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The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) revealed that the travel and tourism sector is expected to create nearly 126 million new jobs within the next decade.
According to the WTTC’s latest Economic Impact Report (EIR), travel and tourism’s GDP is forecasted to grow at an average rate of 5.8% annually between 2022-2032 to reach $14.6tn (£11.18tn), representing 11.3% of the total global economy.
WTTC said the travel and tourism private sector will create one in three of all new jobs and its GDP could reach pre-pandemic levels by 2023 at just 0.1% below 2019 levels, compared to the current 2.7% average annual growth rate for the global economy.
Overall, global travel and tourism employment is expected to grow by 3.5% in 2022, making up 9.1% of the global job market and lagging behind 2019 levels by 10%.
Meanwhile, the sector’s contribution to GDP is expected to grow 43.7% to almost $8.4tn (£6.43tn) by the end of 2022, amounting to 8.5% of the total global economic GDP, just 13.3% behind 2019 levels.
Compared to last year, WTTC’s latest EIR report also revealed that the 2021 contribution to GDP climbed 21.7% year-on-year to reach more than $5.8tn (£4.44tn).
Before the pandemic, the travel and tourism sector’s contribution to GDP was 10.3% at $9.6tn (£7.35tn) in 2019, falling to 5.3% at nearly $4.8tn (£3.67tn) in 2020 when the pandemic was at its height, which represented a 50% loss.
However, the sector saw a recovery of more than 18 million global travel and tourism jobs, representing a positive 6.7% rise in 2021.
WTTC said the sector’s contribution to the global economy and employment would have been higher if it was not for the impact of the Omicron variant, which led to the recovery faltering around the world, with many countries reinstating severe travel restrictions.
Julia Simpson, president and CEO of WTTC, said: “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.”
