The latest analysis by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) shows that over the next decade, Beijing will surpass Paris to become the world’s largest travel and tourism city destination.
According to WTTC research, although it seems that the long-term outlook of a number of Chinese cities is positive, on the other hand, prolonged travel restrictions and border closures have slowed recovery in the short term, VisaGuide.World reports.
WTTC also analyzed the impact of the Travel and Tourism sector in four major cities in China which are Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shanghai.
It revealed that last year in these four cities, the sector’s GDP contribution almost fully recovered to 2019 levels.
At the same time, last year, the sector’s GDP contribution to the economy of Beijing and Chengdu was only four percent and two percent below 2019 levels, or $34 billion and $5.4 billion, in comparison to $31 billion and $5.5 billion, respectively.
During the same period, the GDP contribution of Travel and Tourism in Guangzhou and Shanghai was about seven percent below 2019 levels.
As for Guangzhou, the sector contributed $13.2 billion in 2022 compared to $14.1 billion in 2019, while the sector in Shanghai contributed $29.7 billion compared to $31.5 billion before the pandemic.
“China has long been a world-favourite holiday destination and after more than two years of disruption, it’s great to see tourists heading back. Tourists provide a massive boost to both the economy and job creation,” WTTC President & CEO Julia Simpson pointed out in this regard.
She also added that it is very important that national and local governments continue to recognize the importance of Travel and Tourism to local and national economies, jobs and businesses as well.
In 2019, Beijing’s Travel and Tourism sector employed 1.35 million people, while in 2020 this figure fell to 1.16 million or -15 percent. A year later, employment increased by more than five percent and is expected to have increased by a further four percent in 2022 to reach 1.27 million jobs.
Moreover, in a statement issued on February 16, WTTC added that it has detected positive signs of recovery for the Asian Travel and Tourism sector, with five major cities seeing significant economic recovery.
This same report said that the Asian cities with the highest performance last year were Bangkok, Beijing, Seoul, Singapore and Tokyo.
At the same time, data provided by WTTC’s Economic Impact of Cities report shows that during 2019 the Travel and Tourism sector contributed $106.9 billion to the capitals of these five countries.
Before the pandemic, in these five capital cities in Asia, the Travel and Tourism sector employed more than three million people. As a result, Beijing and Bangkok employed more than 1.3 million people in their sectors. Meanwhile, by 2022, the total number of employees in the sector increased to 2.5 million jobs.
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