The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) recently unveiled its new study that demonstrates the impact that business travel has on the US economy and employment. The study, GBTA US Economic Impact Study: Business Travel’s Impact on Jobs and the US Economy, used data from 2022, the latest full year for which a complete set of data is available for analysis.
According to the report, spending for 2022 business travel in the US accounted for $421.1 billion—resulting in $119 billion in tax receipts—and supported 6 million jobs. It topped the world in business travel spend in 2022, and GBTA forecasts that it will be first or second worldwide in spending again this year.
GBTA CEO Suzanne Neufang
The full study can be read here.
“The data shows that business travel is a substantial contributor to the health of the US economy, and therefore also a key driver for the global economy,” said GBTA CEO Suzanne Neufang. “Business travel supports millions of jobs and delivers billions in tax revenue, which is why it is important for policymakers to consider the impact on the industry when devising economic policies—and for sustainable solutions to be prioritized, funded, and developed to help us abate travel’s hardest-to-abate sectors.”
Additional highlights:
- A total of 429.9 million business trips were taken within the US.
- About 67 percent of trips were taken for transient purposes: sales, client service, government and military travel, and travel for construction or repair, while the rest were for meetings and conventions.
- Business travelers traveled an average of 4.1 days in 2022 (versus 3.3 days as cited in 2017 GBTA research).
- The average spent per trip was $632, with lodging commanding the top spot (34 percent of spend).
- The average age of US business travelers is 44.3 years.
- Bleisure, or blended travel of business and pleasure, accounted for 33.8 percent of trips, staying an average of 4.4 days. More men travel overall for business, but women added a leisure component to their business travel at a much higher rate than men in 2022.
These 15 states account for more than 65 percent of all business travel spend (highest to lowest):
- California
- New York
- Florida
- Texas
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Colorado
- Pennsylvania
- New Jersey
- Washington
- Arizona
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Nevada
- Virginia
California and New York were the top markets for business travel spending with $35.62 billion and $23.31 billion, respectively. Nevada ranked first among the top 15 states in terms of its ratio of business travel spend to GDP, with $6 billion of business travel spend comprising 3.2 percent of the state’s GDP.
GBTA will also hold its annual convention this year in Atlanta this July 22-24. Visit convention.gbta.org for more information.
Visit gbta.org for more information.
[06.18.24]