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WTTC Names Tourism Crucial for the Recovery of European Economic

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has published its new report in which the organization named Travel & Tourism a crucial industry that can help the European Union to recover after the global COVID-19 pandemic. In the annual Economic Impact Report published by WTTC, it is easy to see that tourism was one of the major drivers of the EU economy in 2019.

When talking about tourism in Europe, some people might recall an image of a hotel in Paris or a gorgeous hotel in Rome. However, the travel & tourism industry in the EU is much bigger than this. Last year, the industry was responsible for 22.6 million jobs. This means the travel industry provides jobs for 11.6% of the total workforce in the EU. Moreover, it generated a GDP of 1,319 billion euro, contributing 9.5% to the economy of the region. Travel & Tourism grew faster than the overall economy of the EU – it added 2.3% in 2019 while the economy in general grew by only 1.4%. As it is not hard to see, tourism is a major booster for Europe.

Guests from all over the world enjoy spending in Europe, and numbers prove this. International spending in Europe was the highest in the world in 2019, reaching 427 billion euro. This is more than 6% of the total EU’s export. Leisure tourists remain the main source of income for Europe. Holidays in the EU never go out of fashion, and so leisure tourists are responsible for 81% of all spending. Business travelers were spending significantly less in 2019 – only 19% of the total.

As the pandemic put tourism on halt, 75 million people around the world are at risk of losing their jobs. In Europe alone, 6.4 million people can become jobless if the virus spread continues. WTTC mentions that it is crucially important for the EU to support the sector as it can help the region to recover. When tourists are back to European cities, they revitalize not only hotels but also generate new jobs and have a domino effect on large and small businesses.

Tourism is crucially important on the global level too. In 2019, the sector outperformed the global GDP growth for the ninth year in a row. Currently, Travel & Tourism is the third fastest developing sector in the world. The Asia Pacific is the best performing region in the world with the growth of the Travel & Tourism sector of 5.5%. The Middle East is the second with an impressive result of 5.3%. The US posted solid growth of 3.4% last year. As Europe is an established tourism market, its growth is less impressive – 2.4%.

17.04.2020

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