In 2019 (before the pandemic), the business travel industry was responsible for $1.4 trillion in global spending. While spending continues to lag in 2022 due to the recovery from the pandemic ($1.03 trillion), the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) predicts that business travel spending will exceed pre-pandemic levels in 2024 and remain grow to $1.8 trillion by 2027.
Because so much is spent, the business travel market is a major economic force. Business travel not only injects money into the tourism sector and local economies, it also leads to improved productivity and profits. Even in the world of Zoom and teleworking, the need for business travel isn’t going away anytime soon.
It is significant that companies allocate a significant budget for business travel expenses. Clearly, there is an expected return on investment if companies are willing to make these expenses, especially since the average business trip is often more expensive than leisure travel.
According to ACCOR’s Business of Travel report business professionals expect 25% more revenue from travel for in-person collaboration versus virtual meetings.
It’s worth understanding how much is spent on business travel, where that money goes and when companies decide business travel is worth it.
Here are key statistics on business travel spending to understand the economic impact of the business travel industry.
Business travel expenditure by country
Global business travel spending is highly concentrated in a few countries with industrial economies, with China and the United States far outpacing the rest of the world.
Here are the top 15 best countries for business travel spending according to the GBTA’s 2023 Business Travel Index Outlook.
| Business travel expenditure by country | |
|---|---|
| Country | Expenses (billions USD) |
|
China |
$361 |
|
United States |
$329 |
|
Germany |
$70 |
|
Japan |
$65 |
|
United Kingdom |
$44 |
|
France |
$42 |
|
Italy |
$34 |
|
South Korea |
$33 |
|
India |
$32 |
|
Brazil |
$28 |
|
Spain |
$25 |
|
Australia |
$24 |
|
The Netherlands |
$23 |
|
Canada |
$23 |
|
Indonesia |
$17 |
It’s no surprise that, with a few exceptions, these same countries are also the highest ranked in terms of GDP. Interesting enough, Russia is the only country in the top ten by GDP that does not appear on this list.
Business travelers travel almost everywhere within or between these 15 countries.
The rest of the world combined adds only $207 billion to total global business travel spending. Like many other measures, this shows how much the world’s economic activity and prosperity is concentrated within a few regions. These 15 countries represent only about half the world’s population, but are responsible for 85% of global business travel spending.
Business travel expense categories
Business travel can be divided into different spending categories to see where companies spend the most money. The chart below shows total spending in 2022 in five categories according to the GBTA.
|
Category |
2022 Expenses (billions USD) |
|
Other |
$121 |
|
Accommodation |
$395 |
|
Ground transport |
$138 |
|
Meals |
$191 |
|
Airline ticket |
$183 |
It’s easy to assume that airline tickets are the biggest expense for business travel. In reality it only ranks third after accommodation and meals. Accommodation is by far the largest expense for business travel, accounting for more than double the amount of any other category.
Spending on business travel versus spending on leisure travel
While business travel is a large industry, leisure travel is even larger. The table below shows the total travel expenditure divided between business and leisure travel according to Statista.
| Leisure activities | Business expenses | |
|
United States |
75.4% |
24.6% |
| China | 84.4% |
15.6% |
|
Germany |
83.8% | 16.2% |
| United Kingdom | 70.8% |
29.2% |
|
Japan |
83.8% | 16.2% |
| France | 84.0% |
16.0% |
|
Mexico |
95.0% | 5.0% |
| Italy | 83.6% |
16.4% |
|
India |
95.3% | 4.7% |
| Spain | 88.1% |
11.9% |
| Brazil | 90.8% |
9.2% |
Average, only 15.2% of travel expenditure comes from business trips. 84.8% comes from holiday travel.
However, this distribution is not consistent across all travel sectors. Hotels, restaurants and tourism operations generally make much more money from leisure travelers, but many airlines actually earn a larger percentage of revenue from business travelers.
According to Investopedia, only 12% of airline passengers are business travelers. However, Because business travelers pay higher fares, book more last-minute flights and fly first-class more often, they can account for up to 75% of airline profits.
While many vacationers try to save as much money as possible on airline tickets, companies are often more inclined to spend extra money on better business travel comfort.
Research by Business Traveler has shown that 33% of international business travel flights are in premium class, and 13% of domestic business travel flights are in premium class.
Although leisure travel is significantly higher, business travel spending is still a crucial part of the travel industry.
