by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 7:00 AM ET, Wed February 11, 2026
Gloria Guevara, President and CEO, World Travel & Tourism Council. (Photo Credit: WTTC)
Gloria Guevara, former President & CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council, was recently reappointed to the role after Julia Simpson stepped down from her role following an illness that was announced later last year.
Guevara, now reprising her role at WTTC, is working to encourage and direct the travel and tourism industry around the world to solve the myriad challenges 2026—and the years to come—may bring.
She spoke with TravelPulse about all of these topics.
TravelPulse (TP:) You are returning to your former position as President & CEO of WTTC. How does it feel to be returning to your former role? Has the organization changed since your time as its leader?
Gloria Guevara (GG): It is a great honor to return to WTTC following one of the strongest years on record for private businesses and organizations across global travel & tourism. Our members are WTTC’s most valuable asset and the very reason for the organization’s existence. Our role is to support them and work alongside them to unlock their full potential, enabling investment, creating jobs, and ensuring the prosperity generated by travel & tourism is shared across more destinations around the world.
My mandate is to refocus WTTC on what our members need most, aligning our work with their priorities so they can maximize growth, resilience, and long-term value. This includes strengthening collaboration between the public and private sectors and ensuring WTTC remains globally representative, impactful, and relevant.
This is a defining moment for travel & tourism. The sector is growing again, but how we manage that growth will determine its resilience, inclusivity, and long-term success.
TP: What do you expect are some new challenges the industry will face in the years ahead?
GG: As outlined in our 2025 report Future of Travel & Tourism Workforce, one of the biggest challenges facing the industry is the global labor shortage — with a 43 million shortfall in people needed to fill the expected 91 million new jobs by 2035.
China, India, and the European Union face the biggest shortfalls of 16.9 million, 11 million, and 6.4 million workers respectively. It’s a similar story for Japan’s Travel & Tourism sector, where demand for skilled people is expected to outstrip supply by 29%. Meanwhile, Greece and Germany will likely experience respective shortfalls of 27% and 26%.
The hospitality industry alone is expected to face a gap of 8.6 million workers, around 18% below required staffing levels. Low-skilled roles — which are essential to the sector — will remain in high demand, with more than 20 million additional workers needed. Roles requiring human interaction and service will continue to be critical and difficult to automate.
While workforce shortages are a major concern, our members are clear that they are operating in an increasingly complex environment. Traveler journeys remain fragmented, inconsistent and inefficient — from visas and border processes to identity systems and connectivity.
Members are also grappling with uneven digital transformation and AI adoption, growing climate and environmental pressures, and disruptions driven by geopolitics, pandemics and extreme weather events. In parts of Europe and elsewhere, unmanaged visitor growth has led to overcrowding, placing pressure on infrastructure and creating tension between travelers and local communities.
Another major concern for our members and the wider industry is the potential impact of proposed changes to the U.S. ESTA program, which would require wider social media disclosures.
Our research shows this could directly reduce international travel demand, materially weaken the U.S. Travel & Tourism economy, and result in up to 157,000 job losses — equivalent to the number of jobs typically created in a single quarter. There is also potential for a US$15.7 billion drop in visitor spending.
These changes would further weaken inbound travel to a market that has already lost 11 million visitors between 2019 and 2025. Even modest shifts in traveler behavior due to increased friction can have significant economic consequences in a highly competitive global market.
More broadly, any increase in friction — whether through visas, border processes or travel requirements — directly affects demand, destination competitiveness, and growth.
TP: How do you think WTTC and its industry partners will try and solve those challenges?
GG: We must work closely with our members and partners to identify practical solutions that allow the industry to overcome these obstacles together. WTTC’s role is to convene, provide evidence, and help turn shared challenges into coordinated action.
In practical terms, this means focusing on tangible initiatives such as:
—Advancing seamless and secure travel, including smarter borders, digital visas, and biometric-enabled journeys to reduce friction and improve traveler experience
—Strengthening workforce resilience, by treating workforce planning as economic infrastructure— as essential to growth as airports, roads and digital connectivity
—Accelerating digital and AI adoption, particularly to support smaller operators and emerging destinations
—Addressing overcrowding and overtourism, especially in Europe, by promoting better destination management, visitor dispersal strategies, and year-round tourism models
—Enhancing crisis preparedness, ensuring the sector can respond quickly and effectively to geopolitical, health, or climate-related disruptions
On workforce shortages, our research outlines several strategies: inspiring young people by showcasing diverse career pathways; strengthening collaboration between educators and industry to align training with employer needs; improving retention through leadership development, clear progression pathways, and inclusive workplace cultures; and investing in digital literacy.
We also recommend AI adoption and sustainable practices to prepare workers for future requirements, alongside flexible workforce policies such as reducing barriers to international recruitment and combining part-time roles into full-time positions.
TP: Recently, WTTC has launched a hotel sustainability program and reported on the economic impact of tourism on countries throughout the world. Will this change, or expand, in any way?
GG: Sustainability is a top priority for our members and central to how they think about long-term competitiveness, resilience and value creation. WTTC’s role is to support them with practical tools and frameworks that turn ambition into action.
That is why we launched the WTTC Hotel Sustainability Basics program in 2023. Today, more than 5,000 properties across 80+ countries are signed up, including leading hotel groups across Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia Pacific.
The program guides hoteliers through a 12-step framework focused on reducing carbon emissions, energy, water and waste, while ensuring local communities benefit from hotel operations.
Our ambition is to continue expanding the program and reach even more properties globally. Sustainability and economic performance are no longer separate conversations — destinations that manage growth responsibly are the ones that will remain competitive over the long term.
Beyond hotels, WTTC supports industry-wide decarbonization pathways and net-zero roadmaps, helping businesses measure and reduce emissions across their operations and value chains.
We also produce sustainability research, data and guidance covering climate, water, energy and social issues. Our Sustainability Reporting Readiness Roadmap, developed with Oliver Wyman, helps travel & tourism businesses navigate reporting frameworks, compliance requirements and implementation challenges.
Looking ahead, we will do more — scaling practical sustainability programs, supporting destinations as well as businesses, and ensuring sustainability delivers real benefits for communities, workers and local economies.
As for tourism’s economic impact, 2025 marked a major milestone, with travel & tourism contributing US$11.7 trillion to global GDP — 10.3% of the global economy — exceeding pre-pandemic levels and growing 6.7% year-on-year.
More than 1.5 billion people travelled internationally in 2025, an increase of 80 million compared with 2024. With 91 million new jobs expected by 2035, the sector’s outlook is extremely positive — provided we can fill those roles with skilled workers.
TP: What do you expect WTTC to focus on in the years ahead – in terms of research and other important focuses?
GG: WTTC’s research will continue to focus on the issues that matter most to our members and governments, combining economic insight with forward-looking analysis.
While workforce challenges remain critical, our research agenda goes well beyond labor shortages. We are increasingly focused on how technology, AI and smarter border management can unlock growth, improve security and enhance traveler experience.
Recent WTTC research shows that “better borders” — through digitized visas, digital identities and biometric technologies — could add US$401 billion to global GDP and create 14 million jobs across G20, the EU and Africa by 2035. Countries such as the U.S., the UAE and Australia are already demonstrating how modern border management drives efficiency and economic growth.
We will also expand research on destination management, sustainability, resilience and the evolving expectations of travelers and communities. WTTC’s role is to bring governments and the private sector together around evidence-based solutions that unlock growth while protecting destinations and the people who live and work in them.
TP: What do you think are the major things the travel industry should be focusing on this year?
GG: Building the workforce of tomorrow remains essential — but it must go hand-in-hand with destination stewardship and better management of growth. The industry needs to do more to communicate the positive impact travel & tourism delivers — in jobs, investment, cultural exchange and community development — while also addressing the pressures tourism can create.
WTTC will support members and destinations in adopting a more inclusive approach to planning — bringing together governments, businesses, local communities and residents. By involving all stakeholders, destinations can balance visitor demand with quality of life, protect shared resources, and ensure tourism delivers long-term benefits for everyone.
If we get workforce, mobility, seamless travel and destination stewardship right, the sector’s growth potential over the next decade is enormous — and it can be achieved in a way that is sustainable, resilient and inclusive.
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