WTTC Forecasts Mild Travel & Tourism Growth for 2010

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) reported that global travel and tourism economy GDP declined by 4.8 percent in 2009 and this caused the loss of almost five million jobs – or 5.6 million since 2008. All regions experienced significant contractions in visitor arrivals, spending and travel and tourism economy GDP, and travel and tourism investment declined by more than 12 percent.

Only residents’ spending on domestic trips increased, and that was by 0.7 percent in real terms. Nevertheless, even in a depressed year, travel and tourism still employed more than 235 million people across the world – 8.2 percent of all employment – and generated 9.4 percent of world GDP.

WTTC said the global economy has now moved into a recovery phase, although the pick-up in developed economies is expected to be gradual as households, corporations and governments all battle to rebuild their balance sheets.

Given current credit conditions and delays in restarting large projects, travel and tourism investment is also expected to decrease for the second consecutive year, by 1.7 percent. Thus, travel and tourism economy GDP is forecast to grow by just 0.5 percent in 2010 overall. But stronger second-half momentum will continue into 2011 to boost growth next year to 3.2 percent.

In the longer run, WTTC said travel and tourism will sustain its leading role in driving global growth, creating jobs and alleviating poverty. Emerging economies, in particular, are expected to be engines of growth, boosting international travel – with China alone set to provide almost 95 million visitors for other destinations by 2020 – and also generating an increasingly vibrant domestic travel sector.

Overall, the travel and tourism economy is forecast to grow by 4.4 percent per annum in real terms between 2010 and 2020, supporting more than 300 million jobs by 2020 – or 9.2 percent of all jobs and 9.6 percent of global GDP.