A new report indicates that the Asia-Pacific travel industry may be the only one in the world to recover by 2023.
This year’s “Travel & Tourism Economic Impact” report – an annual publication by the London-based World Travel & Tourism Council – shows that compared to pre-pandemic levels, tourism revenues declined more in Asia-Pacific in 2020. (59%) than anywhere else.
Recovery efforts in the region were muted in 2021, with most countries there maintaining strict border restrictions. The contribution of tourism revenues to regional gross domestic product increased by approximately 16%, lower than the 28% in Europe and 23% in North America.
However, the report shows that Asia-Pacific is expected to close the gap this year, with the amount of travel revenue contributing to the overall economy expected to grow by 71%.
Asia-Pacific travel is booming this year — restrictions were eased first in India and Australia, then Malaysia and Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries, most recently followed by Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in the north. .
The 10-year forecast
The WTTC report expects continued gains for the Asia-Pacific travel industry in 2023, followed by another year of positive growth in 2024.
By 2025, it estimates, travel revenues will contribute 32% more to the region’s GDP than before the pandemic — a number far greater than all other regions except the Middle East (30%).
The report estimates that the average annual growth rate of the global economy will be 2.7% from 2022 to 2032. Still, the contribution of tourism to the global economy is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.8% over the same period, according to the report.
In Asia-Pacific, the numbers are rising even higher, with tourism’s contribution to GDP expected to grow at an average annual rate of 8.5%, according to the WTTC.
Where travel jobs will be
The WTTC predicts that the global travel industry will add 126 million new jobs over the next decade. Of this, it says, about 65% will be in Asia Pacific.
Just under half of the new jobs are expected to come from China and India, according to the WTTC.
Forecast of WTTC job creation between 2022 and 2032, by country
Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines are also expected to see significant tourism growth over the next decade, with 5.3 million, 3.5 million and 3.15 million new jobs added respectively.
The Chinese issue
To stem recent spikes in the case, officials have closed nightspots in Shanghai and schools in the central Chinese city of Xi’an, while millions of its citizens have been placed under new lockdowns.