GBTA Foundation Partners with American Express To Develop New Business Traveler Sentiment Index

Index Will Be First of Its Kind for Business Travel Industry

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Jul 29, 2014, 10:00 ET

LOS ANGELES, July 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The GBTA Foundation – the education and research arm of the Global Business Travel Association – today announced a partnership with American Express Global Corporate Payments to produce the GBTA Business Traveler Sentiment Index.

This new series of reports will look at frequent business traveler behavior and provide unique insight into what business travelers are experiencing now, what they were experiencing a year ago and how they feel business travel will be a year from now. The study will have several areas of focus including the overall economy, the business travel industry and how business travelers are doing at the company level and individual level. All of these metrics and more will be factored together and distilled into a number that will make up a proprietary Business Traveler Sentiment Index.

"The GBTA Business Traveler Sentiment Index will provide a new angle on the business travel industry that we've never had before," said Daphne Bryant, GBTA Foundation Executive Director. "It will provide a piece of information that will help travel managers, corporations and travel suppliers with an understanding of where business travel is headed. What the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index is for consumer behavior, this index will bring the same clarity for the business travel industry."

"The business travel industry is lacking a benchmark metric that we know our index will provide," said Pamela Codispoti, Executive Vice President and General Manager, American Express. "Through our partnership with the GBTA Foundation, we can now deliver valuable and reliable business travel insights, both within the U.S. and worldwide."

The report series will launch in Q1 2015. The data will be analyzed at the country and regional level. The regions will be comprised of North America (USA and Canada), Latin America (Brazil and Mexico), Europe/Middle East (UK and Germany), and Asia Pacific (Australia and Japan) and reports will be produced quarterly in the United States and annually in other regions.

About the GBTA Foundation
The GBTA Foundation is the education and research foundation of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), the world's premier business travel and meetings trade organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area with operations on six continents. Collectively, GBTA's 7,000-plus members manage more than $345 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually. GBTA provides its growing network of more than 28,000 travel professionals and 125,000 active contacts with world-class education, events, research, advocacy and media. The Foundation was established in 1997 to support GBTA's members and the industry as a whole. As the leading education and research foundation in the business travel industry, the GBTA Foundation seeks to fund initiatives to advance the business travel profession. The GBTA Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. For more information, see gbta.org and gbta.org/foundation.

About American Express Global Corporate Payments
American Express Corporate Payment Solutions provide Corporate Cards, Corporate Purchasing Card, and other expense management services to midsize companies and large corporations worldwide. Globally, American Express is a leading issuer of Commercial Cards, serving 62% of the Fortune 500^® companies in 2013 and tens of thousands of corporate clients. [i]

For more information, visit business.americanexpress.com.

[1] As determined by an analysis conducted by American Express Global Corporate Payments. FORTUNE 500® is a registered trademark of Time Inc. and is used under License. FORTUNE and Time Inc. are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of, Licensee. Claim of Licensee not confirmed by FORTUNE or Time Inc.

About American Express
American Express is a global services company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success. Learn more at americanexpress.com and connect with us on facebook.com/americanexpress.

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SOURCE Global Business Travel Association