European Business Travel Spending is Forecast to Reach $450 Billion USD by 2027

After a slower rebound over the last few years, business travel spending in Europe is expected to surpass its pre-pandemic spending level of $391.9 billion USD in 2025, when spending is forecast to reach $414.9 billion. This is later than the forecast for global business travel recovery, which is expected to reach $1.5 trillion in 2024 − and grow to nearly $1.8 trillion by 2027.

These are the takeaways for Europe from the 2023 GBTA Business Travel Index™ Outlook (BTI) report published by the Global Business Travel Association in collaboration with Visa. Released today in conjunction with the GBTA + VDR Europe Conference in Hamburg, these latest regional forecasts take a deep dive into business travel spending and trends in Europe for 2023 to 2027. Highlights include:

• Overall, business travel spend in Europe has recovered to 69% of pre-COVID (2019) levels and is forecast to recover to 90% of travel spend by year end (2023).
• Western Europe was the fastest growing region globally in 2022, surging 109% to $236 billion. Emerging Europe continues to lag in its recovery, challenged by the war in Ukraine.
• Business travel spending recovery differs by market with some of the largest business travel markets in this region falling below the Europe-wide recovery rate; namely Germany reaching 65%, UK 57% and Italy 68% in 2022. Conversely, France at 75%, Spain at 86%, Netherlands at 87% and the Nordic region (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) at 74% also showed stronger rebounds.
• In GBTA’s BTI survey of 1,176 business travellers across Europe, 82% reported that business travel was very or moderately worthwhile in achieving their business objectives. And two-thirds of European business travelers believe they will travel the same or more frequently in 2023 versus 2019.
• Purposeful travel is a priority in Europe, with business travelers from this region taking, on average, 3.51 days per business trip. And multi-modal travel is more prominent in this region; 32% used rail on their last business trip, 36% used air travel, and 29% used a personal car.

Read today’s announcement here, and more about the 2023 GBTA Business Travel Index Outlook report here. GBTA members can exclusively access the full BTI report on the GBTA Hub.

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GBTA Latin America
Upcoming 2023 LATAM Business Travel Forums (Brazil and Chile)

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