China Emerges as the World’s Fourth-Largest Business Travel Market

Corporations in China spent $7.41 billion on air travel in 2005, making China the fourth biggest business travel market in the world, according to the results of American Express Business Travel’s China Business Travel Survey, according to the World Tourism Barometer.

Released during the second American Express China Business Travel Forum (CBTF) in Shanghai, findings of the Barometer revealed that Travel & Entertainment (T&E) has become the second largest controllable costs for organizations accounting for 24 percent of total controllable expenses.

Findings of the Barometer provided organizations, vendors and suppliers with the latest information of the T&E management practices and outlook of the market for 2007 in China. This is the third business travel survey conducted by American Express in China. The last two surveys were announced in 2003 and 2005.

T&E market highlights from this year’s survey included: Corporations in China spent US$7.41 billion on air travel in 2005, making China the fourth biggest business travel market in the world after United States, Japan and Germany.

The business travel growth is largely driven by the domestic market – approximately 28 percent of the surveyed organizations reported an increase in their T&E expenditure and 87 percent of these expenses occurred in mainland China and Hong Kong.

The Barometer survey was conducted by Research International from May to September 2006, interviewing 200 Chinese and foreign-owned organizations with 100 and more employees in five key industry sectors in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.