A few years after the pandemic sidelined a lot of trips and Zoom loomed large, business travel is going strong and a global trade organization ranks Colorado among the top states where business travelers are spending their money.
A 2024 report by the Global Business Travel Association said business travelers spent a little over $7 billion in Colorado, making it No. 7 nationally in terms of economic impact. The business industry supported roughly 98,541 jobs in Colorado and generated $5.5 billion in total wages and other income, the report said.
California was No. 1 with $35.6 billion in total money spent. The numbers are from 2022, but Suzanne Neufang, CEO of the GBTA, said they are indicative of ongoing trends.
The GBTA, which held a convention last week in Denver at the Colorado Convention Center, expects spending on business travel worldwide to hit a historic high of $1.57 trillion in 2025. Still, the group said its forecast shows a moderate increase of 6.6% this year because of global tensions over tariffs and uncertainty about policies.
A recent analysis by the association showed that industry professionals’ optimism about spending on travel dropped between April and June. Travel by federal employees, who are going through layoffs and the dismantling of government programs, has all “but dried up,” she said. There’s concern about cross-border travel, including whether people can get visas on time.
“There’s a lot of wait and see within our industry, but travel is still up,” Neufang said.
The industry group is standing by its prediction of a record year for revenue generated by business travel. The group’s travel index outlook released Monday projects that global spending will surpass $2 trillion by 2029. That’s a year later than predicted a year ago.
Denver has seen a 7% increase in business travel the first half of this year compared with the first half of 2024, according to FCM Travel and Corporate Traveler. An analysis by the companies said Denver is No. 13 out of all U.S. cities in terms of domestic bookings for business travel.
While the money spent on business travel is climbing, the volume of travel is still below pre-pandemic levels, said Neufang. “We’re probably still a couple of years away from volumes matching what they were in 2019.”
Factoring in inflation, Neufang said spending on business travel is about 14% below 2019.
While COVID-19 hit the travel industry hard, Neufang said the levels of spending by businesses had rebounded by 2022. However, some things changed. Coming out of the height of the pandemic, many companies reduced the number of short trips, opting for fewer, but longer trips. Neufang said companies considered whether travel aligned with the company’s priorities.
About 5,300 people from 52 countries attended the GBTA conference in Denver. Neufang said she heard from several attendees that they planned to spend time in Colorado before or after the convention.
“So, there are plenty of people becoming tourists while they’re on this business trip,” she said.
