Tourism to add five million jobs in Europe in 10 years

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has stressed the importance of investing in Travel & Tourism in Europe, revealing that the sector will add an estimated five million jobs and €500 billion of economic generation to the region in the next ten years.

Gloria Guevara, the WTTC’s recently-appointed president and CEO, spoke at the recent High-level Conference on Tourism at the European Parliament Transport & Tourism Committee, highlighting that Travel & Tourism generated EUR1.8 trillion, or 10% of GDP in European economies in 2016.

Recent WTTC research shows that the tourism sector contributes more to Europe’s economy than the mining, agriculture, banking, chemicals manufacturing, and automotive manufacturing sectors.

Travel & Tourism also supports 36 million jobs in the region, which is more than all of the above sectors mentioned, plus the financial services sector. To note, tourism’s contribution to Europe’s employment is three times higher than that of banking.

Travel & Tourism GDP is forecast to grow by 2.6% over 2017 and by 2.4% per year over the next decade to €2.3 trillion, or 11% of GDP.

Gloria Guevara

‘Resilient tourism region’

Guevara said: “I would like to congratulate Antonio Tajani, the president of the European Parliament, on his facilitation of a high-level discussion on Travel & Tourism […] and his continuous efforts to protect and advance the policies in place, around visas and border security, to make our sector flourish.

“Europe is an extremely attractive and resilient tourist region, with a huge variety of unique experiences and destinations on offer. With the right investment, wise and sustainable, Travel & Tourism will help boost the competitiveness of Europe as a destination.”

Guevara continued: “As the tourism market continuous to grow and the number of people travelling to and within Europe are increasing, it is extremely important for the public and private sector to focus on the sustainable growth of our sector.

“The protection and preservation of destination assets and resources have long been under scrutiny and we have seen this intensify in recent months. Planning, and taking responsibility for planning for infrastructure in line with the capacity at national and destination level is key to ensure that people will be able to continue to enjoy the beautiful tourism products the European destinations have to offer.”