Travel and Tourism at a Turning Point: Principles for Transformative Growth, produced in partnership with management consulting firm Kearney, was released by the international non-government think tank and advocacy body this month.
The report posits that traveling to attend public events “is growing at double-digit rates”. In particular sports tourism – encompassing both travel to watch sporting events as a spectator or travelling to participate in a sporting event – will have a compound annual growth rate of 16 per cent between 2023 and 2032 – rising from $609 billion to over $1.7 trillion. Interestingly, digital content and social media are considered a key catalyst for this growth.
Meanwhile business events are expected to have a compound growth rate of nine per cent between this year and 2030. According to figures cited by the report, the business events sector was worth $870 billion in 2024.
The other two growth drivers identified by the report were ecotourism – with an expected 14 per cent growth rate to 2032 – and wellness tourism, with an eight per cent growth rate to 2034.
For the visitor economy more broadly, the report posits the sector will be growing 1.5 times faster than the global economic average by 2034 and will contribute $16 trillion to worldwide GDP by the same year, representing a share of global GDP above 11 per cent, compared to around 10 per cent in 2023.
However, the report also flags numerous challenges associated with visitor economy growth going forward, including a visitor-to-resident ratio that could grow by as much as 50 per cent and the impact of travel growth on the environment, including the sector potentially becoming responsible for 15 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions and seven per cent of solid waste globally.
The report also suggests more than 100 million additional jobs in tourism will need to be filled in order to service the visitor economy growth expected by 2034.
The geographic areas driving this growth are also worth noting, with the report positing that 25 per cent of international travellers will be from just two countries by 2034 – China and India.
Asia is also forecast to see the largest visitor economy growth, “fundamentally shifting global tourism dynamics”. According to the report, “such growth could position Asia as one of the globe’s epicentres while potentially becoming a dominant force in setting international standards and practices”.
