WTTC – world travel industry growth outpaces global economy in 2017

Following last week’s report by the WTTC, the 2017 Economic Impact Research, and its summary on the future of Indian travel jobs market, the organisation has announced the global travel industry grew  4.6%, 50% faster than the global economy as a whole (3%). 

The industry also saw the creation of a mammoth 7 million new jobs worldwide. It is the seventh year in a row where the travel and tourism industry has outperformed the global economy, and last year it was fastest growing broad economic sector globally. Displaying stronger growth than manufacturing, retail and wholesale, agriculture, forestry and fisheries and financial services.

Gloria Guevara, WTTC president & CEO, said “Travel & Tourism creates jobs, drives economic growth and helps build better societies. Our research shows that our sector was responsible for the creation of one in five of all jobs globally. In the last few years, Governments around the world are realising the extraordinary benefits of tourism and I congratulate them for taking steps to maximise our sector’s potential.”

Ms Guevara continued: “2017 was the best year on record for the Travel & Tourism sector.  We have seen increased spending as a result of growing consumer confidence, both domestically and internationally, recovery in markets in North Africa and Europe previously impacted by terrorism and continued outbound growth from China and India. This is great news for the millions of people who depend on our sector for their livelihoods.”

Europe performed better than had been expected, seeing 4.8% growth as long-haul demand recovered strongly, accompanied by “strong intra-regional travel thanks to the strength of the European economy”. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in 2017, European airlines recorded passenger growth of 8.1% and over 1 billion passengers for the first time.

Asian countries continue to be the engine of global tourism, with South East Asia showing growth of 6.7%, North East Asia growing at 7.4% and China leading the vanguard at 9.8%. The next decade will see over one third of absolute GDP growth and nearly half of employment growth will be generated by China and India.

Predictions for this year suggest that growth will be sustained, though at a slower rate than in 2017 due to higher oil prices. The outlook up to 2028 remains unchanged, with growth of 3.8% per year over the next decade. However, by 2028, the industry should support more than 400 million jobs globally — one in nine of all jobs in the world.

Ms Guevara added: “As our sector continues to become more important both as a generator of GDP and jobs, our key challenge will be ensuring this growth is sustainable and inclusive.  Going forward we need to ensure that growth is planned for, well managed and includes partnerships between not only the public and private sectors but also includes communities themselves.

There is a huge potential for governments to capitalise on the opportunities travel and tourism bring to create new jobs, especially in those economies where many jobs in other sectors are under threat from automation.  Travel & Tourism is the best partner for governments to create jobs.”