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Airfares Drop Due to Plunge in Oil Prices, But Rising Fees Negate Savings

The GBTA Foundation released its quarterly U.S. business travel forecast last week. It included a projection that average airfares have dropped to $379 this year, down from $392. This is a long anticipated drop for consumers due to the collapse in global oil prices. I talked about this phenomenon with Fortune’s Chris Elliott who wrote…

U.S. Business Travel Spend Growth Slows in 2015

U.S. Business Travel Spend Growth Slows in 2015

Today, GBTA released our third quarter outlook for U.S. business travel, and it clearly shows the effects caused by an uncertain global economic environment. U.S. business travel spending will increase by 3.1 percent in 2015 and 3.7 percent in 2016. While this is still positive growth, it is down from our July projections of increased…

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Breaking Down the World’s Major Business Travel Markets

When the GBTA Foundation released its annual global report and business travel forecast this July,sponsored by Visa, Inc., it highlighted five countries in a segment of newly emerging markets often overlooked because they aren’t as large as the traditional powers or the more commonly discussed BRIC markets. The five countries called out: Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico,…

Global Business Travel Spending to Hit Record High of $1.25 Trillion in 2015

Today at GBTA Convention, the GBTA Foundation unveiled its Annual Global Report & Forecast finding global business travel spending will hit a record $1.25 trillion USD in 2015, 6.5 percent growth over 2014. Growth will remain strong through 2019, with business travel projected to grow 6.9 percent in 2016, 6.0 percent in 2017, 6.4 percent…

Spain Surprises with Strong Business Travel Growth

The Spanish economy was one of the most challenged in Western Europe from 2011 through 2013 as it battled high levels of public debt, soaring unemployment and stagnating economic growth. The latest GBTA business travel forecast for Western Europe shows a surprising turnaround for the country however. Spain has exhibited a remarkable economic turnaround driven…

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5 Key Takeaways from GBTA’s Western Europe Business Travel Forecast

Business travel in Western Europe is finally standing on solid ground. Companies however are still showing a penchant toward saving for the future in case the economy backslides – that pessimism is slowly starting to abate, but optimism has not fully set in. Still, the stronger economy, lower energy prices and smart fiscal policies are…

Why India is Poised to Become a World Leader in Business Travel for Decades to Come

Why India is Poised to Become a World Leader in Business Travel for Decades to Come

Today, the GBTA Foundation released its semi-annual business travel forecast for India. The report, sponsored by Visa Inc., showed the continuation of dramatic business travel growth for the region. For the second straight time, we upgraded our forecast projecting India’s total business travel spend to grow 9.8 percent in 2015 and 10.9 percent in 2016…

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Week in Review

On Thursday, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation’s Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety and Security held a hearing to examine the funding of airport capital needs. The Hill’s Keith Lang reported on the potential topics including PFCs and talked with GBTA’s Mike McCormick about why GBTA opposes a hike in the PFC cap. The Washington…

U.S. Business Travel Volume on the Rise

The GBTA Foundation released its latest quarterly U.S. business travel forecast today and trip volume is on the rise. While we lowered our forecast for business travel spending from last quarter because the costs of travel are falling and are now expecting 3.1 percent spending growth to $295.7 billion, we increased the forecast for person-trip volume…

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Five Key Takeaways from GBTA’s Business Travel Forecast for China

GBTA released its latest business travel forecast for China today as part of a semi-annual series. Sponsored by Visa Inc., the report relates unfolding economic events at home and abroad to their resulting impacts on China’s business travel market. Here are the top five takeaways: China continued its so-called “soft landing” during the second half…

Week In Review
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Week In Review

It was a big week for business travel in Europe as GBTA along with German business travel buyer association VDR kicked off Europe’s largest business travel conference in Berlin. The GBTA Foundation released the results of its semi-annual Western Europe business travel forecast there predicting 4.9 percent growth in business travel spending in 2014 followed…

China Business Travel Spend Continues Growing at Double Digit Paces

Today we released our latest forecast for the Chinese business travel market – and it continues to grow at a double digit pace. In fact, GBTA forecasts China’s total business travel spend to grow 15.9 percent in 2014 to $262 billion USD and another 18 percent in 2015. The unprecedented growth in China’s economy has…