The World Travel and Tourism Council, in
its annual report and forecast on the global economic impact of
travel and tourism, projects that global spending this year will
rise 4.6% to approach $6.5 trillion.
The report also
states that global spending last year rose 5.7%, a rate that
exceeded the WTTCs forecast, and topped $6.2 trillion.
Following the
creation of more than 2 million jobs worldwide in 2005, the
industry is projected to generate 2.5 million new jobs in 2006, for
a total direct employment of 76.7 million jobs, or 2.8% of total
world employment.
Factoring in the
direct and indirect industry impact of travel and tourism, the WTTC
said travel and tourism could create nearly 10 million new jobs
globally, for a total of 234.3 million jobs or 8.7% of worldwide
employment.
As always, however,
the growth is uneven. According to the WTTC, the tourism economies
of some small and/or developing countries are experiencing
extraordinary growth rates. According to WTTC data, a clear leader
in that regard is China.
The growth of
personal spending on travel and tourism by Chinese consumers is
expected to outpace every other nation for the next decade, with
the result that China will overtake France, Germany and the U.K.
and rank third in the world in personal travel spending behind the
U.S. and Japan by 2016.
China is already
second in the world behind the U.S. in terms of its annual capital
investment in travel and tourism, and it will overtake the U.S. by
2016, according to the WTTC.
The U.S., however,
is expected to retain a wide lead in terms of spending by
international visitors, though China is expected to be in second
place in the world by 2016.