Business Travel Industry Drives Jobs, GDP Growth in Canada

GBTA Foundation Report Reveals Business Travel Impact on Canadian Economy and Jobs

Toronto (April 22, 2015) – A new report issued today by the GBTA Foundation at GBTA Conference 2015 Toronto highlights the positive economic impact that road warriors have on the nation’s economy and explores the quantitative impact business travel has on the Canadian economy. The study, sponsored by Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), reveals business travel spending in Canada in 2013 reached $23.5 billion making it responsible for 1.5 per cent of Canadian GDP.

The impact study also found businesses sent travellers on the road in Canada for 35.8 million trips. The business travel industry supports 434,000 jobs, $16.9 billion in wages and salaries and also generates $8.6 billion in taxes.

“Business travel drives business growth and these numbers show business travel matters when it comes to positively impacting the economy,” said Joseph Bates, GBTA Foundation Vice President of Research. “Nothing can replace face-to-face interactions when it comes to getting business done, so it comes as no surprise the huge impact the business travel industry has on the nation’s economy.”

“As one of the world’s leading hotel companies, IHG is closely attuned to the needs of our business travellers,” said Tiziana Fathers, Director of Global Sales Canada, IHG. “The results of the GBTA Report further illustrate not only trends in business travel but the important role business travellers have on our nation’s economy.”

More study highlights include:

• In 2013, business travellers in Canada spent an average of $656 per trip including $131 on lodging, $75 on airfare, $12 on rental cars, $100 on food and beverage in restaurants and $8 on entertainment. The majority (80 per cent) of these business trips are taken by car.
• Business travel in Canada contributed $27.2 billion in Canadian GDP – essentially every dollar spent on business travel generated about $1.16 in GDP.
• More than 60 per cent of all business trips in Canada were either to or within Ontario or Quebec with Toronto and Montreal leading the way as the two most popular destination markets within those provinces. The next most popular destination in 2013 was Alberta followed by British Columbia.

• Of the 2.6 million international inbound trips to Canada more than three-quarters of those travellers arrived from the United States.
• Canadian business travellers are likely to be mid-career (age 35-55) and be employed in a managerial position. Business travellers have an average annual household income of $102,329, nearly 70 per cent are men and 57 per cent are married.

More Information
The report, The Canadian Business Travel Industry: Business Travel’s Impact on Jobs and the Canadian Economy in 2013 is free of charge to all GBTA Members by clicking here. Non-members may purchase the report through the GBTA Foundation by emailing pyachnes@gbtafoundation.org. The GBTA Foundation will also hold a webinar on the report sponsored by IHG on June 9, 2015 at 2pm ET. Registration is now open. To view an abstract of this research, please click here.

About the GBTA Foundation
The GBTA Foundation is the education and research foundation of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), the world’s premier business travel and meetings trade organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area with operations on six continents. Collectively, GBTA’s 7,000-plus members manage more than $345 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually. GBTA provides its growing network of more than 28,000 travel professionals and 125,000 active contacts with world-class education, events, research, advocacy and media. The Foundation was established in 1997 to support GBTA’s members and the industry as a whole. As the leading education and research foundation in the business travel industry, the GBTA Foundation seeks to fund initiatives to advance the business travel profession. The GBTA Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. For more information, see gbta.org and gbta.org/foundation.

About InterContinental Hotels Group
IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global organisation with a broad portfolio of hotel brands, including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, HUALUXE® Hotels and Resorts, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, EVEN™ Hotels, Holiday Inn® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites® and Candlewood Suites®. In January 2015, IHG acquired Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, the world’s leading boutique hotel business.

IHG manages IHG® Rewards Club, the world’s first and largest hotel loyalty programme with over 84 million members worldwide. The programme was relaunched in July 2013, offering enhanced benefits for members including free internet across all hotels, globally.

IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns over 4,800 hotels and more than 710,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries, with over 1,200 hotels in its development pipeline. Over 350,000 people work across IHG’s hotels and corporate offices worldwide.

In January 2015 we completed the acquisition of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, adding 62 hotels (11,300 rooms) to our system size and 16 hotels to our development pipeline.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group’s holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales.

Visit www.ihg.com for hotel information and reservations and www.ihgrewardsclub.com for more on IHG Rewards Club. For our latest news, visit: www.ihg.com/media, www.twitter.com/ihg, www.facebook.com/ihg or www.youtube.com/ihgplc.

CONTACT:
Colleen Lerro Gallagher, +1 703-236-1133, cgallagher@gbta.org

About Global Business Travel Association – Canada
GBTA Canada, the leading organization for business travel professionals in Canada, is part of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), the world’s premier business travel and meetings trade organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area with operations on six continents. GBTA’s 7,000-plus members manage more than $345 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually. GBTA and the GBTA Foundation deliver world-class education, events, research, advocacy and media to a growing global network of more than 28,000 travel professionals and 125,000 active contacts. To learn how business travel drives business growth, visit gbta.org andgbta.org/Canada.