Major research conducted by World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the global body which represents the private sector of Travel & Tourism, has revealed Travel & Tourism was the fastest growing sector in Turkey last year at 15%, contributing $96bn to the nation’s economy.
The ‘Benchmarking’ study from WTTC, compares the industry’s economic impact to eight other key sectors (Agriculture, Mining, Health, Automotive Manufacturing, Retail, Financial Services, Banking, and Construction), across 26 countries and 10 world regions.
The report, sponsored by American Express, reveals that in Turkey, of the sectors studied and driven by improvements in safety following a difficult period, Travel & Tourism is the second largest sector in terms of GDP contribution (12.1%), ahead of Agriculture (10.2%) and Financial Services (7.8%), just behind Construction (19.6%).
Travel & Tourism’s contribution to employment during 2018 was 7.7%, ahead of both Financial Services and Banking at 3.3% and 2.0% respectively.
The Global Picture
Accounting for 10.4% (US$ 8.8 trillion) of total global GDP in 2018, Travel & Tourism’s contribution to GDP was 1.4 times higher than Agriculture (7.7% contribution), 1.5 times higher than Banking (7.1% contribution) and Automotive Manufacturing (6.8% contribution) and 1.7 times higher than Mining (6.0% contribution).
Among those analyzed, Travel & Tourism was the fastest growing sector in 2018, increasing 3.9%, ahead of Automotive manufacturing (3.7%) and Health (3.3%), and higher than the global economy growth rate (3.2%) for the eighth consecutive year. Strong growth in Travel & Tourism is driven by the continued rise in the number of middle-class households, solid growth in global consumer spending, low unemployment rates, continued rebound from security threats, currency depreciation and visa relaxation in several countries around the world.
Meanwhile, Travel & Tourism contributes 319 million jobs (10% of all jobs) to global employment, ahead of Financial services (9.1%) and Health (7.4%).
Gloria Guevara, President & CEO, WTTC said: “After a difficult period, Turkey is firmly back on the map and is once again attracting millions of international visitors to its shores each year. Travel & Tourism is an incredibly important sector in Turkey, not only for its contribution to GDP but also to employment.”
