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Business travel taking off?
The good news: business travel should be up next year. The uncertainty: the long-term impact of alternative technologies.
“What is certain is that it will be some time before business travel returns to its peak levels of the late 1990s,” William Norman, president and CEO of the Travel Industry Association of America, told a Marketing Outlook Forum in Austin, Texas.
TIA released figures that forecast overall traveler spending in 2004 would rise to $568 billion, up from $544 billion in 2003. That’s an increase of 4.4%.
However, the level of spending to reach the record set in 2000 will not be met until 2005, the TIA study said.
US residents are forecast to take more than 122 million business trips in 2004, an improvement of 4.2% from what is forecast for 2003. That will mark the first increase since 1999, the TIA study said.
Two of the hardest hit segments in the travel industry, domestic business travel and international inbound travel to the US, were forecast for declines in 2003 (3.7% less business travel and 4% less in-bound US travel). The outlook for both segments was more positive for next year and 2005, added Mr Norman.
After falling steadily for three years, international inbound arrivals to the US are forecast to increase 5% annually both next year and in 2005. That translates to more than 42 million international arrivals in 2004 and 2005.
International travel to the US reached its peak in 2000 when it reached 51 million arrivals. International travel spending is also expected to increase 5.5% in 2004 and increase nearly 8% the next year.
TIA forecasts domestic leisure travel to also grow, 3.2% in 2004, and 2% in 2005.
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