Despite the uncertainties in global economy, global business travels are increasing every passing year. Total business travel spend is expected to break a record this year with 1.25 trillion USD. The Global Business Travel Association expects Turkey to be one of the top 5 countries to be business travel stars of the future. Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) has announced its 2015 estimates. Based on a survey conducted with businesses across 48 industries in 75 countries, the association stated that the global business travels are expected to increase in the next five years. According to GBTA’s estimates, global business travel spending will increase by 6, 5 % this year to a record high of 1, 25 trillion dollars despite the recent economic slowdown. GBTA states that the upward tendency in global business travels will continue in the next five years, and the sector will grow by 6, 9% next year, 6 % in 2017, 6, 4 % in 2018 and 5, 8 % in 2019. TWO-THIRDS OF SPENDING WAS REALIZED IN THE US, CHINA AND EUROPE The majority of business travel spending in 2014 occurred in a few dominant markets. Two-thirds of total business travel spend was realized in the US, China and Western Europe. Currently, Asia Pacific owns the largest share of the business travel spend market with 39 percent followed consecutively by North America with 27 percent and Western Europe with 24 percent. By 2019, GBTA expects Asia Pacific to gain another 3.5 percentage points in market share, while the United States and Western Europe lose 2.7 percentage points and 0.6 percentage points, respectively. Business travel spending in Asia Pacific totaled 459 billion dollars in 2014, and is projected to grow at 7.7 percent annually over the next five years. Business travelers in North America spent 318 billion dollars in 2014, with 90 percent generated from the US. Business travel spend by Western European companies totaled 271 billion dollars in 2014 and it is projected to increase by 4.8 percent in 2015. Latin American business travel totaled 52 billion dollars in 2014, led by Brazil with 32bn dollars. Business travel spending in Latin America is expected grow 5.9 percent annually through 2019. The Middle East, Emerging Europe and Africa together accounted for 77 billion dollars in business travel spend in 2014. Business travel spending in the Middle East remains highly correlated with the prices in the energy sector. CHINA AND INDIA ARE EXPECTED TO BOOM Highest increase in business travel is expected to be recorded by China this year .. According to the research, Chinese business travel spend totaled 261 billion dollars in 2014, and is projected to grow 67 percent over the next five years to 420 billion dollars in 2019. That increase is greater than the increases on business travel growth in US, Germany, India, UK, Indonesia, France, Turkey and Japan altogether. Despite the economic turbulences, it is deemed certain that China will take the lead in business travel spending in the next five years to come. Another country that is poised to breakout growth is India. Indian business travel spending totaled 26 billion dollar in 2014. That figure is forecasted to grow to 45 billion dollars in 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 11.5 percent. GBTA’s report points out that 15 years from now, India and Turkey will likely be two of the top-five markets in business travel spending. According to the association, business travel markets will grow aggressively in Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico and Poland as well. TURKS TRAVEL THE WORLD The change in Turkey’s business travel market, one of the markets forecasted to boom according to GBTA’s report, is also introduced by the “Domestic Travel Market Research” of Association of Mediterranean Tourism and Hoteliers. According to the research, most of the international travels (36 percent) are “touring, entertainment, sports and culture” related, while “business” is the second most popular travel purpose with 28 percent. These categories are followed by “family/relative visits” with 19 percent and “other travels” with 17 percent, respectively. There has also been a compelling change in business related foreign travels from Turkey in the last 10 years. According to the research, Turkish businesses mostly traveled to Western Asia countries in 2014 with a rate of 45 percent, making those destinations most popular in Turkish market. The rate of Western Asia countries was 34 percent ten years ago. While CIS countries became the second most popular business travel destinations with a growth rate of 3 percent from 18 to 21 over the last ten years, “other” countries reached to 11 percent from 5 percent. SHARE OF EUROPE AND US IS DECREASING The share of European business travel spending decreased by 15 percent, from 35 to 20 percent between 2005 and 2015; ranking it the third in the list. Another market that has lost its position in the last ten years is the US. According to the research, the share of business travels to the American continent, including the US and Canada, showed a dramatic decrease from 6.6 percent in 2005 to 2.2 percent in 2014. There is a similar tendency in the breakdown of countries with the highest rate of business travels. Germany holds its position as the brightest star in Europe even though it recorded a decrease of 1, 8%. This downswing effect is seen in all the top ten destinations, excluding Georgia, and the share of “other” countries has almost doubled from 34 percent in 2005 to 64 percent in 2014. These statistics show that Turkish businesses have expanded their business destinations in the last ten years. The increase in Turkish Airlines’ flight destinations in the same period also verifies this trend.