GBTA Points to Australia as APAC’s Quiet Powerhouse

Business travel may be changing, but it’s far from shrinking - and Australia is set to punch well above its weight in 2025. That was the clear takeaway from GBTA CEO Suzanne Neufang, who told delegates at FACTS 2025 in Sydney that the sector remains both resilient and essential, even as budgets tighten and global uncertainty persists. Her message for the corporate travel community: the fundamentals are strong, APAC holds the momentum, and Australia is entering a year of outsized opportunity.

Neufang began by reminding the room just how large and interconnected the industry really is. “We are an industry of about US$1.6 trillion,” she said, emphasising that business travel underpins not only commercial relationships but government diplomacy and organisational culture.

A recurring theme of her remarks was the persistence of travel demand despite widespread predictions during the pandemic that much of it would never return. Internal meetings, in particular, snapped back fast. “Culture in companies can’t really continue unless you’re meeting your colleagues,” she said, noting that companies quickly discovered the limits of remote cohesion. For Australian organisations — often separated by vast geography — this has been especially true.

Globally, growth remains steady. While the rapid post-COVID surge has cooled, the trajectory continues upward. Neufang stressed that spend rather than trip volume is driving the recovery: “The story is spend, the story is not volume.” Inflation has pushed up the cost of travel, meaning suppliers in air, hotel, car and tech are benefiting from higher yield even with fewer trips. Buyers, meanwhile, face tough arithmetic. “You have to do more with less,” Neufang said. “Fewer trips that cost more, but are doing more productive work.”

For Australian corporates already grappling with cost scrutiny, this reinforces what travel managers have been navigating all year: tighter approvals, stronger business-case requirements and CFOs taking a more cautious view of forward budgets. “Economic uncertainty is this industry’s worst enemy,” she warned, noting that budget decisions hinge heavily on executive sentiment.

Where Australia sits within the global picture was one of the strongest positives in Neufang’s presentation. Asia-Pacific currently represents 41% of global business-travel spend — down from nearly half pre-COVID due to China’s slower recovery — but still the world’s largest regional contributor. And Australia is performing above trend.

“Australia is the 12th largest travelling country in the world,” Neufang said, accounting for “almost 2% of global spend and 4.4% of all APAC spend.” Growth this year is 5.4%, above the long-term global CAGR, and forecasts for 2025 approach 10%. For suppliers, the demand is already evident; for buyers, it means a need for more sophisticated programme management, better forecasting, and proactive supplier engagement as costs continue to climb.

Perhaps most significant was Neufang’s observation that Australian spend will likely reach “almost 120% of 2019” by year’s end. This shows not only a full recovery, but a structural shift: travel is now more expensive, more intentional, and—counter to fears of permanent virtualisation—still critical to business outcomes.

The risk and opportunity balance for Australia reflects the global landscape. Trade tensions continue to weigh on manufacturing — the sector responsible for “31% of all business travel” — placing it firmly in the “lagging” quadrant. But Australia’s strong performers, such as mining and quarrying, sit on the “outperforming” side of the matrix, providing stability in areas where the country has significant global influence.

China’s trajectory remains a variable to watch. A stronger-than-expected rebound in outbound travel “could have a big effect on other markets,” Neufang said, pointing to potential increases in inbound corporate flows, deal-making visits and cross-border project work. For Australia, this would provide a welcome boost to key segments.

New trade routes and supply-chain diversification are also shifting travel patterns in Australia’s favour. With a portion of companies relocating meetings away from the US earlier this year, APAC has become the second most-cited region for new partnership-driven travel. “For what one country is a dilemma, for others becomes an opportunity,” Neufang said — an encouraging signal for Australia’s positioning.

Sentiment data provided another bright spot. After dipping mid-year, optimism is rebounding, and APAC is leading the trend. “APAC is the highest at the moment (55% optimism),” Neufang said, well above the global average of 43%. For Australian travel programmes, this could translate into a more supportive internal environment for travel investment and a more confident market outlook.

But it was Neufang’s philosophical framing that perhaps resonated most. Travel, she argued, is not merely a cost centre but a catalyst. “Being together is one of those magic things that travel brings us,” she said, warning that the world would be “a much poorer place” if organisations deprioritised face-to-face connection. The lesson of the pandemic, she argued, is one the industry must continue to articulate: connection matters, and travel is the infrastructure that enables it.

For Australia’s corporate travel community, the implications are clear. The regional dynamics favour continued growth, the national economy is providing tailwinds, and demand is proving more resilient than many predicted. The challenges — rising costs, geopolitical instability, and the constant need to prove value — remain real, but the momentum is unmistakable.

As Neufang put it, “We are a resilient industry.” And in 2025, Australia looks set to demonstrate exactly why.