China becomes world's biggest business travel market

China surpassed the US as the world’s highest-spending business travel market, having ended 2015 with US$291.2 billion in business travel spending as compared to the US$290.2 billion recorded for the US in the same year, according to a Visa-sponsored report by the GBTA Foundation.

The GBTA BTI Outlook – China 2016 H1 report projects the trend to persist – with China’s business travel spend forecasted to grow 10.1 per cent to US$320.7 billion, compared to an increase of 1.9 per cent to US$295.7 billion in the US market.

Despite heightened concerns about a potential hard landing for China as a result of the early 2016 volatility in its financial markets, there has been continued investment in travel infrastructure in the country.

A plan to open 82 new airports has been underway since 2011 and hoteliers are also continuing to increase their presence in China. Over 70 per cent of the hotel construction pipeline in Asia-Pacific can be attributed to China.

Economic pressures are however, expected to slow the rate of growth of the Chinese domestic market, which accounted for 95 per cent of total business travel spend in 2015. Nevertheless, domestic business travel spending is expected to grow roughly 10 per cent from 2016 to 2017.

“Despite a relative slowdown, China’s business travel market remains one of the fastest growing in the world,” said Michael McCormick, executive director and COO, GBTA.

“China surpassing the US in business travel spending marks a major inflection point and truly demonstrates the global nature of today’s economy.”