Good news for hotels: business travel spending in Germany, the U.K., France, Spain and Italy combined will grow at over 6 percent in 2015 and 2016, a leading indicator that the European economy is “gathering steam” and is poised for a moderate economic breakthrough. These findings are part of the semi-annual GBTA BTI Outlook – Western Europe report, conducted by the GBTA Foundation, the education and research arm of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), and sponsored by Visa, Inc.
These five markets comprise nearly 70 percent of Western Europe’s business travel market. Business travel spending in the countries will grow 6.4 percent in 2015 and another 6.3 percent in 2016. In total, this segment of the Western European business travel market will grow from $186.3 billion USD (€140.2 billion) in 2014 to $210.6 billion USD (€220.3 billion) in 2016.
After 2014 proved to be a bounce-back year for Western European business travel, the recovery continues to pick up the pace in 2015 with Germany, the UK and Spain leading the way, according to the report.
The United Kingdom
The UK has exhibited some of the strongest performance in the region as improving employment and low energy prices have spurred consumption. It is a $43.5 billion USD market (£26.4 billion) and is expected to grow at 7.4 percent in 2015 and 6.2 percent in 2016. Spending on domestic business travel will grow at 8.3 percent in 2015 and 7.8 percent in 2016, while international outbound travel will grow at 5.5 percent in 2015 and 3.1 percent in 2016.
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