Ten years ago, business travel didn’t tell you much. People travelled because they had to, not because it revealed anything useful about where capital might move next. Today it’s different.

When someone flies halfway across the world for a meeting that could have been done online, the decision itself says something. APAC is the clearest example of this shift.

It remains a region where major decisions still happen in person, where trust is built across a table, and where even well-established relationships often need face time to progress.

So the recent increase in travel isn’t just a sign that activity is back on track; it’s a sign that investors and corporates want to re-engage directly.

 

APAC’s rebound in 2025 was real and intentional

Global business travel is expected to reach new heights of around $1.57 trillion for 2025. However, APAC didn’t just recover in line with that; it pushed ahead.

Data from BCD Travel’s Cities & Trends Asia Pacific 2025 report shows that Singapore saw about a 20% rise in business travel bookings in 2024, while Tokyo recorded roughly a 38% increase compared with the prior year, highlighting how key APAC hubs are seeing strong corporate travel.

That’s not tourism. It’s people turning up for diligence checks, board meetings, capital introductions, and early conversations around M&A. The sort of exploratory visits you make when you’re deciding whether a market deserves attention. Travel has become more selective, and as a result, each trip carries more information than it used to.

 

Travel shows interest that isn’t yet visible in capital data

Fund-flow numbers are always backwards-looking - they show decisions that have already been made. Travel, on the other hand, often appears weeks or months earlier.

If senior teams are flying into Seoul, Singapore or Ho Chi Minh City, they’re usually there with a purpose. They’re meeting partners, testing assumptions and seeing how an idea feels on the ground. For allocators and dealmakers, watching these patterns can give you a sense of what might be coming, not with certainty, but with enough clarity to start paying attention.

And in APAC, where relationships still carry as much weight as models, that matters. Most meaningful money in the region is still deployed after a real-world conversation, not before it.

 

A region still building momentum

London and New York remain the biggest financial destinations, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon. But travel into those cities has levelled out, while the rise in APAC is more noticeable.

Stronger governance reform efforts in South Korea, firmer growth expectations in Vietnam, and a renewed wave of outbound M&A from Japan have all contributed to the rise in regional travel this year.

Some of it is structural: emerging-market growth, supply-chain shifts, and a general push by global managers to diversify their opportunity set. Some of it comes down to culture: in-person engagement still carries more weight in Asia than in the West.

We’re also seeing more “scouting” trips - early-stage visits where capital isn’t committed but is clearly curious. Japanese corporates are back on the road for outbound M&A. And Southeast Asia is attracting investors who want exposure but also want to understand the landscape properly before acting.

 

What we see at GIS

One pattern stands out on our side: when clients start travelling, trading behaviour usually follows. A client visits three Asian markets over two weeks and returns asking for broader access. Another increases their meetings in Hong Kong and Singapore, and a few days later, we see activity pick up.

Travel doesn’t generate capital flows, but it often hints at where appetite is growing. When enough people make these trips, the trend becomes hard to ignore.

 

For investors: Pay attention to where people are actually going

If you’re evaluating APAC right now, the rise in purposeful travel should make you pause. Investors don’t spend time and money flying into a region unless they believe the opportunities are worth exploring. The movements suggest confidence, not exuberance, but a willingness to engage again.

You don’t need forecasts to spot that change. Just look at who’s turning up in the terminals.

 

Closing thought

In markets where the real work still happens across a table, travel isn’t a logistical detail, it’s a strong tell. And right now, the signs are hard to ignore. If you’re waiting for fund-flow data or official allocation numbers to confirm the shift, you’re already behind the curve. The people making the decisions are on the move, the meetings are happening, and the conversations are getting more serious.

In APAC, money rarely arrives unannounced; it usually shows up a few weeks after the people do.

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