GBTA Forecasts Year-Over-Year Business Travel Growth in Europe in 2014, 2015

GBTA Forecasts Year-Over-Year BusinessGBTA Forecasts Year-Over-Year Business Travel Growth in Europe in 2014, 2015 PR Newswire LONDON, March 13, 2014 - Business Travel Spending Set To Grow 5.1% in 2014, 6.5% in 2015 - First Year Since 2010 Forecast Projects Increase in Business Travel Spend in all Five Markets The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), the voice of the global business travel industry, announces the results of its latest 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 the region acting as a good barometer of 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. Key highlights of the report include: • Business travel spending among the five markets is expected to hit $186.5 billion USD (€137B) in 2014, a 5.1% growth over 2013. The projected rate of growth is expected to increase in 2015 as spending picks up another 6.5% growing to $198.6 billion USD (€157B). • The outlook for four of the five markets included in our analysis, Germany, the UK, France and Spain, were all revised upward from our expectations in our GBTA BTI™ Outlook – Western Europe 2013H2.