The UK’s business travel market is likely to grow by 1.9 per cent this year to around $41 billion before picking up speed in 2014 and 2015, according to the latest forecast from GBTA.
The association is predicting that global spending on business travel will increase by 5.4 per cent to $1.12 trillion in 2013 compared to last year. The figures are included in its latest BTI Outlook – Annual Global Report & Forecast
GBTA said that business travel spending was “stabilising” in 2013 before seeing stronger growth in the following four years with predictions of increases of 8.2 per cent in 2014 followed by 7.6 per cent in 2015, 7.2 per cent in 2016 and 7.1 per cent in 2017.
This growth will mostly be driven by the continued economic strength of countries such as China, India and Brazil.
For the UK, which saw spending of $40.2 billion in 2012, the association said that corporate travel spending would go up 3.7 per cent next year followed by 8.1 per cent in 2015 and then 7.5 per cent and 7.9 per cent in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
The UK is the second biggest business travel market in Europe after Germany, which spends $50.5 billion per year. Overall business travel in western Europe generated $260 billion in spending.
“While European business travel has been severely hampered over the last couple of years, GBTA expects that the worst in Europe is over,” said the report. “The next five years should see a bounce back in business travel among all of western Europe’s major markets.”
But it will be the BRIC countries that will be leading the way in the growth of business travel spending as the chart below shows:
BRIC COUNTRY GROWTH | | |
Country | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
China | 15.0% | 16.8% | 13.6% | 12.3% | 11.5% |
Brazil | 14.2% | 15.9% | 3.4% | 4.2% | 6.0% |
India | 10.4% | 13.0% | 13.8% | 14.0% | 13.2% |
Russia | 8.5% | 8.2% | 7.2% | 7.9% | 7.2% |
DEVELOPED MARKET GROWTH | |
US | 4.5% | 5.9% | 4.2% | 3.2% | 3.3% |
Canada | 2.2% | 2.6% | 3.3% | 2.5% | 2.4% |
UK | 1.9% | 3.7% | 8.1% | 7.5% | 7.9% |
Germany | 5.1% | 5.0% | 6.6% | 5.6% | 5.6% |
Michael McCormick, GBTA’s executive director, said: “Travel is indispensable to trade, commerce and business expansion in a global economy
“This report shows that new opportunities are opening up in markets around the world for companies willing to invest in business travel to drive growth.
“It also serves as yet another wake-up call for the US and Europe to improve aging infrastructure, establish fiscal order and stay competitive, because emerging economies are increasingly focused on meeting their own fast-growing business travel needs.”
gbta.org