The World Travel & Tourism Council’s latest Economic Impact Report (EIR) reveals that the travel and tourism sector is expected to create nearly 126 million new jobs within the next decade. The bullish forecast from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) also shows that the sector will be a driving force in global economic recovery — creating one of every three new jobs in the near future.
“Our sector’s growth will again outstrip the global GDP. And with it comes employment — 126 million new jobs will be created over the decade. That is the prize. In 2019 our sector contributed $9.6 trillion dollars to the global economy. That’s over 10 percent of global GDP,” said Julia Simpson, president & CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council, in her opening speech at its recent global summit in the Philippines. The summit was attended by more than 1,000 delegates from across the global Travel & Tourism sector, including CEOs, business leaders, government ministers, travel experts and the international media.
This is the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, which was paved by a massive 50 percent loss in value in 2020 along with 62 million jobs due to the pandemic. In 2021, travel and tourism registered a stuttering recovery, regaining 22 percent globally and getting back to A $5.8 trillion global business. The sector also saw a recovery of more than 18 million global Travel & Tourism jobs, representing a positive 6.7% rise in the same year.
The EIR report shows Travel & Tourism’s GDP is forecasted to grow at an average rate of 5.8 percent annually between 2022-2032, outstripping the 2.7 percent growth rate for global economy, to reach US$ 14.6 trillion (11.3% of the total global economy).
And in additional grounds for optimism, the report also shows global Travel & Tourism GDP could reach pre-pandemic levels by 2023 – just 0.1percent below 2019 levels. The sector’s contribution to GDP is expected to grow a massive 43.7percent to almost US$ 8.4 trillion by the end of 2022, amounting to 8.5% of the total global economic GDP – just 13.3percent behind 2019 levels.
This will be matched by a boost in Travel & Tourism employment, which is expected to approach 2019 levels in 2023, only 2.7 percent below. “Looking to this year and the next, WTTC forecast a brighter future with both GDP and employment set to reach pre-pandemic levels by next year.
“The recovery in 2021 was slower than expected due in part to the impact of the Omicron variant but mainly due to an uncoordinated approach by governments who rejected the advice of the World Health Organization, which maintained that closing borders would not stop the spread of the virus but would only serve to damage economies and livelihoods,” Simpson added.
A look at Asia Pacific
WTTC’s 2022 EIR report makes clear that Travel & Tourism sector across Asia Pacific is set to rebound significantly and over the next decade is estimated to create almost 77 million new jobs.
At the same time the sector’s contribution towards GDP is forecast to grow at an average annual rate of 8.5% between 2022 and 2032, more than double the 4 percent growth rate for the region’s overall economy.
Last year the Travel & Tourism sector’s contribution to GDP rose 16 percent to US$ 1.58 trillion after a collapsing by 58.8% in 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, job creation in 2021 was boosted by 6.2 percent, accounting for 8.6 percent of all the region’s jobs, after falling by nearly a fifth (18.9 percent), the previous year.
The 2022 EIR report marks a vast change in fortune for the once struggling global Travel & Tourism sector which was left reeling by the impact of the pandemic, due to the widespread introduction of unnecessary and hugely damaging travel restrictions.
