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The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has predicted that there will be a strong growth in travel and tourism investment over the next decade, underlining the importance of renewed hotel investment after the pandemic.
Nonetheless, the global tourism body warned that to achieve this growth, governments around the world must create a “favourable enabling environment”.
In addition to political stability and liquidity needed for investment, it said “clear, open, and consistent” government action and support, favourable tax incentives, and safety and security, amongst others, are essential for hotel investment.
Its forecast was published in its newly released ‘Critical Factors to Attract Hotel Investment’, a new report highlighting the importance of attracting capital investment to enable the travel and tourism sector’s full growth potential post-pandemic.
The report, launched today (15 June) at the Sustainability and Investment Summit in San Juan, Puerto Rico, looks at key enabling factors for hotel investment, and success stories of destinations that have employed such factors and shown strong growth in investment.
According to the report, the key enabling factors for hotel investment going forward include governance and rule of law, a key enabler for investors, as it determines how easily and successfully a business operates, physical infrastructure, air and ground connectivity, and workforce. The paper also highlights the importance of reskilling and up-skilling the workforce.
It comes as the travel and tourism sector saw 62 million job losses and its GDP contribution halved in 2020, representing a loss of nearly $4.9tln (£4tln).
According to the paper, capital investment in the sector also fell “substantially” during the height of the pandemic, from nearly $1.1trn (£908bn) in 2019, to $805bn (£664bn) in 2020, representing an almost 25% drop.
Investment in the sector also continued to decline last year with a further 6.9% decline to $750bn (£619bn).
Julia Simpson, WTTC President and CEO, said: “Hotel investment is absolutely key for the recovery and growth of the Travel & Tourism sector. Destinations must have a clear commitment and take a holistic approach to become resilient and competitive.
“As we recover from the pandemic and we build back better, investments not only need to benefit destinations economically, but more importantly, socially and environmentally.”
