48 million women employed in tourism sector
Travel Biz News —
New research from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and Sustainable Tourism Global Center (STGC), initiated by the Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia, reveals that the global Travel & Tourism sector is delivering soaring employment opportunities to women and young people around the world.
The report shows that the travel and tourism sector directly employed a rapidly rising number of women between 2010 and 2019, increasing from 38.6 million to 47.8 million, an increase of 24%.
It also found hospitality to be the leading employer of women within the sector, accounting for more than half of female employment.
Young workers are shown as an important component of the sector’s workforce, representing 15% of all jobs in the sector in both 2010 and 2021.
By contrast, the share of young workers in overall global employment fell from 16.5% in 2010 to 12.5% in 2021, highlighting the importance of Travel & Tourism to youth employment.
According to the report, hospitality is the leading employer within the travel and tourism sector for women, accounting for more than half (52%) of all female employment in 2019.
Around the world, women make up a larger share of travel and tourism employment than the economy-wide workforce in Asia-Pacific and the Americas. The share of women working in travel and tourism in Africa has been rising since 2010, and female employment across the economy in the Middle East has also grown significantly, according to a release issued by London- based WTTC.
The research highlights the consistent, steady growth of young people employed directly by the sector over the last decade, with a total of 39.7 million jobs supported by Travel & Tourism around the world in 2019, up 28% since 2010.
However, this figure was significantly impacted by COVID-19, where youth employment dropped 27%.
In 2021, nearly 34% of jobs in the global travel and tourism sector were categorised as high wage, an increase from 29.6% in 2010.
Regionally, Asia-Pacific had the largest share of high wage jobs in the sector , followed by Africa and the Americas.
December 30 , 2023 Photo by WTTC
