The Global Headlines
– Travel & Tourism experienced 3.5% growth in 2019, ahead of global growth of 2.5% for the 9th consecutive year.
– Over the past five years, 1 in 4 new jobs were created by Travel & Tourism, making it the best partner for governments to generate employment
– Travel & Tourism’s direct, indirect and induced impact accounted for:
– $8.9T contribution to the world’s GDP
– 10.3% of global GDP
– 330M jobs, 1 in 10 jobs around the world
– $1.7T visitor exports (6.8% of total exports, 28.3% of global services exports)
– $948B capital investment (4.3% of total investment)
The US Headlines
$1.1T – Total domestic and international inbound traveler direct spending in the U.S. which generated a total (direct, indirect, induced) spend of $2.6T in economic output. Spending by resident and international travelers in the U.S. averaged $3.1B a day, $128.6M an hour, $2.1M a minute and $35,700 a second
15.8M – Jobs supported by travel expenditures (includes 9.0M directly in the travel industry and 6.8M in other industries)
$277.4B – Wages shared by American workers directly employed by travel
$179.7B – Tax revenue generated by travel spending for federal, state and local governments
2.9% – Percent of US GDP attributed to travel and tourism
1 out of 10 – U.S. jobs depend on travel and tourism (U.S. non-farm jobs directly and indirectly relying on the travel industry)
2.3B – Number of trips that Americans took for business and leisure
83% – Percent of travel companies considered small businesses (2015)
79M – International arrivals in the U.S.
Top 10 – Travel is among the top 10 industries in 49 states and D.C. in terms of employment
The US Details
Leisure Travel
– Direct spending on leisure travel by domestic and international travelers totaled $792.4B
– Spending on leisure travel generated $124.6B in tax revenue
– 4 out of 5 domestic trips taken are for leisure purposes
– U.S. residents logged 1.9B leisure trips
– Direct jobs responsible for – 6.5M
Business Travel
– Direct spending on business travel by domestic and international travelers totaled $334.2B.
– Spending on business travel generated $55.1B in tax revenue
– 1 out of 5 domestic trips taken are for business purposes (assumption)
– U.S. residents logged 464.4M business trips
– Direct jobs responsible for – 2.5M
International Travel
– U.S. Travel Exports (includes general travel spending, international passenger fares, as well as international traveler spending on medical, educational and cross‐ border/seasonal work‐related activities) totaled $255B … U.S. Travel Imports totaled $196B … = $59 billion travel trade surplus
– International arrivals to the U.S. = 79M
– US share of international arrivals is 5.4% (down from 6.4% in 2015)
– US share of global long‐haul travel is 11.3% (down from 13.7% in 2015)
– International travel spending directly supported about 1.2 million U.S. jobs and $33.6 billion in wages.
– Each overseas traveler spends $4,200 when they visit the U.S. and stays 18 nights
– Overseas arrivals represent half of international arrivals, yet account for 84% of total international travel spending
The US Impacts
– U.S. domestic travel increased 1.7% from 2018 to a total of 2.3B trips in 2019.
– The power of travel to create jobs is much greater than other industries. Every $1M in sales of travel goods and services directly generates eight jobs for the industry (In contrast, every $1M in total non-farm industry sales creates five jobs on average)
– Travel accounts for 7% of total private industry employment in the U.S, directly supporting 9M jobs
– Economic impact of travel – Travelers produce “multiplier” impact on U.S. economy = $2.6T total travel-related output leveraging three inputs:
– Direct: Spending on travel goods and services (creates travel industry employment/payroll)
– Indirect: Travel Industry buys inputs and supplies to meet traveler demand (creates other industry employment/payroll)
– Induced: Consumer spending by the employees of travel industry and their suppliers creates additional employment/payroll