U.S. Business Travel Industry Spends $72.8 Billion in Q2

October 7, 2014

A leading travel industry forecast found business travelers spent an estimated $72.8 billion on U.S.-originated business travel during the second quarter of 2014, a 7.1 percent year-over-year growth. This rise in spending comes despite a slight year-over-year reduction of -0.1 percent in the total number of trips taken in the second quarter. Likewise, during the 2014 calendar year, group business trips — travel to business meetings or conferences — are expected to dip 3.3 percent, while spending on group business travel is expected to increase by 5.9 percent. Together, these findings underscore the fact that businesses are spending more per trip, indicating a strengthening economy.

In total, U.S.-generated business travel spending is expected to increase by 6.8 percent to $292.3 billion in 2014, according to the GBTA BTI Outlook — United States 2014 Q3, released by the GBTA Foundation, the education and research arm of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), and sponsored by Visa, Inc.

“The continued strong demand in business travel spending is a positive sign for our economy — this signals that companies are continuing to put travelers on the road to achieve their business objectives,” said Michael W. McCormick, GBTA executive director and COO. “As always, business travel spending is a leading indicator of overall economic growth.”

The report’s key findings include:

  • While individual business travel volume is only expected to grow 2.3 percent in 2014 — in line with GBTA’s 2Q 2014 forecast — spending is expected to increase 7 percent year-over-year, driven by higher travel prices and additional spend-per-trip.
  • Similar to individual business travel, group travel spending is expected to disproportionately increase over volume, increasing 5.9 percent year-over-year in spend while simultaneously declining 3.3 percent in volume. Evolving meeting technology and other substitutes is one possibility to explain the loss of volume.
  • Travel costs are expected to increase 2.9 percent this year and an additional 3.5 percent in 2015, led by rising food and beverage costs, hotel prices and airfares. These expectations have been raised from the previous quarter, mainly due to increasingly higher food and beverage costs and airfare.

The GBTA BTI Outlook — United States report is available exclusively to GBTA members and non-members may purchase the report through the GBTA Foundation by emailing pyachnes@gbtafoundation.org.

www.gbta.org

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