From New York and Tokyo to London and Shanghai, a new global study reveals how business travellers are quietly powering the world’s great cities — and why the value of meeting face-to-face extends far beyond the boardroom.
For years, we’ve been told that technology would make business travel increasingly unnecessary. Video conferencing would replace international meetings. Virtual presentations would eliminate expensive flights. Digital collaboration would allow companies to conduct business without leaving the office.
But something interesting happened on the way to this supposedly travel-free future.
Business travellers kept travelling. And the economic consequences are enormous.
A new study from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) reveals that business travel generated an estimated US$283 billion in economic activity across just 25 of the world’s leading business destinations, supporting 1.4 million jobs and contributing US$93 billion to local GDP.
The findings offer a powerful reminder that while technology can connect people across continents, physically bringing them together remains an extraordinarily valuable economic activity.
And the benefits extend far beyond the airlines, hotels and convention centres traditionally associated with corporate travel.
The World’s Business Travel Capitals
The study, conducted by GBTA and Rockport Analytics and released in September 2026, examined business travel’s economic impact using 2024 data, the most recent complete dataset available.
It found that business travellers spent US$178 billion across the 25 destinations studied.
New York emerged as the world’s leading business travel destination by spending, attracting US$21.2 billion in business traveller expenditures and generating US$13.7 billion in local GDP.
Tokyo followed remarkably closely with US$20.7 billion in spending, while London secured third place at US$15 billion.
Shanghai ranked fourth at US$14.2 billion, followed by Paris at US$13.6 billion, Los Angeles at US$12.2 billion and Chicago at US$11.6 billion.
Together, these seven cities accounted for 61% of all business travel spending among the destinations examined.
The geographic distribution is revealing.
North America remains a formidable centre of international commerce, but Asia’s importance is unmistakable. Tokyo and Shanghai occupy two of the top four positions, reflecting their significance in a global economy where commercial influence is spread across multiple continents.
Meanwhile, cities including Singapore, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Sydney and Dubai demonstrate how business travel supports economic centres operating at very different scales.
The message is clear: business travel isn’t simply about where companies have their headquarters. It’s also about where people need to meet, negotiate, collaborate and create opportunities.
The Remarkable Economics of a Business Trip
Perhaps the study’s most compelling finding concerns what happens after a business traveller arrives.
For every dollar spent on business travel across the 25 cities, approximately US$1.59 in total local economic activity was generated.
That multiplier effect helps explain why business travel matters so much to city economies.
Consider a visitor arriving in London for a three-day business meeting.
There’s the airline ticket, hotel accommodation and transportation from the airport. But there are also restaurant meals, coffee meetings, local transportation, hospitality services and perhaps an evening exploring the city.
Behind those transactions is an entire network of businesses supplying goods and services.
Restaurants purchase ingredients. Hotels employ workers and contract maintenance services. Transportation providers buy fuel and maintain vehicles. Employees spend their wages in neighbourhood businesses.
The economic impact continues spreading long after the traveller has checked out.
According to GBTA, every US$1 billion in business travel spending supported approximately 7,800 jobs across the cities studied.
In total, business travel activity generated nearly US$54 billion in wages and US$55 billion in tax revenue.
This makes business travel much more than a corporate expense. It is an important contributor to urban economic activity.
Some Cities Make Every Dollar Work Harder
Not every destination benefits from business travel in quite the same way.
New York recorded the highest economic multiplier in the study, generating US$1.76 in local economic activity for every dollar of business travel spending.
Los Angeles followed with US$1.68.
These differences reflect the structure of local economies and the degree to which spending circulates among businesses and workers.
Elsewhere, the impact takes different forms.
Copenhagen converted nearly 60 cents of every business travel dollar into government revenue, the highest proportion among the destinations studied. Oslo and Stockholm followed closely.
Dubai, by contrast, generated just over one cent in government revenue per dollar of spending, reflecting the United Arab Emirates’ different taxation structure.
Employment impacts also varied dramatically.
Delhi supported an estimated 42,900 jobs per US$1 billion in business travel spending, while Mexico City supported approximately 24,100.
These higher employment figures reflect differences in wage levels and the labour-intensive nature of local tourism and hospitality industries.
The broader lesson is that the economic value of business travel cannot be measured by visitor spending alone.
Cities also need to consider the jobs, wages, tax revenue and commercial activity that spending creates.
The Meeting Is Still the Message
One of the more intriguing aspects of the research concerns organized meetings and conventions.
Shanghai recorded the highest hotel room demand from groups among the 25 destinations, with Chicago ranking second.
Stockholm and Oslo experienced the strongest growth in group room demand during 2024.
These findings reinforce the continuing importance of bringing people together for conferences, exhibitions, corporate gatherings and industry events.
While digital communication has transformed how businesses operate, it hasn’t eliminated the reasons people meet in person.
A video conference may be an efficient way to review a spreadsheet, but building trust with a new international partner, negotiating a complex agreement or establishing relationships in an unfamiliar market can benefit enormously from personal interaction.
Business travel also creates opportunities that aren’t necessarily on the meeting agenda.
A conversation over dinner might lead to a new partnership. An introduction at a conference could open an unexpected market. A visit to a client’s facilities might reveal possibilities that would never emerge through a screen.
These outcomes are difficult to quantify, but they remain part of the enduring appeal of face-to-face business.
GBTA CEO Suzanne Neufang emphasized that business travel’s benefits extend beyond the organizations paying for the trips.
“When people travel to meet, collaborate and build relationships, the benefits extend well beyond the traveler and their organization,” she said, highlighting the employment, income and economic opportunities generated in communities worldwide.
Business Travellers Are Tourists, Too
There’s another dimension to business travel that destination marketers should consider.
The distinction between business and leisure travel is not always as clear as it once was.
A traveller attending meetings in Tokyo may stay an extra day to explore the city. Someone visiting Paris for a conference might discover a restaurant, museum or neighbourhood they want to experience again.
A first business trip can become the introduction to a destination that inspires future leisure visits.
And when travellers return home, they bring back stories and impressions that can influence how colleagues, friends and family perceive that destination.
For tourism organizations, the business traveller represents more than an immediate source of revenue.
Business travel creates an opportunity to introduce visitors to a city’s broader cultural, culinary and leisure experiences.
The growing conversation around bleisure travel — combining business and leisure activities — reflects this overlap.
Although the GBTA study did not specifically measure bleisure travel or subsequent leisure visits, its findings underline the economic significance of attracting people who travel primarily for work.
The opportunity for destinations is to make those visits memorable enough that travellers want to return.
A Global Competition for Business Travellers
The findings also raise important questions about how cities compete for international business.
Air connectivity, efficient transportation, hotel infrastructure and convention facilities have long been essential ingredients in attracting corporate travellers.
But the broader visitor experience increasingly matters as well.
A city that is easy to navigate, offers compelling dining experiences, provides reliable connectivity and makes international visitors feel welcome has advantages that extend beyond tourism.
The same infrastructure that makes a destination attractive to leisure travellers can help support its position as a business centre.
Conversely, congestion, inadequate transportation, complicated entry procedures and poor visitor services can make conducting business more difficult.
For destinations hoping to attract international investment, conferences and corporate activity, tourism infrastructure is therefore more than a hospitality consideration.
It can be part of a broader economic development strategy.
The Bigger Picture: Business Travel Is an Investment
The GBTA research arrives at an interesting moment for the global travel industry.
Companies continue to balance travel budgets against digital alternatives, sustainability considerations and the need to manage operating costs.
Not every meeting requires an international flight, and the study doesn’t suggest otherwise.
But it does provide compelling evidence that business travel generates economic benefits extending far beyond the companies and individuals making those journeys.
The US$178 billion spent by business travellers across the 25 cities represented approximately 12% of worldwide business travel spending in 2024, which GBTA estimated at US$1.47 trillion.
In other words, this research examines only a portion of a much larger global industry.
It also highlights something that can get lost in conversations about travel’s economic importance.
Leisure tourists aren’t the only visitors supporting local economies.
Business travellers fill hotel rooms, sustain restaurants, support transportation networks, create employment and contribute to government revenues. They also help facilitate the commercial relationships that underpin international trade and investment.
And while the immediate spending is measurable, the longer-term value of the relationships formed during those trips is much harder to capture.
Perhaps that’s the most important takeaway from this research.
In a world increasingly connected by technology, there remains extraordinary value in actually going somewhere.
Because sometimes the most valuable thing a business traveller brings to a city isn’t the money they spend.
It’s the business they help create.
