World Tourism Council forecasts modest drop in business this year

LONDON — The travel and tourism sector is set for a modest slowdown in 2018 as a result of higher oil prices and airfares, a year after it experienced its best year on record, according to a leading global industry body.

In its annual Economic Impact Report, the World Travel and Tourism Council said Thursday that the sector was responsible for the creation of seven million new jobs worldwide in 2017, or one in five new jobs.

That was due largely to the fact that the sector outperformed the global economy for the seventh year running, growing by 4.6 per cent against three per cent. The sector, according to the organization, outperformed all others.

“2017 was the best year on record for the travel and tourism sector,” said Gloria Guevara, president and CEO of the WTTC.

“We have seen increased spending as a result of growing consumer confidence, both domestically and internationally, recovery in markets in North Africa and Europe previously impacted by terrorism and continued outbound growth from China and India.”

Though the WTTC forecasts 2018 growth of four per cent as a result of higher oil prices and airfares as well as expectations of rising interest rates in countries such as the U.S. and the U.K., it kept its longterm forecasts unchanged, with average annual growth of 3.8 per cent over the next decade.

By then, it expects the sector to support more than 400 million jobs globally, or one in nine of all jobs.