Pictured: India's business travel market is the fastest growing in the world
Continued double
digit growth in business travel spend will see India become the sixth largest
business travel market in the world by 2019, the Global Business Travel
Association (GBTA) has revealed.
GBTA predicts
India's business travel spend will grow 11.4 per cent, followed by another 11.6
per cent in 2017 to US$33.8 billion, making it the world's fastest growing
business travel market.
The predictions come
despite concerns about a fallout from the country's demonetisation efforts,
following the announcement from Prime Minister Modi in November that 500 and
1,000 rupee notes were suddenly no longer legal tender.
Outbound business
travel spend has shown more subdued growth, forecast at 5.4 per cent for 2016,
although GBTA predicts spending to rise back up to 9 per cent in 2017.
"India
continues to position itself to become a world leader in business travel for
decades to come," said Gaurav Sundaram, GBTA India regional director.
"Despite fears surrounding the demonetization efforts, India saw a 10.9
percent growth in year-over-year business travel spending for the second
quarter of 2016 – even higher
than our last report projected."