Global Economic Impact Trends 2020

Travel & Tourism is one of the world’s largest sectors, driving socio-economic development and job creation. It plays an important role in driving prosperity, empowering women, youth and other groups of society. The benefits of Travel & Tourism spread far beyond its direct impacts in terms of GDP and employment; there are also indirect benefits through supply chain linkages to other sectors as well as its induced impacts. This report on 2019 provides a valuable and timely reminder of the global economic impact of Travel & Tourism in the pre COVID-19 era and hence why a rapid and efficient recovery is so essential.

Yet, our sector is facing unprecedented challenges and an existential threat from the impact of the COVID-19 virus globally. It is essential that governments recognise this and ensure that Travel & Tourism is sustained through the crisis so that it can fulfil its vital role as a significant catalyst of global economic recovery and growth.

For nearly 30 years, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has been quantifying the economic and employment impact of Travel & Tourism, highlighting the importance of the sector to the global economy. The 2019 annual research covers 185 countries and economies, and 25 regions of the world and reveals that the sector accounted for 10.3% of global GDP and 330 million jobs, or 10.4% of total employment in 2019. Over the past five years, one in four of all net new jobs created across the world has been in Travel & Tourism.

As of 2019, the majority of global Travel & Tourism expenditure continued to be generated by domestic travel, accounting for 71.3% of total global spending, with the remaining 28.7% coming from international visitors. While countries often tend to focus on international tourism due to the revenue earned, domestic tourism can be a powerful tool to generate employment and economic growth, as well as reduce poverty and upgrade infrastructure. In fact, domestic tourism will likely be a key driver in the sector’s initial recovery from COVID-19. In terms of leisure and business travel spend, there is a firm weighting towards the leisure market, which in 2019 accounted for 78.6% of the total compared with 21.4% from business spend. Still, countries which are over-reliant on either leisure or business travel, or on domestic or international demand, tend to more exposed to various economic and geo-political risks. As such, it is important to diversify and strive for a more equal balance between different segments.

The continued rise in the number of middle-class households, sustained low unemployment rates, and visa relaxation in many countries around the world enabled Travel & Tourism growth to reach 3.5% in 2019, a rate higher than that of the global economy for the ninth consecutive year. Across the regions, Asia Pacific was the fastest growing with 5.5% growth, followed closely by the Middle East in the second position with a 5.3% growth.

Our engagement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has culminated in the signing of a long-term strategic partnership with the Ministry of Tourism; a nation which became the fastest growing leading economy in 2019 with an impressive 14% growth. This growth was the result of the Kingdom’s ambitious ‘Vision 2030’ strategy’, which includes new visa facilitation policies through which citizens from 49 countries are eligible to apply for an e-Visa online or get a Visa on arrival into Saudi Arabia.

WTTC believes that the right policy and planning decisions are best made with authoritative, reliable, and accessible data. In this context, WTTC continues to provide the evidence base required, helping both governments and private bodies to make the most effective decisions, in times of peace and crisis, for the future growth of a sustainable Travel & Tourism sector.