The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) is forecasting a record-breaking year for tourism in 2024.
It predicts an all-time high impact of $11.1 trillion.
According to its 2024 Economic Impact Research (EIR), global tourism will contribute an additional $770 billion above the previous record, representing one in every 10 dollars worldwide.
WTTC expects 142 countries of 185 analysed will outperform previous national records.
In partnership with Oxford Economic, WTTC’s latest data finds global tourism will support 348 million jobs.
This represents an increase of more than 13.6 million jobs compared to the previous best in 2019.
International visitor spending is expected to edge toward the 2019 peak, at $1.89 trillion, while domestic tourism will generate a record $5.4 trillion.
Global tourism generated 9.1% of global GDP in 2023.
The sector also bolstered its workforce by an additional 27.4 million, propelling the total to nearly 330MN jobs worldwide.
This comes as both the US and China have yet to fully recover their pre-pandemic inbound tourism markets.
Julia Simpson, WTTC CEO, said: “Against the backdrop of uncertainty, the tourism sector remains a global economic powerhouse.”
“This is a story of the sector back at its best after a difficult few years, and supporting millions of jobs.
“We need the US and China governments to support their national tourism sectors.”
