The global travel and tourism sector is increasingly providing women and young people employment opportunities, according to new research published by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
Initiated by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Tourism and together with the Sustainable Tourism Global Centre (STGC), the WTTC has produced the first analysis of the sector globally, breaking down the data by region and by gender, age and income.
Across travel and tourism, the report has found hospitality to be leading the way in the employment of women, with an increase in employment of 24 per cent between 2010 and 2019.
While the sector as a whole was slightly above average in the employment of women, at 39.3 per cent compared with the 39.2 per cent average, hospitality showed an employment rate of women of 52 per cent.
Further, while the employment of young people across all sectors fell globally from 16.5 per cent in 2010 to 12.5 per cent in 2021, young workers accounted for 15 per cent of all jobs in the travel and tourism sector in both 2010 and 2021.
The report revealed that over all the years analysed, more than half of the global youth employment in the Travel & Tourism sector was in the Asia-Pacific region, at 9.2 million in 2021.
The Asia-Pacific region also held the largest proportion of high wage jobs in the sector (38.7pc), followed by Africa (36.2pc), and the Americas (30.6pc).
Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia H.E Ahmed Al Khateeb commented “Providing insights and data on the sector’s status quo, the report allows countries and regions to set clear goals to empower women and engage youth.”
WTTC President and CEO Julia Simpson said, “For the first time ever, we can show that the sector has an incredibly positive impact globally, supporting more high wage jobs, a level playing field for women, and provides long-term, sustainable, economically attractive jobs to young people across the world.”
