SkiftStats: Business travel in austerity-friendly Europe not doing so well in 2012

GBTA has come out with its 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. Some numbers:

• Overall business travel spend among major European markets will fall 2.2% in 2012 to $177 billion USD before bouncing back by 1.4% in 2013
• German business travel spend is expected to rise 1.6% to hit $50.8 billion USD in 2012, before growing 3.3% in 2013
• UK business travel spend is expected to remain flat in 2012 ($40.2 billion USD) before growing 2.8% in 2013
• France business travel spend will fall -2.2% to $35.7 billion USD in 2012, before growing 1.1% in 2013
• Spain business travel spend will decline -7.8% in 2013 to $17.9 billion USD before falling another 1.6% in 2013
• Italian business travel spend will fall -6.9% in 2013 to $32.9 billion USD and will shed another -1.2% in 2013