WTTC’s Blueprint
World travel and Tourism Council is the organization of international significance with the overall aim to bring forward knowledge innovation and outline the critical role of tourism as the driver of national and international economic affairs. Comprised of the top management partners from various international companies within the top 100, the organization built on the sustainable internal capacity and experience, able to deliver the important mission of raising the awareness of the population about the impact of tourism and travel activities on generating global wealth and wellbeing (WTTC, 2016). The WTTC's Blueprint for New Tourism was announced in 2003 as a call for action for both, governments and industries around the globe. The objective of this document is to ensure the long-term commitment from both, public and private sector with regards to raising the awareness and prosperity of the Tourism and Travel industry. The core point behind the Blueprint for New Tourism is the fact that the industry is the largest job generator in the world, accounting for 200 million positions on various organizational levels globally and 10% of the total global GDP (NH, 2003). The announcement of the new direction and focus of the WTTC through Blueprint for New Tourism was approved at the international summit, attended by over 500 most influential people in the Tourism and Travel industry. Since then, the WTTC have made significant progress in achievement of its strategic goals through the focus on three strategic priorities, outlined in the document: ensuring that governments recognize tourism and travel industry as their top priority; creating business environment, which balances economics with environment, people and culture; and a shared pursuit of long-term growth and prosperity (WTTC, 2003).
Strategic Priorities
Blueprint has three priorities. When it comes to the first priority, it is important to outline that WTTC grounds its recommendation on the accurate assumption that the governments have tools and means to unlock the potential of the industry by creating jobs, facilitating the activities of small and medium businesses in the industry and creating the educational environment that can provide expertise and skills, required to drive sustainable development in the sector. WTTC notes, that the government's top priority is to ensure that the public sector is assigned and communicated with the specific responsibility to protect the sustainability of the key tourism assets in the respective countries. With that in mind, the public priority is to focus on key tasks, such as infrastructure development, fostering competition and trade liberalization.
When it comes to the sustainability issues in tourism and travel industry, WTTC suggests that it is a collective responsibility of all the enterprises and even individuals within the private and public sectors to create the business arena, which builds upon cooperation and sustainable practices, protecting the environment and prioritizing people and culture. Tourism and travel industry has a great potential and in many countries, this sector is already critical for the domestic economy. It is evident, at the same time that the industry and Corporate Social Responsibility practices do not build on a sustainable proposition, which could benefit the states in a long term. That said, the industry has to strengthen its own operations and activities to ensure the long-term sustainability.
Finally, the WTTC Blueprint highlights the importance of cooperation between the private and public sectors. The point that the authors are making is that, while Travel and Tourism industry can play the significant role in the development of the sector, in general, the private sector is not able to achieve the high-level and ambitious goals, outlined in the document in isolation. Private and public sectors must work together to ensure the multifaceted and effective approach to the question.
The WTTC Predictions for Travel & Tourism
Background
WTTC Annual review of the industry and forecasts for the near and middle term future is an important analysis, used by the governments as well as industries to build on the understanding of the external environment in which they operate. Moreover, it is important to recognize that Travel and Tourism industry has a significant impact on the evolution of other sectors. As such, technology and-and transportation industries highly rely on the predictions, presented by reliable bodies with regards to the tourism and travel. Additionally, events and major happenings within the sector, such as Olympic Games and another international competition build on major strategic opportunities and challenges for the vast majority of local and international businesses. The latest document, released by WTTC looks at the economic impact of the industry with the ten years outline from 2015. Based on the summary of the industry impact on global economy, the organization outlines the future direction, based on several indicators: the direct contribution of Travel and Tourism to global GDP, the total contribution of the industry to the global GDP, the impact of the industry on employment market globally from direct and total standpoint, the forecast and actual figures of visitor export, and the investment portfolio.
The report outlines that the industry has contributed USD 2.4 billion directly and USD 7.6 billion totally to the global GDP in 2014. These numbers are predicted to grow by 3.7% and 3.8% per year over the next ten year period. The international employment market benefited from 105 million direct jobs in 2014 and 277 million, with the forecast to grow by 2% and 2.6% per annum and reach 131 and 357 million positions in direct and indirect contribution respectively by the end of 2025 (WTTC, 2015). Moreover, the impact of the industry is significant due to growing international mobility of individuals, which outlines the positive growth from the USD 1.4 billion exports in 2014 to USD 2.1 billion by 2025, outlining the average increase of 2.8% per year over the period. This indicator is used to measure the actual spendings of tourists during their touristic activities in a country of visit. Finally, the report looks at the direct investment, which industry brings to the economies. WTTC notes that the industry generated the total investment of USD 814.4 billion in 2014, which represents 4.3% of the total international investment. Based on the industry prospects and the economic outlook across the geographic locations, WTTC predicts that this indicator will grow by 4.8% per annum and will reach 1.336 billion by 2025 (WTTC, 2016).
Key Regions for WTTC
The WTTC segments the geographical regions in four regions, Africa, Americas, Asi-Pacific, and Europe. Each of the regions is divided into subregions, totaling in 24 regions globally. To ensure quality and alignment across the 184 locations, the organization produced reports on a country, sub-regional and regional level. Within the context of the growing industry and the impact of Tourism and Travel Activities on the economies of the regions, Asia, Middle East and Africa are the key regions that will go through major changes in the near future (WTTC, 2016).
One can question the reliability and the nature of the data and measures, used by the organizations to present the figures and forecasts above. To raise the reliability of the assumptions and forecasts, WTTC provides the coherent definition of the economic contribution of the industry, outlining the three pillars of the analysis: indirect investments, induced spendings and the total contribution of the industry. Indirect travel and tourism contribution constitute the T&T investments, government T&T spendings and the impact of suppliers' purchases. Induced spendings look at the revenue generated from the sales of food and beverages, housing recreation, household goods and clothing. Finally, the total contribution is measured in percentage of the actual input from the industry in global GDP.
WTTC goes further to differentiate the segments within the industry and outline the potential of business and leisure tourism spendings. The forecasts for the following decade illustrates the increase of 3.8% and 4% respectively for business and leisure sectors, while leisure will continue constituting the major income from tourism activities. This outlook is one of the several important conclusions that WTTC offers in the report and which include the forecast for government spendings, imported goods from indirect spendings, capital investment and other components of the global Tourism and Travel impact 2015.
References
WTTC (2003). Blueprint for New Tourism. Ontit Website [Online]. Retrieved 6 June 2016, http://www.ontit.it/opencms/export/sites/default/ont/it/documenti/archivio/files/ONT_2003-09-18_00146.pdf
WTTC. (2016). About WTTC. World Travel and Tourism Council Website [Online]. Retrieved 6 June 2016, http://www.wttc.org/
HN (2003). WTTC's Blueprint For New Tourism Calls On Government and Industry to Make Significant Long-Term Commitments. Hospitality Net [Online]. Retrieved 6 June 2016, http://www.wttc.org/
WTTC (2015). Travel and Tourism Economic Impact 2015. World Travel and Tourism Council Website [Online]. Retrieved 6 June 2016, https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic%20impact%20research/regional%202015/world2015.pdf
WTTC (2016). Travel and Tourism. Economic Impact 2016 World. Retrieved June 2016, https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic%20impact%20research/regions%202016/world2016.pdf
