WTTC Shares Travel & Tourism Investment Projections for G20 Members

13.02.2024 - 19:33 / travelpulse.com / Patrick Clarke / Noreen Kompanik

Highly regarded for their annual Economic Impact Report highlighting the changes and growth taking place worldwide in the travel and tourism sector, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has revealed largely positive projections for travel and tourism investment of the G20 countries.

Increased investment will see the industry become a $15.5 trillion economy by 2033.

Leading up to the pandemic, Saudi Arabia was significantly investing in its tourist sector, topping $40 billion by 2015. Though the COVID pandemic saw the destination curtail its investment, in 2024, Saudi Arabia is projected to invest nearly $50 billion in the travel and tourism sector and will likely exceed that by 2025.

By 2027, projections see Saudi Arabia investing over $60 billion in the sector.

The U.S. was also seeing significant year-over-year increases in tourism investment exceeding $235 billion in 2017, 2018 and 2019. At the onset of the pandemic, however, the U.S. cooled its sector investment but has steadily increased the investment and is projected to top $240 billion this year and continue to increase three to seven percent year-over-year with expectations that investment will exceed $300 billion by 2030.

New York City's Time Square. (photo by Patrick Clarke)

Steadily investing in the travel and tourism sector from 2010 onward, the UK saw over $26 billion invested in 2018. Current projections indicate the country is planning to invest significantly in 2024 and 2025 with an expected investment of over $25 billion in 2025. Looking forward, the sector is projected to see moderate growth by a small percentage not to exceed $28 billion over the next decade.

Based on WTTC data, Argentina’s investment in travel and tourism largely remained steady between 2009 and 2019 with an annual investment averaging approximately $7 billion annually. While Argentina is seeing significant year-over-year increases since the pandemic, the country’s investment in its tourism sector is not projected to exceed $7 billion in any year over the next decade.

Russia predicted to increase investment in travel and tourism exceeding its pre-pandemic (2019) investment by 2.85 percent for a projected total of $9.02 billion in 2025.

Canada’s investment in the travel and tourism sector peaked in 2016 when the country topped $20 billion. Subsequent years showed significant decreases, and by 2021 investment was down to approximately $10 billion. The country however is projected to invest incrementally more over the next few years and projected to reach $20 billion in investment by 2030.

2023 showed significant percentage increases in investment as countries allocated more funding towards the travel and tourism sector and the industry continued to recover from the