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Business travel growth has assisted Arizona's tourism industry as it experiences "moderate, but sustained, improvement" in the wake of the Great Recession, according to a recent study via Cronkite News.
According to the latest available figures cited by Cronkite News, in 2013, employment earnings, industry jobs and spending on tourism rose in Arizona, with the Arizona Tourism Economics Report revealing an increase of 3,200 jobs for the leisure and hospitality sector.
Phoenix Business Journal reporter Brandon Brown writes that increasing business travel has bolstered multiple industries throughout the state, highlighting the latest Global Business Travel Association figures and noting that warm-weather cities like Phoenix allow for an easy transition between business and leisure travel.
According to recent report from the GBTA, more than 482.4 million business trips were taken in 2014, with that number forecast to rise to 490.4 million this year.
The projected growth also applies to business travel spending, which is expected to rise more than six percent to $310.2 billion in 2015, per the latest GBTA report.
"Business travel drives business growth," GBTA executive director Michael McCormick told Brown. "Travel is an investment, not an expense."
McCormick also told Brown that business travelers are more likely to book longer stays in warm weather destinations, especially during the winter season. Brown backs up that assertion by noting that the average hotel stay during this year's Super Bowl festivities was longer than the average stay in other host cities in the past.
According to the state's Office of Tourism via Cronkite News, the tourism industry ranks atop the state's gross domestic product output year after year, generating nearly $20 billion in direct spending within Arizona's borders.
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