cost and rating for hotels within each city (Booking.com)
• Each cities closest airports (AirHelp)
• Average download speed by city and the number of WeWork and hot desks available in each city (Fairinternetreport and BroadbandSpeedChecker). The data points were used to create an index with each city scoring out of a total possible score of [100]. They were then ranked accordingly and of an equal weighting to give a fair outcome on which city is best for business tourism in the UK and Worldwide.