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GBTA: China business travel to rise sharply
Despite economic uncertainty, China will cement its dominance as the world’s biggest business travel market over the next five years.
China business travel will increase by 61% in the next 5 years, from $261 billion last year to $420 billion in 2019.
These are the findings of the GBTA BTI Outlook – Annual Global Report & Forecast, released at the GBTA Conference, which looks at trends in the business travel markets of 75 countries, detailing rolling five-year projections.
It also predicted global business travel spending will hit a record $1.25 trillion this year.
"Despite recent economic speed bumps, China will pull away as the global leader in business travel over the next five years," said GBTA executive director and COO Michael W. McCormick.
"On the horizon, we’ve identified five nations that are also seeing extraordinary growth and could very well turn into the business travel markets of the future. Another market to watch is India, which is statistically where China was 15 years ago."
India will see an annual growth rate of about 11.5% through 2019 to $45 billion in business travel spending, and will likely be a top five market within 15 years, GBTA says.
The Outlook highlights Asia Pacific as the largest business travel region with 39% of total global travel spend, and it will continue to grow its market share by 2019, primarily at the expense of the US.
It also notes the rapid economic growth in Asian nations Indonesia and Malaysia, which will be seen as major business travel markets over the next few years, joining other growing markets like Mexico, Poland and Turkey.
"The global business travel market is incredibly dynamic, with dozens of countries around the world such as China, India and Mexico are growing at a remarkable rate," said Brian Triplett, head of commercial product, Visa Inc, sponsors of the report.
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