Total business travel spending in China in 2014 will increase 15.9 percent year over year to $262 billion,

followed by growth of 18 percent in 2015, according to a projection released Thursday by the Global Business Travel Association Foundation. The report projects China's spending on international outbound travel will increase 16 percent this year and 19 percent next year to $13.4 billion as export performance improves, following the past "few years of tepid growth." The report also projects business travel spending in China will surpass that of the United States in 2016, a year later than the projection in a GBTA report earlier this year. China's business travel market currently represents about one-fifth of global business travel spending, according to GBTA Asia regional director Welf Ebeling.