The latest Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) BTI Outlook – Western Europe has found that business travel spending in 2014 among the five key markets is expected to reach US$183bn, which would be a 3.3 per cent growth over 2013. This projected gain would be the largest in Western Europe since the Great Recession.
The report is a semi-annual analysis of the five most critical business travel markets in Europe: Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain. These five markets together form the lion’s share of business travel in the region, nearly 70 per cent, and act as a good barometer of the health of the entire European business travel market.
The report, sponsored by Visa Inc, includes the GBTA BTI, an index of business travel spending that distills market permance over a period of time. Key highlights of the report include:
- Germany remains the largest business travel market in Europe reaching $50.5bn in 2012. This is expected to increase five per cent in 2013 to $53bn.
- The UK has the second highest level of spending on business travel in Western Europe with $40.6bn in 2012 and is expected to advance 1.6 per cent in 2013 to $41.3bn.
- Spain, Italy and France will all see their business travel markets contract in 2013 by -6.7 per cent, -3.9 per cent and -2.3 per cent respectively.
- In 2013, domestic business travel will fare better than international outbound in all five markets except for the UK.
“After six consecutive quarters of decline, Europe has finally turned the corner,” says the Regional Director for Europe for GBTA, Catherine McGavock. “Challenges remain but we cannot ignore the economic progress that has been made and the impact that this will have on both domestic and international travel across Western Europe. Next year we can expect to see the largest annual growth in business travel spending in more than six years.”
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