Challenges Persist for International Outbound Travel from the United States

Challenges Persist for International Outbound Travel from the United States

In 2015, the global economic growth rate grew at its slowest rate since 2009. This stagnant growth had a clear impact on international outbound (IOB) travel from the United States according to GBTA’s BTI 2016 Q1 Outlook, which was sponsored by Visa. For years IOB travel growth was a key driver of the economic recovery…

China Overtakes the United States as World’s Largest Business Travel Market

China Overtakes the United States as World’s Largest Business Travel Market

While it is pretty much a photo finish, China edged past the United States in total business travel spending at the end of 2015 by a billion U.S. dollars making it the largest business travel market in the world. The two countries finished the year with $291.2 billion in spend compared to $290.2 billion, respectively,…

Week in Review
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Week in Review

For Earth Day, airports and airlines are marking the day with environment-focused special events, according to USA Today. In major news this week, the Los Angeles Times covered a recent GBTA Foundation report showing China has surpassed the United States as the global leader in business travel spending. Entrepreneur also reported on the reasons behind…

U.S. Business Travel: An Island of Stability
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U.S. Business Travel: An Island of Stability

Every quarter GBTA looks at economic trends and business spending to see where the business travel industry is headed. Our latest report, the BTI™ Outlook – United States 2015 Q4 – finds that U.S. business travel is an island of stability in a sea of global volatility. Overall, the BTI Outlook finds that the U.S. economy…

A Deeper Dive into GBTA’s U.S. Business Travel Forecast
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A Deeper Dive into GBTA’s U.S. Business Travel Forecast

Last week, the GBTA Foundation released our latest quarterly U.S. business travel outlook projecting just over 3 percent growth in business travel spending for 2016 and 2017. Here are three key questions we’ve been hearing about the forecast. Will airfares drop in 2016? In 2015, price growth was the lowest we’ve witnessed since the Great…

Group Business Travel Spending Exceeds Individual Travel Spend in the United States

GBTA’s recently released quarterly U.S. business travel forecast, GBTA BTI™ Outlook – United States, showed the growth rate for business travel spending in the country is slowing. The study also looked into both group and individual business travel. Individual business travel soared in 2014, growing 6.7 percent, but total spending fell 0.3 percent over the…

Week in Review

This week in business travel news CNN reported on the increasing bleisure travel trend looking at the new breed of traveler who is mixing business with leisure. They turned to GBTA’s ranking of the top 15 business travel markets to see where travelers are “splashing the cash” on these trips. Bloomberg covered the GBTA Foundation’s…

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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…

BRICs No Longer a Bloc for Business Travel Growth

This morning we released findings from GBTA’s BTI™ Outlook semi-annual forecast reports on Brazil, China, India and Russia, sponsored by Visa, Inc. Our VP of research, Joe Bates, is also presenting the results this week at ITB Asia in Singapore. In the latest round of forecasts, we found the BRICs are no longer acting as…