Although spending on business travel has surged this year, anxiety over an uncertain economic climate is expected to slow travel spending growth next year.
That is the forecast from the Global Business Travel Assn., a Virginia-based trade group for business travel professionals. The group estimates that spending on business travel in the U.S. will rise 6.9% this year over 2010, hitting $250.2 billion.
But the trade group predicts that a tentative economy next year will slow the trend, leading to growth of 4.3%, or $260.9 billion in spending.
A bright spot in the forecast is continued growth in spending for international travel, which the group estimated will grow 7.7% in 2012 to $34.3 billion.
"While international trips are more expensive and time consuming, their reward can be worth every cent," said Michael W. McCormick, executive director of the association.
•Airport security bin supplier to expand operations
Hoping to deliver advertising to more affluent air passengers, a company that puts ads on plastic bins that hold the belongings of fliers at airport security checkpoints plans to expand its operations.
SecurityPoint Media of St. Petersburg, Fla., supplies plastic bins plastered with ads for 30 airports across the country, including Los Angeles, Ontario and San Diego international airports, and John Wayne Airport. The ads reach an estimated 1.2 million travelers per day, according to company officials.
The company announced last week that it had joined with a venture capital group and a sales consulting firm — two subsidiaries of the Raptor Group, a Boston financial services firm — to expand its bin business to airports domestically and globally.
SecurityPoint Media founder and Chief Executive Joseph Ambrefe Jr. said he hopes the partnership will help his company expand to 30 new airports in the next 12 months, including airports in Canada and Europe.
"This is an opportunity to really build out our media network," he said.
Airline travelers are a valued target for advertisers because air passengers are more likely to have an annual household income of $50,000 or more and are likely to shop for designer clothes, luxury cars and high-tech digital devices, according to a study by Arbitron Inc.
•World's largest passenger plane lands at LAX
Amid a shower from water cannons, Korean Air landed the world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, on the Los Angeles International Airport runway last week, becoming only the third airline to fly that aircraft into L.A.
The plane can seat up to 500 passengers. But to provide passengers more legroom, Korean Air configured the plane with 407 seats, including 12 first-class suites that resemble office cubicles, three bars, a business lounge and a duty-free shop.
"Bigger is better," John Jackson, Korean Air's vice president of marketing and sales, proclaimed during last week's ceremony before the launch of the A380 flight from LAX to Seoul.
But the A380 is so big — nearly 240 feet long and 80 feet tall — that LAX has only two gates at the Tom Bradley International Terminal that are wide enough and tall enough to serve the super jumbo jet.
That is expected to change in December 2012, when the new $1.5-billion Bradley West Terminal project is slated to open. Under construction next to the existing international terminal, the new terminal will include 18 new gates, including nine gates that can serve the A380 and the giant Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
The next-generation jumbo jets and the new terminal will be a boon to the Los Angeles economy, said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who attended the A380 launch ceremony.
He cited a 2007 study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. that estimated that a daily transoceanic flight traveling round trip from LAX generates $623 million in spending annually and helps sustain 3,120 jobs in Southern California.
During a tour of the massive jet, the mayor tested out the first-class lie-flat seats as a swarm of photographers snapped photos. Joked Villaraigosa: "The things I do to create jobs in L.A."
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