The Travel & Tourism sector is delivering soaring employment opportunities to women and young people around the world, according to new research. A recent report shows that the 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%.

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.

The report from the World Travel & Tourism Council in conjunction with the Sustainable Tourism Global Center (STGC) also found hospitality to be the leading employer of women within the sector, accounting for more than half of female employment.

Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO, said: “For the first time ever, we can show that the sector has an incredibly positive impact globally, supporting more high wage jobs, a level playing field for women, and provides long-term, sustainable, economically attractive jobs to young people across the world.”

The report provides a regional breakdown of employment across Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific, and is the first analysis of Travel & Tourism’s global social footprint, broken down by age, gender and income.

Women in Travel & Tourism (highlights)

The report reveals that the sector employed a marginally higher share of women compared to other sectors globally in 2021 – 39.3% compared to a 39.2% average.

According to the report, hospitality is the leading employer within the Travel & 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 & Tourism employment than the economy-wide workforce in Asia-Pacific and the Americas. The share of women working in Travel & Tourism in Africa has been rising since 2010, and female employment across the economy in the Middle East has also grown significantly.

Youth in Travel & Tourism

At the same time, 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%.

Notably, in all the years analysed, more than half of the global youth employment in the Travel & Tourism sector was in the Asia-Pacific region, at 9.2 million in 2021. With a youth employment growth rate of nearly 37% between 2010 and 2019, the region outpaced all other areas which were all closer to 20%.

High wage jobs

In 2021, nearly 34% of jobs in the global Travel & 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 (38.7%), followed by Africa (36.2%), and the Americas (30.6%).