The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has recently revealed that the United States Travel and Tourism sector is expected to surpass 2019’s peak this year.
According to WTTC report, the sector will contribute with an amount of $2.24 TN to the US economy in 2023, surpassing the pre-pandemic peak of $2.17 TN, VisaGuide.World reports.
In addition, the WTTC forecast shows that this year the sector will create more than 1.2 million jobs, recovering almost all of the tourism jobs lost due to the Coronavirus to reach 17.4 million.
In 2022, the GDP contribution of the Travel and Tourism sector increased by 16.9 percent to reach more than two TN, representing 7.9 percent of the US economy and approaching the 2019 level of 2.17 TN.
During the same period, the sector also created 2.7 million jobs to reach 16.17 million jobs nationally – one in ten jobs across America. In addition, the sector has now managed to recover 6.75 million of the eight million jobs lost during the pandemic.
Based on figures provided by the WTTC, spending by international travelers to the US during 2022 will increase by 158 percent. At the same time, international visitors spent almost $116 billion.
However, the recovery of international visitors is still 43.4 percent behind 2019 when they spent more than $204 billion.
Commenting on these data, WTTC President and CEO Julia Simpson emphasized that this year the US expects tourism to add more than $2.2 trillion to its economy.
She also revealed that the number of jobs created by Travel & Tourism is 16 million, but by the end of this year, it will reach almost 17.4 million jobs, which is only one percent behind the figures of 2019.
Meanwhile, last year the value of the sector was worth 2.01 TN compared to 2.17 TN in 2019.
“International visitor spend is still lagging and despite the recent surge, we are still lagging 25 percent behind 2019 levels,” Simpson also noted.
Moreover, according to the World Tourism Organization, the sector will increase its contribution to GDP to more than $3 TN by 2033, which is ten percent of the US economy, and will employ almost 21 million people across the country. .
The North American Travel and Tourism sector contributed $2.34 TN in 2022 to the regional economy, which is only seven percent below the 2019 peak. As a result, WTTC predicts that the region’s GDP contribution from the sector will fully recover this year to reach $2.59 TN.
Last year, the sector employed 24.7 million people across the region, marking an increase of 3.6 million, but still 1.5 million behind the 2019 peak.
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