The U.S. Travel Association now projects the number of domestic U.S. business trips to fully recover to 2019 levels in 2025, with inflation-adjusted domestic business travel spending not to recover before 2027, the association announced Wednesday.
U.S. Travel, which compiled the forecast in conjunction with Tourism Economics, now projects 414 million domestic business trips in 2023, a figure that would represent an 11.7 percent year-over year increase but well shy of the 464 million recorded in 2019. It’s also lower than the 417 million trips it projected for 2023 in its prior forecast in November.
As for inflation-adjusted spending, U.S. Travel projects $254 billion on domestic business travel in 2023, a figure the association forecasts to increase to $282 billion in 2026, still shy of the $306 billion recorded in 2019. The association in November had projected $259 billion in domestic business travel spending in 2023.
U.S. Travel in a statement noted that “domestic business travel is expected to grow—albeit more slowly—largely due to economic conditions.”
