Report: Travel and Tourism Sector is Third Biggest Employer in the World

Photo source: WTTC

The travel and tourism sector is the third biggest employer after retail and agriculture, according to new research from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).

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.

According to the WTTC, the travel and tourism industry supported 277 million jobs in 2014, which is 9.4 percent of world employment.

With 105 million people directly employed in 2014, the travel and tourism industry globally employs:
• 7 times more than automotive manufacturing (14 million)
• 5 times more than chemicals manufacturing (20 million)
• 4 times more than banking (27 million)
• 4 times more than mining (27 million)
• 2 times more than financial services (59 million)

According to the report, travel and tourism is the second-fastest growing sector globally. Forecast to grow at 3.9 percent per annum over the next 10 years, this industry’s growth will outpace the global economy, which is estimated to increase by 2.9 percent per annum over the next decade.

The research shows that Travel & Tourism, generating US$ 7.6 trillion in contribution to GDP in 2014, is the fourth largest sector after mining, financial services and retail respectively. At 9.8 percent of global GDP, travel and tourism generates more economic output than chemicals manufacturing, agriculture, education, automotive manufacturing, and banking.

“This research demonstrates the huge importance of travel and tourism in creating jobs around the world”, said David Scowsill, President & CEO, WTTC.

“It confirms that our sector is one of the biggest contributors to global GDP, and significantly is forecast to outpace the global economy every year over the next decade.”