Travel and Tourism: The Fastest-Growing Sector in the Global Economy

Travel and tourism was already a fast-growing sector before the pandemic temporarily, albeit drastically, stunted its seemingly unstoppable progress. For nine consecutive years prior to 2019, the growth of the global travel and tourism sector exceeded that of the global economy and now it is already back on track. In 2024 the sector is forecast to pick up pace again contributing 3.6% to global gross value added over the next five years, more than even the information and financial services sectors.

The strength of this travel and tourism momentum is made even more apparent when we observe the stark contrast between the two top GVA contributors in this list. Unlike tourism, information and communications businesses thrived during the pandemic years. Remote work, an e-commerce revolution, and innovations in health tech increased the demand for communications and technological solutions, allowing tech companies to prosper and increase their workforce at a time when travel came to a near standstill. This time of relative prosperity for tech, has now taken a step back with widely reported layoffs in 2022-2023 indicating that the short-lived pandemic growth period is losing steam.

Clearly, it is once again it is travel and tourism’s time to shine, and this is important because apart from technology and financial services, our society is heavily driven by the movement of people. This movement not only stimulates economic growth, but it also contributes to a more globalized world and growing connectedness among its people.

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