World Travel Expected to Grow in 2017

Tourism is expected to grow in large numbers, with some 1.8 billion tourists expected to travel by 2030. Currently, some 8 million tourists fly each day. 2017 has been declared the international year of sustainable tourism for development by the UNWTO.

Anita Mendiratta, the Managing Director of Cachet Consulting and special advisor to the UNWTO spoke about her experiences in far off places like Rwanda, Tacloban in the Philippines and Cuba. To quote her, “We’ve moved past the industrial revolution to the electronic and digital revolution. Now we’re in the travel revolution. It’s staggering. It’s because of travel and tourism that the world is losing its boundaries. People are caring more, and more often, about people they didn’t even know before. People want to see what’s happening in the world. They want to understand it and they want to understand the implications.”

Mendiratta said that tourism is the only industry making human connection and people are not just traveling for going from A to B, but for understanding, worth and opportunity. She added, “What I love about this industry though, the beauty of travel and tourism is actually not about the tourists. The tourist is the catalyst, the vehicle. But the magic of why this industry matters is actually not about the tourists … It’s about the ripple effect.”

The impact the industry has in terms of truly building nations. Mendiratta mentioned that tourism creates the maximum number of jobs and improves livelihood, being the third largest economic sectors in the world after automotive and banking.

About 280 million people are employed in the travel and tourism industry. Globally, tourism is expected to grow around 4% and for individual countries the numbers are overwhelming.