Published on : Saturday, March 9, 2019
The larger manufacturing sector saw its contribution to global GDP grow four per cent in 2018, only slightly ahead of the 3.9 per cent growth of travel and tourism. The next-fastest growing sector of the global economy last year was the construction industry, generally regarded to still be a boom cycle despite slowing growth in China. Its impact on global GDP expanded at a rate of 3.4 per cent last year. Two other sectors generally regarded as fast-growing sectors saw their contribution to global DGP at a slower rate than travel and tourism. Retail and wholesale grew at a rate of 3.3 per cent in 2018 while healthcare grew 3.1 per cent.
Overall, travel and tourism generated 10.4 per cent of the world’s total economic activity in 2018. That worldwide growth was greatly aided by rapid growth of travel and tourism in regions such as Oceania (Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Southwest Pacific islands), Southeast Asia, India and China.
North America, including Canada, Mexico and the United States, remains the third-largest travel and tourism market. Last year it contributed $1.9 trillion in total economic activity, up 8.2 per cent from 2017. The largest region in terms of travel and tourism economic impact last year was the European market, which generated $2.2 trillion worth of travel and tourism-related economic activity. Northeast Asia, which includes China, ranked second with $2.1 trillion in travel and tourism-driven economic activity last year.
Among the 10 largest travel and tourism regions in the world, North America is growing slowest. The fastest-growing is the Caribbean region, which saw travel and tourism generate $62 billion, or 15.5 per cent more economic activity than in 2017. Southeast Asia’s travel and tourism sector saw its economic activity rise 12.2 per cent, to $373 billion. The rest:
Individually, the United States remains the largest travel and tourism market when considering individual nations rather than regions. Travel and tourism contributed $1.6 trillion to the nation’s GDP. That’s equal to 7.8 percent of the U.S. economy. The sector grew in this country last year by 2.2 percent.
Tags: Travel & Tourism