Business Travel Statistics 2025: Spend, Trends, Budgets & Booking
Business Travel Statistics 2025: Spend, Trends, Budgets & Booking
Global business travel has moved decisively beyond recovery and into a results-driven era. Companies are approving trips that clearly help close deals, deliver projects, or strengthen partnerships. The numbers back it up: global corporate travel spend is forecast to reach $1.57 trillion by 2025. Airlines achieved a record 83.5% load factor in 2024, driven by a 10.4% increase in demand. The world logged 1.4 billion international arrivals last year, representing 99% of the 2019 levels. In short, networks are busy again and pricing is firm.
What’s different now is how we travel. Budgets are growing, but approvals are sharper. Sustainability has shifted from a pledge to procurement choices, including rail swaps, greener hotels, and the inclusion of emissions data in the booking flow. And costs no longer move in lockstep: they diverge by region and city, pushing teams to pick the right markets, dates, and suppliers. This report breaks down who spends what, which industries and roles travel most, the hidden costs to watch, the destinations drawing the most trips, and the booking behaviours shaping 2025.
Quick overview
A projected $1.57 trillion in global business travel spend in 2025, a new record high according to the GBTA’s annual Business Travel Index Outlook report.
In 2024, air passenger demand increased by 10.4% year-over-year, and airlines achieved a record 83.5% load factor, indicating tight capacity and firm pricing, according to IATA.
1.4 billion, international arrivals in 2024 (99% of 2019), confirming network depth and event calendars back online, per UN Tourism.
Global business travel spend is projected to climb from $1.48 trillion in 2024 to $1.64 trillion in 2025, marking steady growth beyond the post-pandemic rebound.
China is projected to lead the global business-travel market in 2024, with spending nearing $373 billion, followed by the United States. By this point, the industry has effectively returned to pre-pandemic levels worldwide.
What counts as Business Travel?
Business travel is any trip taken for work purposes that requires an employee, contractor, or founder to travel away from their normal place of work (and usually, overnight). The key test is that the primary purpose is business, not leisure.
What is included in Business Travel?
Client-facing trips: Sales meetings, demos, negotiations, renewals, and account reviews.
Project delivery & field work: Installations, site audits, maintenance, inspections, training on client premises.
Conferences & trade shows: Exhibiting, speaking, sponsoring, attending for business development or market research.
Internal off-sites: Leadership summits, team kickoffs, product sprints, and quarterly planning when held off-site.
Partner & supplier meetings: Sourcing, factory/warehouse visits, distributor onboarding.
Recruiting & HR: Interviews, campus hiring events, relocation look-and-see trips (when company-directed).
Compliance & government relations: Hearings, regulatory meetings, certifications.
Training & enablement: Mandatory courses, certifications, and workshops conducted off-site.
When is it Actually Business Travel?
Not every work-related journey qualifies. Use these rules of thumb:
Bleisure trips: Business trip with a personal day or weekend attached. Count only the business days/costs; personal extensions are employee-paid unless your policy allows otherwise.
Remote/hybrid work retreats: If company-organised with defined business objectives (OKRs, roadmap, training), they count.
Local day trips without an overnight stay: May qualify if they involve significant travel beyond the normal commuting radius and are business-critical (set a mileage/time threshold in the policy).
Business Travel After COVID Statistics: From Shock to Surge
The business travel industry went from a complete standstill in 2020 to nearly full recovery within five years. Companies are now more mindful about why and when they travel, focusing on purposeful, high-value trips rather than frequent short ones. It’s a new era of business travel- leaner, smarter, and more intentional.
2021: Total spending reached $697B, 5.5% above 2020. The year remained challenging as the industry sought to establish a new “normal,” regaining roughly $36 billion of the $770 billion lost in 2020. Recovery was short-circuited by Omicron in late 2021 / early 2022.
2022: With cases retreating and travel opening up, GBTA expected 2022 spend to jump 34% to $933B (about 65% of 2019). Recovery was being propelled by four factors improving worldwide: progress in vaccination, national travel policies, traveller sentiment, and corporate travel policies.
2024: GBTA projected a record $1.48T in global spend, surpassing the 2019 nominal peak (though still below 2019 in real terms).
2025: GBTA’s latest outlook forecasts $1.57T (+6-7% YoY), reflecting moderating growth amid geopolitical and macro headwinds.
How Much are Companies Investing in Business Travel?
2023: Global business travel spend reached $1.34T (+30% YoY), about 93% of 2019 in nominal terms, driven by the return of in-person meetings and events, with faster rebounds in North America/LatAm/MEA than parts of Europe/APAC.
2024: Deloitte’s survey showed corporate travel spend up 8–12% for the year, with 73% of U.S. travel managers expecting higher budgets vs. 2023.
2025: Momentum continues but turns more selective. 3 in 4 (74%) managers still plan to expand budgets, yet cuts rose to 10% (from 6% in 2024), and large companies are more cautious (only 59% expect increases). The share of professionals travelling dipped from 36% to 31%, even as many who do travel expect more trips.
Which Company Sizes Allocate the Most to Business Travel?
Mid-market leads on raising budgets. SMBs are resilient and most likely to add trips; enterprises grow, too, but with tighter controls. That mix aligns with SME-focused reports and supplier commentary that smaller firms “don’t cut as quickly” as big corporates.
SMB (26-200 employees)
Budget direction: 43% say they’ll increase travel investment (2024-2025).
Momentum: SMEs are outperforming large corporates in the early part of 2025, with more than half planning to increase their spending in 2025 compared to 2024.
Intent to travel more: In one industry survey, 46% of smaller businesses planned to travel more in 2025 vs. 33% of larger firms.
Mid-Market (201-2,000 employees)
Budget direction: 51% expect to increase travel investment, the highest among the three size bands.
Program posture: Mid-market programs demonstrate strong confidence and incremental growth plans, despite the presence of macroeconomic volatility.
Enterprise (2,001+ employees)
Budget direction: 50% plan to increase travel investment- robust, but a touch less aggressive than mid-market.
Behavioural tilt: Large programs are generally more policy-tight (e.g., trimming short one-day trips, stricter approvals) even as spend rises.
Which Industry Travels the Most?
Industries such as Construction, Healthcare, Professional Services, Energy, and Manufacturing consistently demonstrate high spending and growth. In contrast, the Technology, Finance, Government, and Education sectors show sustained volume within managed programs.
Professional Services (Consulting, Legal, Agencies), with High booking volumes and top-three spend, approximately 47-95% increases across measures in the FY24 snapshot.
Technology: Among FCM’s primary corporate sectors using managed travel services, reflecting conference/event travel and distributed teams.
Finance & Banking: A core managed-travel sector with steady international trips and client meetings.
Government & Education: Significant volumes in certain markets and programs, flagged by FCM’s sector mix.
What job majorly demands business travel?
Across most companies, the largest share of business trips is generated by the Sales & Account Management departments. Close followers include conferences/events (with cross-functional attendees), internal off-sites/meetings, as well as field service/implementation roles.
Who travels the most and why?
1) Sales & Account Management (AEs, AMs, BDMs, Sales Engineers)
Why they travel: prospecting, client pitches, renewals, roadshows, account QBRs, and onsite demos.
How big is their share? Travel buyers say sales/account-management meetings account for 36% of company travel allocation (the single largest slice).
Typical intensity: Many sales roles advertise 50–75% travel for field territories; technical sales roles often fall within this range as well. (Examples from job-market guidance on “travel percentage” conventions.)
2) Conferences, Trade Shows & Industry Events (cross-functional)
Who’s travelling: Sales, marketing, partnerships, product, and executives for expo floors, booths, speaking, and customer meetings.
Program share: 20% of the company's travel allocation is allocated to external conferences and industry events.
3) Internal Meetings & Offsites (managers, team leads, executives)
What trips look like: annual/quarterly planning, leadership summits, functional offsites, and training enablement.
Program share: 20% of travel allocation.
4) Field Service, Implementation & Customer Success (engineers, project managers, trainers)
Why they travel: Installs, site audits, cutovers, hypercare, and onsite training.
Program share: 9% of trips in typical programs; demand fluctuates with deployment cycles.
Typical intensity: Project-based spikes; 25–75% travel during rollout windows is common in job specs.
5) Training / L&D & Supplier Meetings (ops leads, procurement, enablement)
Program share: 7% (training) and 6% (supplier/partner meetings).
How Companies Finalise Business Travel?
Here’s a checklist of what companies typically weigh before green-lighting a business trip:
Purpose & ROI: The organisation considers whether the trip has a clear goal and measurable outcome. The company assesses whether in-person impact is more effective than video or local options, and defines success metrics.
Policy & Approvals: The company assesses whether the itinerary aligns with policy and has the necessary approvals. The organisation considers the budget and cost-centre fit, as well as any justified exceptions.
Traveller Fit: The organisation considers who truly needs to go (based on skills/seniority), the company considers the minimum team size, and they also consider accessibility or medical needs.
Total Cost & Efficiency: The company considers the all-in cost (fares, ancillaries, hotel, ground, telecom); the organisation considers routing/time efficiency; they consider event-driven price spikes.
Entry & Documents: The organisation considers passport/visa/work-permit status, the company considers health/customs rules, and they consider whether invoices enable VAT/GST reclaim.
Risk & Duty of Care: The company considers destination security, weather, and strikes. The organisation also considers insurance coverage, tracking, check-ins, and escalation plans.
Client & Commercial Need: The organisation considers client requirements and SLAs, the company considers timing versus milestones, and they consider whether the trip lifts win probability or protects revenue.
Sustainability: The company considers lower-carbon routes/classes when outcomes are equal. The organisation also considers consolidating meetings and implementing emissions reporting.
Data & Regulatory Controls: The organisation considers device hardening and data limits; the company considers export controls/sanctions; they consider carnets for equipment.
Payments & Administration: The company considers using corporate cards and paying in local currency. The organisation also considers booking via approved channels and providing itemised folios for audit and VAT recovery purposes.
What is the Age Group and Gender of Business Travellers?
This age split is based on a U.S. business travel analysis. It shows that mid-career professionals dominate corporate travel, with those aged 30–39 (28%) and 40–49 (27%) together accounting for 55% of trips, reflecting the client-facing, management, and project roles that are most likely to require travel. Early-career travellers, aged 18–29 (16%), form a meaningful but smaller share often in sales development, field operations, or training, while older cohorts, aged 50–59 (18%) and 60+ (10%), still contribute substantially, consistent with executive, specialist, and governance travel. In short, the survey indicates that business travel is skewed toward mid-career workers, with notable participation from both younger pipeline talent and senior decision-makers.
18-29 aged: 16%
30-39 aged: 28%
40-49 aged: 27%
50-59 aged: 18%
60+aged: 10%
Men vs. Women in Business Travel
Historic U.S. baseline: Men accounted for 77% of long-distance business trips; women 23%.
One recent U.S. estimate: A 2025 roundup pegs women at 45% of U.S. business travellers (implying men 55%).
This 2024 study, conducted by the GBTA, involved a global online survey of 609 industry professionals. It finds women are well represented in mid-level roles; they make up 67% of travel managers/buyers and 57% of supplier/TMC professionals, but a glass ceiling persists: only 39% of VP/executive roles at suppliers/TMCs are held by women, and senior-level buyer titles still skew male.
Few suppliers offer women-focused leadership programs (37%), and role mix differs (women are overrepresented in account management but underrepresented in product/engineering).
Top Business Travel Destinations
The U.S. and China together make up well over half of the spending among the top-15 markets, with Europe’s big five (Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Spain) forming the next tier. Independent outlooks also flag record-level global spend in 2024–2025 (around $1.48–$1.57T), so these top markets are operating at or above pre-pandemic nominal peaks. Here are the major business-travel markets (by total corporate travel spend) and the top countries with 2025 estimates:
United States- $395.4B
China- $373.1B
Germany- $80.1B
Japan- $74.4B
United Kingdom- $60.2B
France- $46.9B
South Korea- $44.7B
India- $43.0B
Italy- $40.0B
Brazil- $30.4B
Canada- $28.1B
Australia- $27.9B
Spain- $26.7B
Turkey- $24.1B
Netherlands- $23.7B
What do Business travellers mainly spend on?
Business travellers primarily spend on hotels first, followed by air travel and meals, with ground and other expenses rounding out the bill. The biggest misses in budgets come from hotel mandatory fees and airline ancillaries; make those explicit line items, and your forecast will match reality much more closely.
Lodging: $501B (37.4%)
Air: $282B (21.0%)
Food & Beverage: $245B (18.3%)
Ground transport: $165B (12.3%)
Other: $142B (10.6%)
Accomodation: Hotel costs have remained firm post-pandemic, driven by higher average daily rates (ADR), even as occupancy has normalised. Forecasts for 2024–2025 show ADR strength/flat-to-slightly-up RevPAR, keeping hotels the largest budget line for most programs. Practically, this includes the base rate plus taxes, mandatory “amenity/resort” fees, parking, and premium Wi-Fi (often overlooked in early budgets).
Airfare: Airfare includes base fares and an expanding layer of ancillary fees seats, bags, priority, and same-day changes. Airlines earned $117.9 billion in ancillaries in 2023, with $33.3billion from baggage fees alone, so programs that don’t budget ancillaries explicitly undercount air travel by a lot.
Ground transport: Covers car rental (with insurance add-ons), rideshare/taxi (watch airport pickup surcharges), rail, tolls, and fuel/service fees. Programs can compress this slice with rail-over-air on short hops and policy rules on one-way/drop fees; otherwise, it creeps.
Others: The “other” bucket (11%) often hides significant costs, including roaming/data, event A/V and venue services, visas and couriers, travel insurance, and unreclaimed VAT. A tight process (including all-inclusive hotel comparisons, telecom plans/eSIMs, and VAT-compliant invoices) can help move spend out of the “other” category and into reclaimable/contracted categories.
What is the booking behaviour for business travel?
Here’s how business travellers are booking now, based on recent industry data:
Planning window is shorter (but stabilising). Post-pandemic, searches for trips departing in <6 days are now almost equal to 7-30 day searches (vs. mostly 7–30 days pre-2020). Long-haul flights are still booked further in advance (40 days on average in 2023).
Flexibility is valued because disruptions are a common occurrence. A large share of travellers report delays/cancellations; disruption-related costs average 4% of travel budgets, prompting buyers to opt for flexible fares and rebooking support.
Trip length has normalised around 6 days. After pandemic volatility, the average business-trip duration is just under six days, slightly above 2019, with impacts when air/hotel bookings are made and change windows.
Booking support preferences are shifting. More travellers prefer self-service to handle changes ( 30%, up from 24%), while only 7% favour chatbots, so programs are prioritising human-backed, tool-based self-service.
Macro takeaway: Companies are booking closer to departure dates than before 2020 (especially for short-haul flights), maintaining managed channels for duty-of-care and data, and paying for flexibility to handle frequent disruptions. GBTA’s latest BTI also notes these evolving traveller preferences and behaviours across regions.
Source: GBTA Hub
Do people extend their business trips to include leisure activities?
Yes, bleisure is mainstream. Multiple datasets show a large share of business travellers extend trips for leisure, though the exact percentage varies by market and year:
North America (historical baseline): A GBTA study found 37% of North American business travellers extended a work trip for leisure in the prior year (useful as a conservative floor; share has risen since).
What do companies do about it?
Many allow personal extensions if the incremental cost is employee-paid and the business itinerary stands on its own (policy varies). Operationally, programs track duty-of-care only for the business portion, and require separate payment for leisure days and companions, while still encouraging travellers to book in-tool so the full itinerary is visible.
The New Rules of Business Travel
Business travel is back, not as a habit, but as a lever. Budgets are growing, yet approvals are sharper, with trips green-lit when they clearly advance revenue, delivery, or partnerships. Networks are busy, prices are firm, and the smartest programs win by planning early where it matters and buying flexibility where it counts.
Sustainability has shifted from slides to sourcing rail swaps and greener hotels, with emissions in the booking flow now being everyday choices. Traveller behaviour is tighter too: shorter booking windows, preference for managed channels, and self-service backed by humans when disruptions hit. Bleisure is normal, but policies keep the business portion clean on cost and duty of care. Ultimately, focus on ROI, codify approvals, contract the right suppliers, reclaim every eligible tax, and make data cost, carbon, and compliance the backbone of every trip decision.