MELBOURNE City councillors and their staff have spent almost $650,000 on travel in the past two years.

New York, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Johannesburg, Istanbul, Singapore and Osaka were visited for meetings including conferences, summits, trade missions, and arts festivals.

Lord Mayor Robert Doyle clocked up the biggest travel and accommodation bill — $43,207 between November 2, 2012 and December 31, 2014.

His trips included trade missions to China and Japan last March, and New York in September for a United Nations climate summit and environmental leadership awards.

Several of his trips were substantially subsidised by organisations that invited him.

Cr Richard Foster’s bill for the same period was $21,096, including $12,270 for a trip to Copenhagen last June for an anti-smoking summit.

Dr Wei Chaoyi, head of council’s business office in Tianjin, China, racked up $33,605 in trips to Melbourne.

Melbourne is the only Australian municipality to have such an office in China.

Council CEO Kathy Alexander, who retired in December, ran up about $26,000 in travel costs; council’s waterways manager, Doug Jarvis, $15,000; and urban landscapes manager, Ian Shears, $14,000.

Since late 2012, city ratepayers have forked out $644,000 for interstate and overseas travel, according to council’s travel register.

Councillors also received an extra $206,000 for expenses such as taxi fares, private car reimbursement, car parking fees, mobile phone charges and local conference costs. Cr Doyle’s $64,538 in local expenses included about $44,000 for taxis and other travel costs.

City of Melbourne acting CEO Martin Cutter said it was vital the municipality developed strong investment and economic opportunities.

“Travel, both locally and internationally, is key to Melbourne’s prosperity,” he said. “In recent years our relationships, travel and trade missions have delivered millions of dollars in investment including in biotech, urban design and planning, and education.”

Mr Cutter said there was careful consideration to ensure that any travel was justified and of direct benefit to the city.

john.masanauskas@news.com.au