The global Travel & Tourism sector employs more people than automotive manufacturing, mining and financial services combined globally, according to new research from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).

The Benchmarking Report 2015 compares Travel & Tourism to eight other sectors, which are considered to have similar breadth and global presence, across 26 countries.

The report shows that Travel & Tourism comes third out of the eight researched sectors, after retail and agriculture. The industry supported 277 million jobs in 2014, which is 9.4% of world employment.

With 105 million people directly employed in 2014, the industry globally employs:
• 7 times more than automotive manufacturing (14 million)
• 5 times more than chemicals manufacturing (20 million)
• 4 times more than banking (27 million)
• 4 times more than mining (27 million)
• 2 times more than financial services (59 million)

According to the report, Travel & Tourism is the second-fastest growing sector globally. Forecast to grow at 3.9% per annum over the next ten years, this industry’s growth will outpace the global economy, which is estimated to increase by 2.9% per annum over the next decade.

The research shows that Travel & Tourism, generating US$ 7.6 trillion in contribution to GDP in 2014, is the fourth largest sector after mining, financial services and retail respectively. At 9.8% of global GDP, Travel & Tourism generates more economic output than chemicals manufacturing, agriculture, education, automotive manufacturing, and banking.

David Scowsill, President & CEO, WTTC, said:
“This research demonstrates the huge importance of Travel & Tourism in creating jobs around the world. It shows that this industry provides more jobs than automotive manufacturing, mining and financial services combined. It confirms that our sector is one of the biggest contributors to global GDP, and significantly is forecast to outpace the global economy every year over the next decade.”