WTTC Delegates: Travel and Tourism Has Potential to Create 5 Million New Jobs

WTTC Delegates: Travel and Tourism Has Potential to Create 5 Million New Jobs

Travel and Tourism could create an additional five million new jobs worldwide — that was the message driven home in the opening sessions of today’s inaugural WTTC Americas Summit.

In the Presidential Perspective, CBS Travel Editor Peter Greenberg interviewed President Calderón, who spoke about his recent participation in T20, a conference that took place May 15 and 16 with tourism ministers from 20 of the most developed economies in the world. The objective of the T20 Meeting was to devise proposals, harnessing the tourism industry to fuel job creation, as part of the lead up to the G20 Leaders Summit which will take place in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, on June 18th and 19th.

David Scowsill, President and CEO of the WTTC noted that travel and tourism is responsible for 9% of the world’s GDP, 255 million jobs and $6 trillion in revenue — but potential must be exploited further. “An extra five million jobs could be created over a three-year period,” he said.

A key to enabling greater growth in the sector is visa reform, Scowsill noted. “The burdensome visa process is holding back tourism,” he told delegates.

During the session for the update of the T20, Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of the UNWTO, noted the contradictory positions taken by many nations, who spend money to promote tourism “and then we spend more money in preventing people coming to our countries. It doesn’t make sense. Do we want people to come to our countries or don’t we want people to come?”