GBTA REPORT: UK BUSINESS TRAVEL WILL BE HARDEST HIT

BRITAIN willl be the world’s worst hit business travel market, a gloomy GBTA report has forecast.

The association’s BTI Outlook, which focused on Europe, concluded that a combination of the UK'S "slower response" to the pandemic and ongoing Brexit uncertainty will make it the hardest hit out of the top 15 business travel markets in 2020, with the U.S. and Germany following closely behind.

Business travel spend in the UK, U.S. and Germany is expected to have fallen by 61.7%, 61.1% and 60.9% respectively last year, according to the report.

It said GDP in the Eurozone is estimated to have shrunk by 7.4% in 2020, compared to 4.4% globally, and more sharply in the UK (11.2%). But in 2021 the UK’S GDP growth is expected to bounce back more strongly (by 4.2%) than the rest of the Eurozone (3.6%).