India was the world’s fastest growing major business travel market last year, the GBTA Business Travel Outlook report has shown.
Despite demonetisation fears that stemmed from a plan by the Indian government to remove all 500 and 1,000 rupee notes from circulation, business travel spending saw double digit growth.
The GBTA forecasts a further 11.6 per cent growth in business travel spend, reaching $36.8 billion in 2017. It projects India will become the sixth largest business travel market in the world by the end of 2019.
“India continues to position itself to become a world leader in business travel for decades to come,” said Gaurav Sundaram, GBTA India regional director. “Despite fears surrounding the demonetization efforts, India saw a 10.9 percent growth in year-over-year business travel spending for the second quarter of 2016 – even higher than our last report projected.”
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