Tourism Supports Twice as Many Jobs as the Financial Sector
The global Travel & Tourism sector directly sustains twice as many jobs as the financial sector, and five times as many jobs as the chemicals manufacturing sector, according to a new report by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
The WTTC Benchmarking Report 2017 compares Travel & Tourism to eight other sectors, which are considered to have similar breadth and global presence, across 27 countries and six regions.
In 2016, Travel & Tourism supported 108 million jobs directly, and 292 million in total, taking the direct, indirect, and induced impact into account. The report shows that both on direct and total level, Travel & Tourism employs more people than the automotive manufacturing, banking, mining, chemicals manufacturing, and financial services sectors.
It also shows that the power of Travel & Tourism to create jobs is significantly higher than that of financial services when you compare their contribution to GDP. Financial services generates 19.4% of the world’s GDP compared to 10.2% by Travel & Tourism, but the latter supports twice as many jobs worldwide.
Travel & Tourism generated a total of US$7.6 trillion in GDP in 2016, which makes the sector’s GDP contribution larger than that of banking (US$4.8 trillion), mining (US$5 trillion), agriculture (US$5.8 trillion), automotive manufacturing (US$6.1 trillion), and chemicals manufacturing (US$6.5 trillion).
Global Travel & Tourism is forecast to grow by 4% per year over the next decade, which is significantly faster than the global economy at 2.7% and all other sectors covered in the study apart from the financial sector and banking.
David Scowsill, president and CEO, WTTC, said, “It is easy to applaud the efforts or even to criticize the failings of Travel & Tourism in isolation without looking at the picture of our industry separate from the overall industrial context. Our sector contributes 10.2% of global GDP and supports one in 10 jobs when you look at the total impact and this research helps to put these achievements in context, and gives a clear picture as to the strength of Travel & Tourism.
“Business and leisure travel creates opportunities, empowers communities and enhances local livelihoods. There are still challenges to sustainable growth, and WTTC will continue to urge public and private sector to invest into our sector and implement policies that are favorable for growth while safeguarding the world’s assets.”
