The Global Business Travel Association published a city-level economic impact study on 29 September 2026. Business travel spending across 25 cities reached $178 billion in 2024, the study base year, and supported 1.4 million jobs. GBTA ran the study with Rockport Analytics.
The study measures spending from the destination side. It counts what domestic and international business travelers spend inside a city for work, then follows that money through local suppliers, wages and tax receipts.
The city table as a demand map
New York, Tokyo and London rank highest for business travel spending. New York records $21.2 billion, Tokyo $20.7 billion and London $15.0 billion. Shanghai follows at $14.2 billion, Paris at $13.6 billion, Los Angeles at $12.2 billion and Chicago at $11.6 billion.
Those seven cities each exceeded $10 billion. Together they account for more than $108 billion, or 61 percent of the total across the 25 cities.
The next tier runs Washington DC at $9.4 billion, San Francisco at $6.9 billion, Amsterdam at $5.6 billion, Singapore at $5.2 billion, Frankfurt at $4.7 billion and Sydney at $4.7 billion. Delhi, Helsinki, Oslo, Dubai and Sao Paulo each recorded between $1.5 billion and $2.4 billion.
Group room demand concentrates in two cities
Shanghai recorded the highest hotel room demand from groups of the 25 cities. Chicago ranked second. Stockholm and Oslo posted the strongest growth in group room demand in 2024.
London recorded the second highest daily spend per business traveler in the study and the largest contribution to overall spending from premium air tickets.
The day-use shelf in the two leading United States cities
Dayuse carries a New York day-room average of $120 a booking on the 8 October 2026 read. Its recommended hourly property in the city is Aliz Hotel Times Square.
Dayuse's Chicago page carries a city average of $110.61 a day room on the same read. Its recommended property is Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago River North.
hotelSlots counts 933 hotels available in New York and 294 in Chicago on its directory pages, in a format of 24 cards shown against each total. The platform sells four windows: morning, afternoon, evening and overnight.
The multipliers hold across the set
Each dollar of business travel spending generated about $1.59 in total sales for local businesses, 52 cents in GDP and 31 cents in tax revenue. Every $1 billion of spending supported roughly 7,800 jobs on average.
New York generated $1.76 in local activity per dollar of business travel spending, the highest of the 25 cities. Los Angeles followed at $1.68. Paris and New York each returned more than 37 cents of every dollar as labor income.
Tax capture separates the cities further. Copenhagen converted nearly 60 cents of every business travel dollar into government revenue, the highest in the study. Dubai recorded the lowest, just above one cent.
GBTA attributes the higher job counts at Delhi and Mexico City to local wage levels and labor intensity. Delhi supported 42,900 jobs per $1 billion of spending and Mexico City 24,100, against the study average of about 7,800.
What the study covers
The report analyzes 2024 data, which GBTA describes as the most recent full year with a complete data set. It covers managed and unmanaged travel. Trip purposes include meetings and conventions, sales and customer engagement, training, internal company meetings, incentives and operations.
The 25 cities are Amsterdam, Chicago, Copenhagen, Delhi, Dubai, Frankfurt, Helsinki, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, New York City, Oslo, Paris, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Vienna and Washington DC.
The $178 billion represents roughly 12 percent of the $1.47 trillion in worldwide business travel spending for 2024. Business travel and travelers generated an estimated $283 billion in total economic activity across the 25 cities.
The study carries no day-use rate, occupancy or revenue-per-available-room figure for any city. The daytime price shelf sits in the platform reads above.
Suzanne Neufang is chief executive of GBTA. She said the benefits of business travel extend beyond the traveler and their organization by generating jobs, income, tax revenue and opportunity in communities.