Melbourne serves up corporate travel grand slam over Sydney
Flight Centre Corporate, which encompasses Corporate Traveller and FCM Travel, can reveal that Melbourne is set to break a major business travel milestone, as corporates flocked to the city for the Australian Open.
Corporate travellers that flew into Melbourne over the Australian Open semi-final and final days (23-26 January 2025) nearly doubled the volume of flight bookings to Australia’s corporate darling destination, Sydney, during the same time, according to Flight Centre Corporate booking data.
For the first time in at least 18 months, Sydney became the second most booked corporate destination for an entire month in January 2025, as Melbourne takes the top spot.
Flight Centre Corporate COO Melissa Elf said business travellers were rushing to Melbourne in large volumes, as the city hosted one of the biggest events on the Australian sporting calendar.
“The Australian Open has long been a corporate hospitality favourite, and we see huge numbers flying to Melbourne for the event year on year, but this it’ll enter new territory as Melbourne nudges past the levels of corporate travel to Sydney,” Ms Elf said.
“Business travellers use the Australian Open, and events like it, to network and host their clients, while also offering tickets as an employee incentive.
“The Aus Open’s finals weekend tickets were very hot property, so the companies that were offering tickets were certainly popular amongst their clients, customers, and staff.
“The matches have been extended this year to run over three weeks, giving corporates even more opportunity to get there to join in on the networking and courtside fun.
“It’s also held in the perfect time of year when people are easing back into the working year and out enjoying the warm summer weather.
“There’s a huge appeal in it being an international event that attracts the world’s best talent, being the first Grand Slam event of the year.”
The finance and insurance industry led the flock to the courts, with it topping the list of bookings over the finals weekend.
Flight Centre's leisure bookings to Melbourne on AO grand final weekend are also strong this year, up 8 percent across international and domestic markets compared to 2024.
Corporate Traveller’s booking data of major sporting events in 2024 – including to the Australian Open, AFL and NRL grand finals, NRL Magic Round, and Bathurst 100 – found the Australian Open drew 46 per cent more business travellers than the other four events combined, positioning it to lead the 2025 corporate spectator sporting calendar.
