With the growing number of the middle class, China’s outbound travel spend will be near twice the amount of the U.S. ($134 billion), reaching $255.4 billion by 2025 according to a joint survey by Visa and Oxford Economics. 

The outbound travel spend of Germany, U.K, and France are estimated to reach $97.6 billion, $96.9 billion, and $43.9 billion respectively by 2025; the total amount of these three countries is a bit less than China’s outbound travel spend, which is estimated to reach $255.4 billion by 2025.

In the next decade, Russia will have the highest growth rate (118%) in outbound travel spend.

Households that have the household income between $20,000 to $150,000 are the driving forces of outbound travel;  95.1% of German outbound travel spend is made up by households whose household income is between $20,000 and 150,000.

China’s annual outbound travel spend per household was $5,696 in 2015, higher than the world’s average and is estimated to be $5275 by 2025.

Thanks to the improvement of Chinese people’s living standard and consumption level, the number of Chinese outbound tourists has increased  in recent decades. Asia pacific, South Korea, and Japan are very popular destinations for Chinese tourists.

Read more: Bangkok is the most popular destination for Chinese tourists

GBTA expects China to continue to grow its domestic business travel market much more rapidly than the other countries in the world with estimated spending growth of 14.2% in 2015 and 12.1% in 2016. China is poised to overtake the U.S. as the number one business travel market in the world.

According to the report of GBTA, China is to surpass the U.S. in spending by 2017 considering their current and estimated growth in business travel market.

China’s economic growth projections in the near term remain robust, which bode well for a strong business travel market, growing more rapidly than the other major markets globally,

said Stanford Lin, Vice President and Head of Products at Visa China.

Visa is committed to working with financial institutions and merchant partners to offer value-add benefits that help companies and business travelers better manage their travel expenses.

Outbound tourism is popular among Chinese travelers. Some European airlines promote cheap tickets to attract travelers to Europe according to CNN’s report.

Japan has also added some special travel trains with delicious food supply to attract travelers. Besides, Japan’s luxury train can provide luxury goods and food to stimulate travelers’ consumption home and abroad according to Nikkei Asian Review. Shoppers from China spent 18% more on Tax Free Shopping in 2014 compared to 2013 according to Global Blue.

Australia is the top luxury travel destination, followed by France. Maldives shoots into third place. UK back into the Top 10.

China has been the largest market for Germany’s domestic travel in Asian. During Chinese year period, German’s merchants promoted various events to attract Chinese travelers. See more about Chinese New Year Traveler Insights here.

Oxford research report shows China and other new markets will promote global travel industry into a prosperous stage in 10 years.

Also read: China Inbound Travelers in 2014

Business travel in Asia Pacific, led by a dominant China, outpaces the rest of the world, according to a newly released travel forecast by the GBTA Foundation.

Driven by infrastructure investments, exports and service development, business travel spending in China has grown from US$32 billion in 2000 to US$225 billion in 2013, an average of 16.2% each year. By comparison, growth in business travel spending from the US has grown at an annual rate of just 1.1% since 2000.

The report, which details travel spending in 75 countries, along with the top industries, economic factors and characteristics that influence business travel, finds that record high business travel spending is driven by a few dominant markets – namely the US, China and Western Europe.

Currently Asia Pacific owns the largest share of the business travel spend market with 38% followed by North America (21%) and Western Europe (24%). GBTA expects that by 2018, Asia Pacific will have gained another 5% in market share, while the US and Western Europe will lose three% and two%, respectively.

This report underscores that China, along with the other BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia and India are leveraging their business travel expenditures into more economic opportunities,

said GBTA Executive Director and COO Michael W. McCormick.

We expect to see this shift in business travel spending to continue.

The report’s other key findings include:

• 89% of total business spending around the world – totaling US$984 billion – originated from traffic in Asia Pacific, Western Europe or North America.
• Even accounting for concerns over an economic slowdown in the country, GBTA expects China to surpass the US in business travel spending by 2016.
• Italy and Spain continue to slip in GBTA’s annual rankings of the top 15 countries by travel spend. In contrast, BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – continue to rise in the growth ranking, representing four of the top six countries in terms of business travel spending growth. A chart detailing the top 15 countries can be found below.
• Regionally, Asia Pacific is already the largest business travel region in the world, comprising 38% of global business travel. Business travel spending in Asia Pacific totaled $392 billion in 2013 – more than doubling in size since 2000 with a growth rate of 7.5% annually. GBTA expects business travel spending to continue growing at a 10.2% annual pace over the next five years.

This year’s global BTI™ predicts single-digit expansion of global spending on business travel and the emersion of the Asia Pacific region as the world’s largest travel market, comprising 38% of global business travel with two-thirds of that activity coming from China and Japan,

said Tad Fordyce, head of Global Commercial Solutions at Visa, Inc.

As global business travel is expected to continue growing in the coming years, China is projected to surpass the U.S. as the top business travel market in the world by 2016.

The Annual Global Report & Forecast identified other key trends that could impact business travel over the next year, including political activity in Emerging Europe and the cost of oil.

TOP 15 BUSINESS TRAVEL MARKETS

The GBTA report identified the top 15 business travel markets, ranked by spending in 2013. The largest growth was seen in three of the BRIC countries – China (15.1%), India (10.4%) and Russia (8.7%).