India has moved into the top 10 of the largest business travel markets in the world, according to the GBTA.
After a period of economic growth stuck below 5 per cent along with soaring inflation, GBTA predicts total business travel spend for India to grow 2.1 per cent to $24.9 billion this year.
The GBTA outlook report on India expects this growth to increase further in 2015, to $28.8 billion.
Over the past 15 years, India has worked its way up the rankings of major global business travel markets from 24 in 2000 to number 10 in 2013. GBTA expects India will continue to move up the rankings and overtake Italy to become the ninth largest market in the next five years.
The study found driven by both tremendous growth of the middle class and size and multitude of business centres throughout India, domestic business travel spending has dominated, comprising 90 per cent of total business travel spend in the country.
“This forecast is a very positive sign for the potential of business travel growth in India in the years to come,” said Welf Ebeling, GBTA VP of operations for Asia Pacific.
“The recent landslide victory of Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party in India’s May elections have renewed optimism for more pro-business reforms and accelerated infrastructure investment.
“Winning 282 of 543 parliamentary seats appears to have given Mr. Modi and the BJP a mandate to repeat this success across India. Even incremental success in these efforts should eventually spark greater economic and business travel growth.”
Tad Fordyce, senior vice president of global commercial solutions at Visa, said: “With business travel forecast to experience more growth to and from India, travel will play a vital role in helping grow the Indian economy.
“Visa is committed to providing a secure, globally accepted payment option for business travelers in India and everywhere in the world.”