Business travel spending in Asia Pacific is forecast to surpass US$700 billion in 2026, reinforcing the region’s position as the world’s largest business travel market. But rising costs, geopolitical uncertainty and changing traveller expectations are reshaping how companies manage corporate travel.
The recovery of business travel is increasingly becoming an Asia Pacific story.
According to the Global Business Travel Association’s latest Business Travel Index, business travel spending across the region is expected to reach US$700.9 billion in 2026, representing year-on-year growth of 10.9%.
That puts Asia Pacific firmly ahead as the world’s largest business travel region, despite continued pressure from higher travel costs and a more complicated geopolitical environment.
China remains by far the region’s largest market, with business travel spending forecast at US$408 billion. But growth is not confined to China. GBTA forecasts particularly strong increases in Japan, South Korea, India, Taiwan, Indonesia and Singapore.
Taiwan is expected to record growth of 24.7%, followed by Japan at 15.3%, South Korea at 13.3%, Indonesia at 12.6% and India at 12.5%.
For destinations across the region, the figures underline the continuing economic importance of corporate travellers, meetings and business events.
Face-to-face business remains resilient
The growth comes despite a more cautious environment for corporate travel.
Globally, GBTA expects business travel spending to reach a record US$1.71 trillion in 2026, while the number of business trips is forecast to reach approximately 1.84 billion.
The difference between spending and trip growth is significant. Global spending is expected to increase by 7.2%, while the number of trips is forecast to rise by only 1.3%.
Higher airfares, hotel rates, labour costs and transportation expenses are therefore accounting for a substantial part of the increase.
Yet the underlying demand for face-to-face business remains strong.
GBTA’s research found that 74% of business travellers globally were travelling as much as, or more than, in previous years. In Asia Pacific, the proportion rises to 80%.
That suggests that companies have not abandoned business travel as costs rise. Instead, they are becoming more selective about where and why employees travel.
For suppliers, this could prove an important distinction. The question is increasingly not whether companies will travel, but which trips are considered valuable enough to justify the expense.
Southeast Asia looks beyond the traditional business trip
The changing nature of business travel is particularly visible in Southeast Asia.
New research from GBTA and Grab for Business, based on 1,200 business travellers working for organisations with more than 250 employees across Southeast Asia, highlights a gap between corporate travel policies and the way employees actually travel.
More than eight in ten respondents said they regularly use ground transportation outside their company’s approved options. Meanwhile, 95% said they use ride-hailing services on business trips, although only 58% reported that their company has a formal relationship with a ride-hailing provider.
Convenience is clearly playing a major role, but so is safety. Three-quarters of respondents identified safety as the most important factor when choosing ground transportation.
The findings point to a broader challenge for corporate travel managers.
Travel policies may be designed around how companies want employees to travel, while travellers themselves are making decisions based on what works most effectively when they are actually on the road.
That disconnect is becoming harder to ignore as business travel programmes become more sophisticated.
The new priority: making travel work better
Technology is increasingly being used to close that gap.
GBTA research shows that AI is moving beyond experimentation within corporate travel programmes. In its April survey, 41% of travel buyers said their organisations were proactively implementing AI use cases, while another 28% were already using AI embedded within existing travel tools.
The most immediate applications include reporting, pricing intelligence, spend forecasting and disruption management.
This is particularly relevant in a region as geographically diverse as Asia Pacific.
A corporate traveller moving between several markets may have to navigate different transport systems, payment methods, entry requirements and local travel policies within a single trip.
For travel managers, real-time information and automation can therefore become less about convenience and more about maintaining control.
A region with growing influence
The outlook for Asia Pacific is not without risks. Rising costs and geopolitical uncertainty remain significant concerns, while companies are under increasing pressure to demonstrate the value of travel expenditure.
But the scale of projected growth suggests that corporate travel will remain an important component of the region’s economic activity.
Singapore provides a useful illustration. GBTA estimates that business travel to and within the city generates US$8.1 billion in annual revenue, with 56% of every dollar spent on business travel remaining in the local economy.
For destinations across Asia Pacific, that economic contribution makes business travellers an increasingly strategic market.
The next phase of business travel is therefore unlikely to be defined simply by a return to pre-pandemic volumes.
Instead, the region is moving towards a more sophisticated model in which companies expect greater visibility, stronger duty of care, better technology and clearer returns from every trip.
Asia Pacific may already be the world’s largest business travel market. The bigger story is how the region is helping to redefine what business travel looks like in the years ahead.