Tourism is on the rise

A new report from the World Travel and Tourism Organization shows a significant increase in citizens’ interest in travel in the next 10 years.

By 2033, tourism should become a $15.5 trillion industry, representing more than 11.6% of the global economy. This value is equivalent to a 50% increase from the $10 trillion value in 2019, when travel accounted for 10.4% of global GDP.

The report analyzes the role the world’s major tourism markets and reveals the five most powerful economies in this area in terms of contribution to GDP (from 2022). In principle, their composition remained the same, the same as before 2019. These countries include the US, China, Germany, the UK and Japan, with the latter overtaking the UK in the new list. France, Mexico, Italy, India and Spain round out the top ten.

The report also includes data on the contribution of travel and tourism to the labor market: in general, up to 430 million people will be employed in the industry by 2033, compared with 334 million in 2019. It corresponds approximately 1 in 9 jobs worldwide.

“Economists say that global GDP will grow at an annualized rate of about 2.6% per year,” Julia Simpson, president and CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council, told Bloomberg from her New York office. – “In travel and tourism, we expect [ежегодный рост] about 5.1%.”

Another WTTC forecast shows that “over the next 10 years, the US tourism economy, which is the largest in the world with an annual output of $2 trillion, will give way to China.”

It is predicted that in 2033 China’s tourism sector will generate $4 trillion and account for 14.1% of the Chinese economy. In contrast, US industry is projected to reach $3 trillion and make up 10.1% of the US economy. These figures represent both the amount that foreign visitors spend in the country and the amount that citizens of each country spend on their own trips abroad.

Before the pandemic on Chinese travelers accounted for 14.3% of global travel spending abroad. Their delay in returning to international travel (due to extended border closures, which were only lifted in January 2023, and delays in issuing passports and visas) has hampered a recovery in tourism. But the rest the countries of the world have filled this gap. According to the WTTC report, Latin America, North America and Europe are seeing a fairly strong recovery in tourism and are expected to return to 2019 levels by the end of this year.

It is expected that to China’s share of global outbound travel spending to reach 22.3% by 2033.

In the first half of 2023, the number of travelers increased by 69% compared to 2019 levels. Trip sales are expected to grow by 107% in 2024 and early 2025. Virtuoso data shows a surge of interest in agritourism, as well as travel to natural oases (to explore the conditions of life in the wild), including expeditions to Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands.

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