Travel and tourism forecast to rebound to pre-pandemic levels in 2023, says forum in Philippines

Tourists at the main beach of Boracay, Aklan, the Philippines, on Wednesday, March 23, 2022. Almost 100,000 tourists arrived in the five weeks through March as the Philippines reopened to 157 visa-free countries, the Manila Bulletin reports, citing Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat. - Bloomberg

MANILA, Apr 23 (dpa): The global travel and tourism sector’s contribution to the world economy was expected to rebound to pre-pandemic levels by 2023 to US$9.6 trillion, industry experts said in a forum in the Philippines this week.

In 2022, the sector was forecast to contribute $8.35 trillion to the world’s gross domestic product (GDP), compared to $5.8 trillion last year, Julia Simpson, president and CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council, told a global summit in Manila.

"This year, we are gaining ground,” she said.

"We are getting there, and our customers are rediscovering travel.”

Simpson said the sector was also expected to provide 324 million jobs in 2023, which was almost pre-pandemic levels. In 2022, travel and tourism employment was projected to reach 300 million, up from 298 million in 2021.

The global travel and tourism industry was among the worst hit sectors by the Covid-19 pandemic, with earnings dropping by more than 50% in 2020, Simpson said, citing data from the global economic impact report by Oxford University.

The report also forecasts that in the next 10 years, the sector would grow by an average of 5.8%, outstripping global GDP growth, Simpson said.

"It means that a sector that was badly damaged in Covid is not only going to come back by 2023, but in the next 10 years, it is going to motor ahead of global GDP,” she added.

The three-day global summit in Manila was being attended by more than 1,000 delegates, and is the first international conference to be held in the Philippines since the country closed its borders due to Covid-19 in 2020. - dpa