GBTA Forecasts Overall Fall in Business Travel Spend Across Major European Markets in 2012, but Expects Markets to Improve in 2013

GBTA Forecasts Overall Fall in Business Travel Spend Across Major European Markets in 2012, but Expects Markets to Improve in 2013 PR Newswire LONDON, September 20, 2012 LONDON, September 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Report finds strong correlation between job growth, exports, and business travel spend across Western European markets The Global Business Travel Association ("GBTA"), the world's premier business travel and corporate meetings organization, announces the results of its second GBTA BTI™ Outlook - Western Europe 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 together form the lion's share of business travel in Europe, nearly 70%, and provide a barometer for the health of the entire European business travel market. The report, sponsored by Visa Inc., includes the GBTA BTI™, an index of business travel spending that distills market performance over a period of time. Highlights Germany, France and the UK are expected to see positive GDP growth in 2012, albeit under the 1.0% level Interdependencies in trade, banking, and distribution have cast a shadow over the region. As such, 2012 GDP growth expectation for the Euro Area (17 country definition) has been downgraded following the Spring 2012 report to -0.4% Italy and Spain are currently in recession and expected to remain so until 2014 Overall business travel spend among major European markets will fall 2.