Brazil Business Travel Continues To Slide

Photo: miguelangelpulidoj

Latin America’s largest business travel market will experience an 8.5% decline in spending this year, according to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), before experiencing a modest uptick in 2017.

Wellington Costa, regional director for GBTA Brazil, cited a domestic recession, slow global growth, and lower commodity prices for the decline. “Despite the country’s short-term difficulties, we are optimistic that 2016 will be the low water mark for business travel, and we will start to see gain—albeit modest ones—in the near future,” Costa said in a press release.

Spending on Brazil-originated travel totaled $30.5 billion USD in 2015, down -4.1% from 2014 levels, GBTA said. The Brazilian economy contracted -3.8% in 2015 – its largest contraction in 25 years. “The latest BTI report indicates that the Olympics will have little to no effect on the business travel forecast,” the organization said.

The GBTA Foundation, the education and research arm of the association, released its findings in a recent report, entitled BTI™ Outlook – Brazil 2016 H1.

Brazil still remains in the top 10 of global business travel markets, GBTA said. Domestic business travel has been hit the hardest.