GBTA forecasts that 2026 European business travel spending will reach €404 billion ($453.9 billion), up 7.0% year on year, with about 600 million business travel trips originating in Europe, growing only 0.7%. Global business travel spending is expected to grow 7.2% to €1.52 trillion, with trips growing 1.3%, and Europe accounting for 27% of global business travel spending. Germany ranks first in Europe with €79.9 billion, followed by the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain; together the five countries account for about 62% of Europe's 2026 business travel spending.
Why recommended:GBTA forecasts that European business travel spending will grow far faster than trip volume, which readers can use to understand the divergence between corporate travel budgets and travel frequency.
A joint survey by GBTA and Cvent shows that 62% of travel managers believe their teams are understaffed, with that proportion rising to 68% among programs with annual travel spend of more than $30 million. Travel programs have an average of 4.9 full-time employees devoting at least 75% of their time, with a median of only 3 people; 36% of travel programs sit within procurement departments and 23% within finance. The survey also shows that 39% of travel buyers believe travel and meetings functions are more integrated than before, and 28% of respondents say travel teams themselves are driving AI transformation.
Why recommended:The survey provides benchmark data on travel team staffing, functional reporting lines, and travel-meetings integration that can be used to compare against one's own team structure.
The GBTA Foundation's 2026 Sustainable Acceleration Challenge, based on data from 204 companies in 28 countries, found that the average corporate travel sustainability maturity score rose from 1.4 in 2025 to 1.5, marking a third consecutive year of slight improvement.
Why recommended:Three-year benchmark data from 204 companies show that sustainable procurement and decarbonization investment are advancing, while emissions tracking and booking tool adoption have stalled, which can be used to identify weak points in travel sustainability programs.
On October 14, GBTA published its official position on the EU passenger package, which includes proposals to simplify rail ticketing and multimodal booking and to strengthen rail passenger rights. GBTA recommends guaranteeing non-discriminatory access to rail and multimodal content under FRAND terms, and giving TMCs, online booking tools and authorized distributors the same rebooking, reissuing, cancellation and refund service capabilities as suppliers' direct channels.
Why recommended:GBTA submitted a position paper on the EU passenger package, listing specific demands including rail content access, TMC service capabilities and through-journey protection, which travel procurement parties can track as the legislation develops.
GBTA released research at the LATAM Conference 2026 in Mexico City, forecasting Latin America business travel spending to reach $67.7 billion in 2026, a year-over-year increase of about 11%, one of the highest regional growth rates globally; growth is expected to slow to 3.3% in 2027.
Why recommended:GBTA provided a forecast for Latin America business travel spending in 2026 and a judgment of slowdown in 2027, along with data on major countries' spending and Mexico City's economic contribution.