A rise in demand for MICE bookings in China has helped the country record an “unprecedented” growth in business travel, according to a report published today.
The study from GBTA has found business travel spend in China is growing at more than double the rate of its GDP growth.
It’s expected to grow 16.5 per cent to $262.1 billion in 2014 and will overtake the US in 2015 as the number one business travel market in the world.
“The growth in China’s economy has been unprecedented, propelling the country’s business market to the second largest in the world,” said GBTA Asia, regional director, Welf J. Ebeling.
“This has been driven by real spending gains from rising business travel demand in both transient and group meetings and events,” he added.
China to increase business travel spend by 15% in 2014The report, GBTA BTI Outlook, found the surge in Chinese business travel spending is driven by both domestic and international outbound travel with domestic being the main driver making up almost 95 per cent of the spending on Chinese business travel.
Ebeling said: “Even facing headwinds as of late due to restrictions on spending in the public sector, domestic business travel spending continues to grow, and international outbound also shows some promising signs of growth.”
The study, a semi-annual analysis of the business travel market, also found an increase in the use of corporate cards being issues by buyers to their travellers. It found buyers are able to track their travellers easier and it’s a more flexible way for employees to pay for travel related expenses.
Infrastructure growth
Over the past decade China’s largets airports have doubled in size and the construction of additional airports continues including Beijing;s second international airport due to open in 2018.
China also has almost 2,000 hotel projects in the pipeline amounting to 435,000 additional rooms.