China is "moving towards global dominance of the business-travel market", the USA-based Global Business Travel Association said in its 2013 annual global outlook.
 

China logged $196 billion in business-travel spending last year, up a hefty 13.2 percent from 2011, and a fivefold increase from the $32 billion of 2000, according to the report. The USA market saw $262 billion in spending in 2012, for a 4.4 percent rise. The report predicts that China's "meteoric growth" will continue, doubling to $375 billion by 2017.
 

The report sees China business-travel spending increasing 15 percent this year, followed by 16.8 percent in 2014, 13.6 percent in 2015, 12.3 percent in 2016 and 11.5 percent in 2017.
 
By comparison, the USA is seen achieving growth of 4.5 percent this year, 5.9 percent in 2014, 4.2 percent in 2015, 3.2 percent in 2016 and 3.3 percent in 2017.
 
China's outpacing the USA in global business-travel spending would mark the latest installment of a changing of the guard that has so far included China eclipsing the USA as the world's largest automotive market in 2009 and overtaking the USA as the world's biggest art market in 2011, although it recently slipped back into the No 2 spot in the art world amid a slowing Chinese economy. China is widely expected to displace the USA as the world's largest economy by the end of this decade.