GBTA Foundation Forecasts Western Europe Business Travel Spend to Grow in 2014 and 2015

-- Business Travel Growth to Expand by 4.9% and 6.6% in 2014 and 2015, respectively

BERLIN , Nov. 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The GBTA Foundation, education and research arm of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), today announces the results of its latest report, a semi-annual analysis of the five most critical business travel markets in Europe : Germany , the UK, France , Italy , and Spain . These five markets serve as a good barometer of the health of the entire European business travel market. The report, sponsored by Visa Inc., includes the GBTA BTI™, a proprietary index of business travel spending that distills market performance over a period of time.

"After experiencing many quarters of decline, Europe appears to be stabilizing and starting to bounce back," said Catherine McGavock , Regional Director for Europe for GBTA. "We still face many hurdles, but it appears the tides are gradually changing for economies all over Europe . This will contribute to a strong 2014 and 2015 for business travel throughout the region. "

"With business travel spending forecast to rise in 2015, businesses are looking for ways to effectively manage expenses and help improve their bottom line," said Sandra Alzetta , Executive Director, Core Products, Visa Europe. "As a leader in the corporate travel market, Visa provides best-in-class solutions to improve reporting and automation on business travel purchases."

Germany :

United Kingdom :

France :

Spain :

Italy :

The findings of this research will be presented today at the GBTA Conference 2014- Berlin by Joseph Bates , Vice President, Research GBTA Foundation. Additionally, a webinar will be held on December 2, 2014 discussing these findings.

The GBTA BTI™ Outlook projects aggregate business travel trends over the next eight quarters. The report tracks total business travel spending, plus spending in the domestic and outbound business travel segments. It relates unfolding economic events at home and abroad to their resulting impacts on China's business travel market. is the sixth report in the semi-annual series. Semi-annual reports will be released each March and October.

The GBTA BTI™ Outlook uses an econometric model to better inform the forecast process. The model explicitly relates measures of business travel spending, uniquely sourced from other GBTA Foundation research, to key economic and market drivers of business travel including: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and its components; employment and unemployment; measures of business and consumer confidence; international trade, foreign direct investment and exchange rates; commodity and oil prices; inflation measures; productivity rates for business travel; International Air Transport Association (IATA) Passenger and Revenue Performance and Smith Travel Research (STR) Global Hotel Performance.

The GBTA BTI™ Outlook – Western Europe is free of charge to all GBTA Members by clicking here. Non-members may purchase the report through the GBTA Foundation by emailing pyachnes@gbtafoundation.org. To view an abstract of this research, please click here.

The GBTA Foundation is the education and research foundation of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), the world's premier business travel and meetings trade organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area with operations on six continents. Collectively, GBTA's 7,000-plus members manage more than $345 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually. GBTA provides its growing network of more than 28,000 travel professionals and 125,000 active contacts with world-class education, events, research, advocacy and media. The Foundation was established in 1997 to support GBTA's members and the industry as a whole. As the leading education and research foundation in the business travel industry, the GBTA Foundation seeks to fund initiatives to advance the business travel profession. The GBTA Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The GBTA Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. For more information, see gbta.org and gbta.org/foundation.