WTTC: Travel and Tourism Sector Contributed €1.8 Trillion in 2014

Travel and tourism in Europe generates more income than automotive manufacturing, chemicals manufacturing, banking, agriculture, and the mining sector, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) Benchmarking Europe Report released recently.

“This research demonstrates the huge importance of travel and tourism as an economic generator in Europe”, said David Scowsill, president and CEO, WTTC.

Europe’s travel and tourism sector made a total contribution of 1.8 trillion euros ($US 2.1 trillion) in 2014, the WTTC’s report showed.

Travel and tourism’s contribution to Europe’s GDP, including its indirect and induced impacts, accounted for 9.2 percent of the continent’s GDP, making it the fourth largest sector of the eight studied in WTTC’s Benchmarking Europe Report.

The Benchmarking Report 2015 compares travel and tourism to eight other sectors (Agriculture, Automotive manufacturing, Banking, Chemicals manufacturing, Education, Financial services, Mining and Retail), which are considered to have similar breadth and global presence, across 26 countries.

The research showed that the travel and tourism sector also sustained 9 percent of total employment in Europe in 2014, exceeding that of the financial services, banking, automotive manufacturing, chemicals manufacturing, and mining sectors. Last year, travel and tourism supported a total of 35 million jobs in Europe.

“With the growth of the European economy, it is critical that governments and private companies step up together to ensure that the sector is able to build the infrastructure capacity to meet the future forecast volume of people”, Mr Scowsill said.

WTTC’s president noted that travel and tourism is the second-fastest growing sector in Europe in terms of direct GDP after banking.

“Forecast to grow at 2.8 percent per annum over the next ten years, the sector’s growth will outpace the global economy, which is estimated to increase by 1.9 percent per annum over the next decade.”

Countries researched in the study include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and United States of America.