Travel, tourism job losses seen to soar by 30%

MANILA, Philippines — The number of potential job losses in the global travel and tourism sector due to the coronavirus disease or COVID-19 pandemic has increased by 30 percent, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) said.

Data from the WTTC show that job losses in the global industry could reach up to 100.8 million due to the coronavirus pandemic, higher than the earlier forecast of 75 million.

“The startling figure, based on research from WTTC, has increased by over 30 percent in the last four weeks, indicating the sheer crisis affecting the sector,”WTTC said.

WTTC said it has alerted G20 tourism ministers to the extent of the crisis as almost 75 million the potential job losses are in G20 countries.

“The punishing impact of the COVID-19 crisis has led to over one million jobs already being lost every day,” WTTC said.

Asia registered the highest number of potential job losses at 63.4 million. This was followed by the Americas with 14.1 million and Europe with 13 million.

Meanwhile, Africa is projected to register 7.6 million in job losses, while Middle East is seen to have 2.6 million job losses.

The potential economic loss of the travel and tourism sector to the world economy could reach $2.7 trillion of GDP, higher than the $2.1 trillion just projected a month ago.

“This is a staggering and deeply worrying change in such a short time. In just the last month alone, our research shows an increase of 25 million in the number of job losses in travel and tourism. The whole cycle of tourism is being wiped out by the pandemic,”WTTC president Gloria Guevara said.

“Travel and tourism is the backbone of the global economy. Without it, global economies will struggle to recover in any meaningful way and hundreds of millions of people will suffer enormous financial and mental damage for years to come,” she pointed out.

In the past five years, the Asia-Pacific region was a world leader in job creation, with travel and tourism creating more than 21 million new jobs, accounting for 56 percent of all new jobs globally.