Travel & Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure, or business purposes, usually of a limited duration. Tourism is commonly associated with trans-national travel, but may also refer to travel to another location within the same country. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people “traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes”. The direct contribution of Travel & Tourism to the world economy has grown by 3.1%, contributing US$2.2 trillion to world gross domestic product (GDP) and 101 million jobs. Taking its wider supply chain impacts into account, Travel & Tourism’s total contribution to global GDP has grown by 3.0%, faster than overall economic growth and outperforming other global sectors such as manufacturing, retail and distribution, public services and financial and business services. Travel & Tourism represents US$7.0 trillion, 266 million jobs, US$754 billion in investment and US$1.3 trillion in exports. 1.4 million additional jobs have been generated directly in the sector, and in total, 4.7 million new jobs have been created as a result of tourism activity. The total contribution of Travel & Tourism to employment has grown by 1.8%. Travel & Tourism’s contribution equates to 9.5% of total economy GDP, 1 in 11 of the world’s total jobs, 4.4% of total investment and 5.4% of world exports.