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GBTA Convention 2021 Sets The Pace For Business Travel’s Return

Business travel is on the road to recovery, as evidenced by the forecasts, insights and turnout at the Global Business Travel Association’s 2021 Convention held last week in Orlando, FL.    After navigating months of pandemic-related planning, the event—the world’s largest business travel expo annually—attracted over 3,500 registered professionals from more than 20 countries, and featured 170+ travel industry and expert speakers, 50 education sessions and 200+ exhibitors. The state of the industry, the future…

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From Setback To Surge: Business Travel Expected To Fully Recover by 2024

Business travel recovery in 2021 proceeded at a slower, more cautionary pace than expected from a year ago. However, global business travel spending is expected to surge in 2022 with full recovery expected in 2024–ending the year on pace with the 2019 pre-pandemic spend of $1.4 trillion, and a year sooner than previously forecast. This…

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Business Travel in Western Europe Expected to Fully Recover by 2024; Emerging Europe Set to Take Longer

Business travel recovery in 2021 proceeded at a slower, more cautionary pace than expected, particularly across Western Europe where business travel underperformed compared to other markets across the world. This is according to European-specific data from the latest business travel index–the BTI™ Outlook, from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), the world’s largest business travel…

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Check-in with Suzanne

Being an event, conference or meeting professional is an especially challenging role these days. At GBTA, we understand firsthand what the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events (MICE) sector has been navigating.   Our plate has been full restarting our own in-person conferences now in Q4 on a regional basis – including in Canada, the US and Europe – as well as planning for 2022 to restart the topical meetings that were put on hold for over two years. There is a lot of pent-up…

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Politics of Travel Stop and Smell the roses with more clarity on International Travel

Anticipation is hitting me on so many levels. The U.S. House of Representatives may or may not vote on both the bi-partisan hard infrastructure AND the Build Back Better (BBB) plan on Thursday evening…I am writing this at 3:30 PM Thursday November 4 – its now 8:30 am Friday and they say a vote is happening…

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Politics of Travel Stop and Smell the roses with more clarity on International Travel

Anticipation is hitting me on so many levels. The U.S. House of Representatives may or may not vote on both the bi-partisan hard infrastructure AND the Build Back Better (BBB) plan on Thursday evening…I am writing this at 3:30 PM Thursday November 4 – its now 8:30 am Friday and they say a vote is happening…

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Check-In With Suzanne:

Last week I joined GBTA’s VP of Government Relations, Shane Downey, for an event in Washington, D.C. featuring U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen, Chair of the Subcommittee on Tourism, Trade and Export Promotion. We were able to grab a few minutes with Senator Rosen to talk more about the proposed omnibus bill — the Travel and Tourism Act, aka the “TourBus” aimed at helping the industry recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.  This came on the…

Spotlight on Marilyn Markham, 2021 WINiT Top 50 Women in Travel Recipient

Marilyn Markham is the Head of the Salesforce Centre of Excellence at American Express Global Business Travel (GBT). In her role, she builds the operational platform necessary to enable modern digital experiences to manage travel for colleagues, business travelers and travel managers. Marilyn moved from London, UK, in 2018 to work in GBT’s New York…