(TAN): G20 tourism ministers hosted more than 45 CEOs and members of WTTC, who presented their plan to save the embattled travel & tourism sector and 100 million jobs globally.
During its G20 chairmanship of the Tourism Track, Saudi Arabia had requested the collaboration of the global travel and tourism sector on developing insights to help accelerate the global recovery. Accordingly WTTC presented a plan which aims to restart international Travel & Tourism and recover 100 million jobs globally.
The private sector event was opened by Ahmed Al Khateeb, Saudi Arabia’s tourism minister and chair of the G20 Tourism Track and WTTC President & CEO Gloria Guevara.
This was followed by a keynote from Chris Nassetta, president & CEO of Hilton and WTTC chair and contributions from CEOs and ministers representing all regions of the world, including Argentina, UK, UAE, Singapore and Spain, who joined the private sector with a unified voice to agree that through joint collaboration, the recovery of travel & tourism can be accelerated.
[ALSO READ: Domestic tourism spurt in China worries experts]
Gloria Guevara, WTTC president & CEO, said: “This historic meeting provided the best platform to establish public and private collaboration which will lead to rebuilding a sector which has been devastated by the pandemic.”
Ahmed Al Khateeb welcomed the initiative saying, “On behalf of the G20 Tourism Ministers, I commend the World Travel & Tourism Council and the global travel and tourism sector for their efforts to put people first during the global pandemic, by collaborating at the industry-level and with the public sector to put in place concrete actions that will protect millions of jobs and livelihoods, while ensuring that the sector is more resilient to crises in the future.”
Alexandre de Juniac, director general, IATA, stressed on the importance of testing to eliminate quarantines. “It is critical that governments and industry work together to safely re-open borders with systematic COVID-19 testing. Some 46 million jobs are at risk,” he said.
The recovery plan, presented by WTTC, includes twelve points for the private sector and twelve for the public sector, focusing on measures to reactivate international travel.
Chris Nassetta, WTTC chairman and Hilton president and CEO, said, “I’m encouraged by the progress we’re seeing around the world and look forward to the continued collective efforts to support our stakeholders and promote the incredible impact our industry creates for communities globally.”
WTTC’s 2020 Economic Impact Report had shown that the travel & tourism sector would be critical to the recovery. It had revealed that during 2019, travel & tourism was responsible for one in 10 jobs (330 million in total), making a 10.3% contribution to global GDP and generating one in four of all new jobs.
It is also one of the most diverse sectors in the world, employing people of all socio-economic levels, regardless of gender or ethnicity, employing 54% women and 30% young people.
Related posts:
UK’s new hotel quarantine measures will ‘destroy the travel & tourism sector as we know it’, says WTTC
US still the biggest travel and tourism market despite 41% slide in GDP: WTTC
UK tourism sector may only recover by a third this year: WTTC
North American Travel & Tourism sector’s recovery better than many other regions, says WTTC
