Business travel spending in Germany, the U.K., France, Spain and Italy combined will grow at over 6 percent in 2015 and 2016, according to the 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. The GBTA says the data indicates that the European economy could be "gathering steam" and poised for a breakthrough. Here's a breakdown by country:
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.
Germany represents over 20 percent of Western Europe’s business travel activity and continues to be the strongest market on the continent. The UK has exhibited some of the strongest performance in the region as improving employment and low energy prices have spurred consumption. Spain continues its impressive economic turnaround and is expecting robust business travel growth this year. France and Italy, on the other hand, are the two most challenged markets with weaker economic growth leading to much lower business travel growth rates.