U.S. Business Travel Responsible for 2% of U.S. GDP and 3.5% of Employment, According to GBTA Economic Study
GBTA today unveiled a new study, the “GBTA U.S. Economic Impact Study: Business Travel’s Impact on Jobs and the U.S. Economy,” which quantifies the significant economic impact of traveling for work in the U.S. The report shows that the business travel industry provided a major boost to the U.S. economy in 2022, the latest full year for which a complete set of data is available for analysis.
GBTA’s study shows for every dollar spent on business travel, $1.15 was returned to the U.S. economy as net-new gross domestic product (GDP). The study also includes profiles of U.S. business travelers to better understand their profile, behavior, motivations and spending patterns.
“Business travel continues to be a substantial contributor to the health of the U.S. economy,” said Suzanne Neufang, CEO, GBTA. “Business travel supports millions of jobs and delivers billions in tax revenue, which is why it is important for policymakers to consider the impact on the industry when devising economic policy – and for sustainable solutions to be prioritized, funded and developed to help us abate travel’s hardest-to-abate sectors.”
Additional study highlights include:
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A total of 429.9 million business trips were taken within the U.S.
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For every 1% of growth in business travel, the U.S. economy sees nearly 60,000 jobs, $2.9 billion in paid wages, $1.2 billion in tax revenue and $4.8 billion in new GDP
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Business travelers spent an average of $632 per business trip and 4.1 days per trip.
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The average age of a U.S. business traveler is 44.3 years.
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Blended travel - where business and leisure trips are combined - made up over a third of all travel (33.8%).
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The top 15 states ranked by overall business travel destination spending accounted for 65% of total U.S. business travel expenditures.
Read the full GBTA U.S. Economic Impact Study here. (For more information about GBTA Research, visit GBTA’s web page.)
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