TravelDaily Institute welcomes global industry professionals to subscribe to the English edition of its annual business travel report, Tides Rising in the East: The Expanding Reach of China’s Business Travel.
Designed for international readers, multinational companies, research institutions, and business travel stakeholders, the report provides a systematic view of China’s business travel market, including its current state, structural changes, key challenges, and future opportunities.
The report was developed from our long-standing interest in the relationship between global business travel dynamics and China’s own market evolution. As global business travel spending has gone through multiple cycles of recovery and adjustment, we wanted to explore a deeper question: how do a country’s economic development stage, industrial structure, and corporate activity shape the growth of business travel?
China has become one of the most important growth engines in the global business travel market. Yet its story is not only about scale. In recent years, China has seen a series of changes that are rarely observed in other markets. A growing number of large enterprises are building their own travel management platforms, gradually evolving from corporate clients into potential industry participants. At the same time, Chinese companies are accelerating their global expansion, driving continued growth in overseas business travel demand.
These China-specific and time-defining variables are reshaping the boundaries, structure, and competitive logic of the market.
Through this report, we hope to use the global market as a mirror to understand the resilience and potential of China’s business travel sector, while using historical development as a framework to identify the deeper logic behind its evolution.
The Chinese edition of the report was officially released in April 2026. Following its publication, we received valuable feedback from across the industry, which further strengthened our commitment to long-term research in this field. With the English edition, we aim to bring these insights to a broader international audience and help global business travel stakeholders better understand the realities, trends, challenges, and possible solutions emerging from the Chinese market.
What the report covers
The report provides a systematic view of China’s business travel services market, covering both global context and China-specific developments.
Key sections include:
1.Executive summary
2.Global background of the business travel services market
3.Development stage, market size, and structure of China’s business travel services market
4.A multi-dimensional view of China’s business travel services market, including:
- Corporate demand side
- Business traveler side
- TMC and business travel service provider side
- Resource supplier side
- Hotels
- Airlines
- Ground transportation providers
- Technology and professional service provider side
- Technology providers
- Payment solution providers
- Sustainability
- Future outlook for China’s business travel market
- Key action recommendations for business travel stakeholders
- Conclusion
Key highlights
This report marks several first attempts by TravelDaily Institute in China's business travel market research:
It is our first attempt to break down the total size of China’s business travel market using an international framework.
It is our first systematic and multi-dimensional integration of four major ecosystem perspectives: corporations, TMCs, resource suppliers, and employees.
It is also our first exploratory analysis combining macro indicators such as GDP and trade with business travel development, in order to identify forward-looking industry insights.
The report ultimately translates these findings into “So What” strategic guidance for different participants across the business travel value chain.
Research methodology
To develop a more systematic and comprehensive understanding of China’s business travel market, this report combines business traveler research, corporate-side research, and in-depth expert interviews.
（1）Business traveler survey
We conducted an online quantitative survey among business travelers, with a sample size of 1,305 respondents. The sample covers multiple cities across mainland China and Hong Kong, focusing on business travelers’ end-to-end travel experience, service satisfaction, pain points, and actual needs.
（2）Corporate-side survey
We also conducted an online quantitative survey among upstream and downstream participants in the business travel supply chain and broader ecosystem partners. Respondents included:
- 48 corporate travel managers
- 93 TMCs and corporate service providers
- 37 resource suppliers, including airlines, hotels, and ground transportation companies
（3）Expert interviews
In addition, we conducted one-on-one in-depth interviews with 19 senior executives from leading companies across the industry. These interviews covered TMCs and corporate service providers, hotel groups, airlines, ground transportation platforms, and technology service providers.
These conversations helped us get closer to the real operating conditions of the market and provided valuable context for identifying the underlying logic and emerging trends of China’s business travel industry.
How to access the report
English executive summary: https://wj.qq.com/s2/26333979/0aa8/
English full report: https://wj.qq.com/s2/26101148/3ozn/
Upcoming reports in the second half of 2026
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