Highly regarded for their annual Economic Impact Report
highlighting the changes and growth taking place worldwide in the travel and
tourism sector, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC)
has revealed largely positive projections for travel and tourism investment of
the G20 countries.
Increased investment will see the industry become a $15.5
trillion economy by 2033.
Leading up to the pandemic, Saudi Arabia was significantly investing
in its tourist sector, topping $40 billion by 2015. Though the COVID pandemic saw the destination curtail its investment, in 2024, Saudi Arabia is
projected to invest nearly $50 billion in the travel and tourism sector
and will likely exceed that by 2025.
By 2027, projections see Saudi Arabia
investing over $60 billion in the sector.
The U.S. was also seeing significant year-over-year
increases in tourism
investment exceeding $235 billion in 2017, 2018 and 2019. At the onset of the
pandemic, however, the U.S. cooled its sector investment but has steadily
increased the investment and is projected to top $240 billion this year and
continue to increase three to seven percent year-over-year with expectations
that investment will exceed $300 billion by 2030.
New York City's Time Square. (photo by Patrick Clarke)
Steadily investing in the travel and tourism sector from
2010 onward, the UK saw over $26 billion invested in 2018. Current projections
indicate the country is planning to invest significantly in 2024 and 2025 with
an expected investment of over $25 billion in 2025. Looking forward, the sector
is projected to see moderate growth by a small percentage not to exceed $28
billion over the next decade.
Based on WTTC data, Argentina’s investment in travel and
tourism largely remained steady between 2009 and 2019 with an annual investment
averaging approximately $7 billion annually. While Argentina is seeing
significant year-over-year increases since the pandemic, the country’s
investment in its tourism sector is not projected to exceed $7 billion in any
year over the next decade.
Russia predicted to increase investment in travel and
tourism exceeding its pre-pandemic (2019) investment by 2.85 percent for a
projected total of $9.02 billion in 2025.
Canada’s investment in the travel and tourism sector peaked
in 2016 when the country topped $20 billion. Subsequent years showed
significant decreases, and by 2021 investment was down to approximately $10
billion. The country however is projected to invest incrementally more over the
next few years and projected to reach $20 billion in investment by 2030.
2023 showed significant percentage increases in investment
as countries allocated more funding towards the travel and tourism sector and the
industry continued to recover from the impact of the pandemic.
In 2024, WTTC projects significant growth across the sector.
Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia and
South Africa are all projected to see a 10 percent increase in 2024. Meanwhile,
Brazil is only expected to see a 3.3 percent increase with subsequent years to only
see increases of 2 percent year-over-year.
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