Member Article

Travel and tourism are economy's heroes

The UK travel and tourism industry outperformed the UK economy in 2012, according to research from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).

Research shows the industry grew its contribution to GDP by 0.5%, compared with 0.1% whole GDP growth.

According to the WTTC, the total economic contribution of travel and tourism was £106.3bn in GDP; £8.9BN in investment; and £25.3bn in exports.

David Scowsill, President & CEO of WTTC, said: “Travel and Tourism has been a real hero for the British economy this year. The UK is the only European G20 country where Travel & Tourism outperformed its economy in 2012.

“The growth and saviour of the industry in the UK this year was leisure spending and this is very likely to have been driven by recent events such as The Royal Wedding, the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics.

“This year’s results hammer home that Travel & Tourism is an important driver for UK economic development and for job creation. But the UK’s restrictive visa and tax regimes are holding back further economic growth. The British Government is charging the highest Air Passenger Duty tax in the world, insisting on lengthy and costly visa application processes, whilst postponing decisions on key infrastructure expansion.

“WTTC is calling on the UK Government to loosen visa bureaucracy, reduce high air passenger duty and improve airport capacity. The UK government is not maximising the opportunity that this industry provides to stimulate job creation and economic growth.”

Among the 20 largest global economies, South Korea, China, South Africa and Indonesia all performed best, in terms of travel and tourism.

Growth of less than 1% in Europe and 2% in the United States was counter-balanced by 10% growth in South Korea, 7% in China and South Africa and 6% in Indonesia.

David noted that China is forecast to overtake the US to be the world’s biggest travel and tourism economy by 2023.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .