Business travel has always been measured in obvious ways: airfare, hotel rates, per diems, meeting schedules and the return on sending someone across the world instead of putting them on a video call.
But one of the biggest costs of a long-haul business trip is harder to put on an expense report.
It is the foggy first morning. The 3 a.m. wake-up. The blank stare in the meeting that mattered most. The body that arrived in New York, Toronto or Singapore, while the brain is still somewhere over the Pacific.
Jet lag has long been treated as the unavoidable price of global travel. But new research suggests it may need to be taken much more seriously, especially by companies sending employees across Asia–North America routes.
According to research compiled by Booking.com for Business and reported by Travel Daily News, direct routes from Asia to the United States rank among the most disruptive for business travel jet lag. The analysis combined circadian rhythm research with flight duration, time-zone change and estimated recovery periods to identify the long-haul routes most likely to affect travellers after arrival.
The worst-ranked route was Singapore to New York, with an 18-hour-and-25-minute flight time, an effective time-zone shift of 11 hours and an estimated recovery period of 11 days. Hong Kong to Boston, Hong Kong to New York and Hong Kong to Toronto also ranked near the top, each with estimated recovery periods of 11 days.
That is not a small inconvenience. It is the length of a vacation. For business travellers, it can be longer than the trip itself.
The finding matters because business travel is still a huge global industry. GBTA projected global business travel spending would reach $1.57 trillion in 2025, even amid trade-policy uncertainty and economic risk. The organization also noted that business travel growth projections had been revised downward for 2025 and 2026 because of uncertainty, trade tensions and economic pressures.
In that environment, every trip has to justify itself. Companies are already looking carefully at cost, timing and necessity. But jet lag adds another question: is a trip really efficient if the traveller loses several days of sharpness on arrival?
The answer depends on the route, the direction of travel and how well the trip is planned.
Jet lag happens when the body’s internal clock no longer matches the local time at the destination. Cleveland Clinic sleep specialist Dr. Michelle Drerup explains that jet lag is more likely when travelling across multiple time zones, and that recovery commonly takes about one day for each time zone crossed.
That rule of thumb helps explain why Asia–North America routes are so difficult. They do not just involve long flights. They involve dramatic shifts in light, sleep and meal timing. A traveller leaving Hong Kong in one rhythm can land in New York or Toronto inside a completely different biological day.
Other research points in the same direction. Destination.com’s 2026 Jet-Lag Severity Index ranked New York to Tokyo as its most severe common business route, followed by Los Angeles to Sydney and Los Angeles to Tokyo. The index weighted time-zone shift, direction of travel, hemisphere changes and circadian biology.
One of the most important details is direction. Eastward travel is often harder than westward travel because the body generally finds it easier to extend the day than compress it. Destination.com’s model applied an eastward penalty, reflecting the way circadian systems tend to adapt.
For travel managers, that changes the conversation. The cheapest flight may not be the smartest flight. The most direct route may not always be the most productive. The arrival time may matter as much as the departure time.
Booking.com for Business made a similar point in the Travel Daily News report. Joshua Wood, director of business travel at Booking.com for Business, said small decisions such as choosing a flight that arrives at the right time of day can make a meaningful difference in how quickly someone can perform after landing. He also noted that travel managers should look beyond cost and convenience to consider time zones, arrival windows and recovery periods.
That may be the real story. Business travel is becoming more human.
For years, road warriors were expected to land, shower, suit up and perform. A Sunday night flight, a Monday morning meeting and a Friday return were treated as efficient. But anyone who has flown from Asia to North America, or from North America to Asia, knows that the body does not always obey the itinerary.
The modern business traveller may have better seats, better lounges, better WiFi and better apps, but the biology has not changed. A lie-flat bed helps. So does a quieter cabin. But neither fully solves the problem of asking the body to reset across 10, 11 or 12 time zones.
That is why recovery is becoming part of the premium travel conversation. Airlines, airports and hotels are increasingly treating long-haul fatigue as something to manage, not simply endure. Euronews recently reported that some airlines are introducing onboard wellness programs designed to reduce the impact of long-haul travel, while experts recommend adjusting sleep schedules before departure, timing light exposure, staying hydrated and limiting alcohol and caffeine during the flight.
The wellness industry has also moved into the space. Hotels and spas across Asia have begun promoting treatments aimed at helping travellers recover from long flights, from massage and stretching to sleep-oriented spa rituals. The point is not that a massage “cures” jet lag. It is that travel recovery has become part of the luxury experience.
For destinations, that creates an opportunity. Cities that rely on long-haul business travel — Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, Bangkok, New York, Toronto and London among them — are not just competing on flights, hotels and convention space. They are also competing on how quickly travellers can arrive and function.
That could change how business trips are designed.
A smarter itinerary might build in a recovery window before a major presentation. A company might allow travellers to arrive a day earlier on Asia–North America routes. A travel manager might choose a flight based not only on fare and duration, but on whether it lands in daylight and allows the traveller to adjust. A hotel might become more valuable because it offers early check-in, blackout curtains, wellness programming and a quiet place to reset.
For leisure travellers, the lesson is similar. The first day of a trip should not always be treated as a full day. Sometimes the most luxurious thing you can do is leave space to recover.
The irony is that global travel has never been more efficient on paper. Aircraft can fly farther. Routes are more direct. Connections are easier to compare. Apps can rebuild a trip in seconds.
But the human body remains stubbornly analog.
That is what the new jet lag research makes clear. The future of travel planning may not be only about where we can fly nonstop. It may also be about how well we can function when we get there.
Because in business travel, arriving is not the same as being ready.
