U.S. Project-Based Business Travel Spend Topped $45 Billion in 2017

In 2017, project-based business travel spending reached $45.4 billion USD, comprising 15 percent of all U.S. business travel spending, according to a first-of-its-kind study from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), in partnership with InterContinental Hotels Group. In total, 66 million trips were taken last year for project-based purposes, representing 12 percent of all U.S. business trips and 19 percent of all U.S. business trips taken for transient purposes. To be considered project-based travel, the travel must revolve around a project, have both a start and end date and have a duration of at least four nights or have some recurring component. It does not include group travel, relocation or travel for training.

The average spend per business trip was significantly higher for trips taken for project-based purposes ($679) than for other business trips ($533) taken over the same period. The higher spending is driven by longer average stays and higher trip budgets. Project-based business travelers spent a total of $15.9 billion on lodging, $14.6 billion on air transportation, $7.0 billion on food and beverage, $1.8 billion on entertainment, $4.2 billion on ground transportation and $1.9 billion on retail.

Project-Based Business Travel Widely Distributed Across United States

Project-based business travel mainly reflects the distribution of broader-based business travel activity with Los Angeles (seven percent of all project trips), New York (five percent), Las Vegas (four percent), Chicago (four percent) and San Francisco (four percent) coming in as the top project-based markets. There are also a handful of states noted in the graphic below that have a higher proportion of project-based business travel relative to all business travel activity.

Breaking Down Project-Based Business Travel

While the rate at which firms invest in project-based business travel differs significantly across industries, the top three industries include manufacturing, real estate and professional services — with $10 billion alone spent on the manufacturing project-based market. The most project-travel-intense sector by a wide margin is the construction industry, with project travel comprising 20 percent of total business travel spending.

A significantly higher proportion of project-based trip budgets get allocated towards accommodations with the average amount spent per trip on lodging coming in 142 percent higher for project-based trips than non-project based trips. When it comes to choosing a hotel property, location by far trumps all other attributes driving the lodging choice. Project-based business travelers are also significantly less likely to book lodging on their own directly through a hotel. Project travelers’ top three amenities when choosing lodging include Wi-Fi access, having breakfast included in the rate and being able to secure additional loyalty points.

The study also delves further into the profile and trip behavior of project-based business travelers.

More Information
The report, Project-Based Business Travel in the United States, is available exclusively to GBTA members by clicking here and non-members may purchase the report through GBTA by emailing Paul Yachnes.