Travel industry grew 3.3% in 2016, says WTTC

The travel and tourism industry generated one in 10 of the world’s jobs in 2016 as the sector grew by 3.3 per cent, outpacing the global economy for the sixth year in a row, according to a new report by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).

WTTC’s Economic Impact Report 2017, which is conducted in conjunction with Oxford Economics, researches the economic impact of Travel & Tourism impact on global level, for 25 regions and 185 countries.

According to the research, the industry grew by 3.3 per cent in 2016, generating US$7.6 trillion worldwide, which is 10.2 per cent of global GDP when the direct, indirect and induced impacts are taken into account. The sector supported a total of 292 million jobs in 2016, which is 1 in 10 of all jobs in the world.

Additionally, global visitor exports, which is money spent by foreign visitors, accounted for 6.6 per cent of total world exports, and almost 30 per cent of total world services exports.

Southeast Asia (8.3 per cent) was the region with the fastest growing travel and tourism sector in 2016, driven by the expanding Chinese outbound market and the countries own growing markets. Latin America (0.2 per cent) was the slowest growing region. Some countries performed well above the world average, but the Brazilian economy dragged down the whole region.

The other regions registered the following growth: South Asia (7.9 per cent), North East Asia (4.6 per cent), Oceania (4.4 per cent), the Caribbean (3.2 per cent), North America (3.1 per cent), the Middle East (2.7 per cent), Sub-Saharan Africa (2.4 per cent) and Europe (1.6 per cent).

Travel and tourism is expected to grow by 3.8 per cent in 2017, generating US$ 7.9 trillion, said the WTTC. This growth is slower than previously forecast, as a result of a downgrade to the global economy and a dampening of consumer spending.