These Are the World Economies that Rely on Tourism the Most

Venezuela is the most tourism-dependent economy in the Americas. The South American nation takes the fourth spot on the overall list that’s topped by Bangladesh and is dominated by Asia and Africa. 

Travel experts have analyzed the number of tourism jobs available in over 170 countries around the world to reveal how many jobs are created for every 100 tourists visiting.

In 2019, 1.5 billion international tourist arrivals were recorded, globally, and we’re expected to see an increase in travel percentages in 2020, with a 4 percent increase on last year. Tourists visiting countries generate a demand for new jobs to be created – tourists need restaurants, bars and attractions to visit, therefore, these places need staff.

These are the countries that create the most tourism jobs per both individual tourist and per every 100 tourists: 

Bangladesh: 9 / 944

India: 2 / 172

Pakistan: 2 / 154

Venezuela: 1 / 101

Ethiopia: 1 / 99

Madagascar: 1 / 93

Philippines: 1 / 83

Guinea: 1 / 77

Libya: 1 / 68

Nigeria: 1 / 66

Bangladesh comes in the top spot for having the most tourism jobs available for every tourist that arrives – with just short of 1,000 (944) jobs available for every 100 tourists that arrive, this equates to nine jobs for every tourist. 

Despite there being a big gap between the first and second rankings, India follows Bangladesh with over 25,000,000 (26,741,000) tourism jobs available – this equates to two jobs being available for every tourist visiting. India is one of the fastest growing outbound tourism markets in the world as there has been a great rise in Indians traveling from a younger age.

Out of the top 10 countries with the most jobs per tourist, five of those countries are located in the continent of Africa. Ethiopia ranks in fifth place for having the most jobs available for every tourist visiting – in 2018 there were 924,000 tourism jobs available. 

While countries in Africa – such as South Africa and Mauritius – have the busiest tourist environment, countries like Gabon are still facing challenges in the tourism market.    

In 2013, Iceland had just seven jobs available for every 100 tourists visiting, but in 2018 this increased to 15, a 109 percent increase – with many tourists visiting landmarks and attractions such as the Blue Lagoon and the Northern Lights, there’s no surprise that tourism here has seen an increase in job availability.

Grenada now has nine jobs available for every 100 tourists, but back in 2013 there were only five jobs for every 100 people – the growth in people visiting lesser-known Caribbean islands could be due to prices increasing in popular destinations such as Barbados and St Lucia. Between January and June of 2019, Grenada saw over 300,000 (318,559) visitors.