GBTA Forecasts China to Overtake U.S. as No. 1 Business Travel Market by 2016

According to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), which released the latest figures from its Business Travel Index (BTI) outlook report on Wednesday, global business travel spend is expected to reach a record US$1.18 trillion by 2014, with nearly 40% coming from Asia Pacific.

GBTA’s BTI study also forecasts China to overtake the US as the world’s number one business travel market by 2016, and other Asia Pacific countries such as India and Indonesia to grow between 11-14% annually over the next five years.

“In Asia Pacific, there are a number of countries showing high growth in terms of business travel spend. These markets include Vietnam, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. We forecast an average growth rate of 7.5-10% annually in these markets,” said Welf Ebeling, GBTA Vice President, Operations, Asia. “The second fastest growth market in Asia is India which equally to China showed a 16% growth in the first decade of this century. Over the last 15 years, India has worked its way up the rankings of major global business travel markets from number 24 in 2000 to the world’s 10th ranked market in 2013. GBTA expects India to become the ninth largest business travel market within the next five years.”