During the next decade, tourism will grow at a rate of 5.8% per year worldwide, according to an estimate by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC, for its acronym in English), a rate that will exceed the growth projection for the global economy of 2.7%.
In this regard, Julia Simpson, president and CEO of the WTTC, which represents the private sector worldwide, assured that these have been difficult times for this sector due to the COVID-19 pandemic; however, recovery is already displayed.
“It is important that companies and governments continue to work so that the industry fully recovers,” Simpson said during the opening ceremony of the 21st World Travel and Tourism Summit, which is being held in Manila, Philippines.
In addition, he indicated that, according to the latest Economic Impact Report (EIR), 126 million new jobs will be created in the next 10 years, which represents one in three of all new jobs in the world.
The president of the WTTC recalled that during 2020 the travel and tourism sector contributed 9.6 trillion dollars to the global economy, which represented more than 10% of world GDP.
“We are recovering ground and by 2023 we will be reaching the same growth levels as in 2019,” she added, quoted in a statement.
Simpson called for governments to reopen their borders to boost the economy and create jobs, noting that it is necessary to digitally integrate people’s health status into their travel documents. An example of this is the green passport implemented by the European Union, which has been adopted in 62 countries.
“It is essential to standardize procedures to facilitate the transit of travelers globally,” he added.
The WTTC projects that global Travel & Tourism GDP could reach pre-pandemic levels by 2023. The sector’s contribution to GDP is expected to grow 43.7% by the end of 2022, representing 8.5% of total global economic GDP. .
