China has been confirmed as the world's biggest business travel market, according to new figures from AirPlus International.
Chinese companies spent around US$310 billion on business travel in 2016, putting it ahead of the rest of the world. The figure is expected to jump further, to US$344 billion this year, revealed Wang Lu, managing director of AirPlus International China at a meeting in Beijing. The figures means the country is now well ahead of the US in spend terms.
The AirPlus figures confirm what the GBTA said in April last year when it announced that business travel spend in China in 2015 was US$291.2 billion compared with $290.2 billion in the United States.
At the time, GBTA executive director Michael W. McCormick said, "Despite a relative slowdown, China's business travel market remains one of the fastest growing in the world. China surpassing the United States in business travel spending marks a major inflection point and truly demonstrates the global nature of today's economy."
The news comes as the IMF has upgraded its forecast for the Chinese economy. At a meeting last weekend, David Lipton, first deputy managing director for the Fund, said that the GDP growth forecast for the country for 2017 was now 6.7%, settling down to 6.4% per annum between 2018 and 2020.
Lipton said, "China has the potential to safely sustain strong growth over the medium term, as has been widely recognized, including in the government's reform programs, this requires deep reforms to transition the economy from the current growth model that relies on credit-fed investment and debt. It's critical to start now, while growth is strong and buffers are sufficient to ease this transition. The Chinese authorities are fully aware of the challenge, and have taken crucial and welcome measures in that direction."
Our chart this week reflects the airline industry's view that this dominance looks set to continue as the country looks set to become the world's biggest passenger market.
Source: IATAThe question on travel buyers' minds will be how much this will influence the nature of products and services in the business travel market as suppliers look to cater for an increasingly Chinese customer base.