China 2015: the world’s top business travel market

China will surpass the United States as the world’s No. 1 business travel market in 2015, says the ‘GBTA BTI Outlook – China’ report, published by the Global Business Travel Association.

GBTA projects that China’s total business travel spending will grow 16.5 percent in 2014. In 2015, GBTA says, the pace of growth will pick up, with total business travel spend increasing 17.8 percent to $309 billion.

China is investing heavily to strengthen its infrastructure, to cope with the rising number of visitors. Over the last decade China’s largest airports have doubled in size. Additional airports are being constructed, including Beijing’s second international airport, to open in 2018. It will house half a dozen civilian runways – double the number at Beijing’s current airport; the new airport will relieve a tremendous amount of pressure on Beijing Capital International Airport, currently the second busiest airport in the world, ranked by passenger volume.