Global spending on business travel will reach a record in 2026.
Business trips continue grow, but costs are growing significantly faster than the number of trips. GBTA expects 1.84 billion business trips this year, while companies are increasingly analysing the value and return on every single trip.
Global spending on Business travel should reach a record 1.71 trillion dollars in 2026, an increase of 7.2 percent compared to last year. However, the number of trips is growing much more slowly. GBTA expects around 1.84 billion business trips, or a mere 1.3 per cent more than in 2025.
That difference is perhaps the most important message of the new Business Travel Index. The industry is growing, but a large part of the growth in market value comes from higher transport prices and other costs, rather than a strong increase in volume.
Companies are travelling, but are choosing travel more carefully
Business travel has proved more resilient than expected. During 2025, global spending rose by 8.4 percent, to 1.59 trillion dollars, while 74 percent of surveyed business travellers state that they are travelling as much as or more than in previous years.
However, companies are increasingly looking at productivity and return on investment. For TMCs and corporate travel managers, this means greater pressure on cost control, data and better-quality travel programme management.
The proportion of premium travel is also interesting. As many as 42 percent of respondents who travel by plane state that they generally use premium cabins. Rail remains particularly important in Asia-Pacific and Europe, where it is used by 60 percent of business travellers.
AI investments are creating new business mobility
Technological investments, particularly the development of artificial intelligence, data centres and digital infrastructure, are becoming a new driver of business travel. The GBTA sees this trend especially in North America and Asia-Pacific, where project travel, client meetings and cross-border collaboration are growing.
Among the 15 largest markets, the fastest growing are Brazil, Australia, South Korea, Turkey and Japan. At the same time, the USA and China together account for nearly half of total global spending.
The value of travel is becoming more important than the volume
The record $1.71 trillion is certainly a positive signal, but it is not an indicator of an uncontrolled return of volume. On the contrary, the market is entering a phase in which price, purpose of travel and measurable business outcome will carry increasing weight.
GBTA expects global business travel spend to exceed two trillion dollars by 2030. For TMCs, airlines, hotels and travel-tech companies, the opportunity will therefore increasingly lie in managing travel value, rather than just travel volume.
