By Martin Owen, OwenOrganization.com
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in 2019 the tourism sector accounted for one in 10 jobs worldwide. That’s 330 million jobs and 10.3% of global GDP, or about $8.9 trillion. The pandemic dropped international tourist arrivals by 65% and a domestic decrease of 33%. So, you may ask, what’s going drive the recovery?
We’re already seeing a huge increase in travelers worldwide as countries open up again. The big question is are there enough people now working in the industry to handle the demand? Judging from the headlines it would appear there are too few people in all areas. From pilots to wait staff in restaurants, airport baggage handlers to train drivers, and even tour guides and beach lifeguards. Despite massive recruiting programs it’s taking too long for the tourism and hospitality sectors to hire staff to handle the demand.
What’s driving the demand? Obviously, there is a pent-up need to travel for many people. Two years of not seeing family is stimulation of the ‘Visit Friends and Relations’ (VFR) business both domestically and internationally. VFR was one of the booming sectors over the past 40 years and sees no sign of diminishing. Long Haul travel as I mentioned last month, has been an enduring development since the early ‘70s and continues to grow. Conference business is coming back too, although this does take time as it takes time to plan large conferences. Business travel appears to be the slowest return. Many workers still want to work from home and the use of video conferencing instead of meeting face-to-face has slowed the business travel recovery.
Over the years there have been many trends in the travel business that moved beyond simple fads and become staples of our industry. VFR, Long Haul, Conference and Incentive travel I’ve mentioned. Others have been Eco-tourism, Agri-tourism, Adventure and Soft Adventure and Cruising have all taken places in the mix. Over the past decade, what is termed Sustainable Tourism has become a major force. Travelers have had a desire to travel in ethical ways reducing the impact of their wanderlust on the places they visit. In some places the sustainability has resulted in destinations either reducing the numbers of visitors allowed or closing altogether for extended periods to allow for recovery. Venice in Italy has gone from being a city where residents had a normal life to what is in effect just a tourist destination, serving day trippers from enormous cruise liners. Residents have left the city in droves, while the effects of the cruise liners passing through the area has intensified the effects of sea level rises.
As a result, we’re seeing a development of sustainable tourism into a new sector termed Regenerative Tourism. This involves not only taking a sustainable view of travel – offsetting emissions, choosing to use hotels and operators that have low environmental impact or that have a positive impact on the local community – but actually giving back or regenerating.
There is now action to buy only from the local community in destinations rather than bring everything with you on vacation. This involves not packing your car with food and goods from home when you drive on trips. Indeed, traveling on a cruise ship where all meals and even souvenirs are available on board severely damages local economies.
Regenerative Tourism also sees visitors helping to clean up and restore the environment of the destination. It can be as simple as taking a (presumably bio-degradable or reusable!) bag with you to the beach to collect rubbish you find on your way. However, the big push is coming from travelers who want to actually work on projects to restore the environment. These may include working with indigenous people to restore their traditional habitat to helping to establish forest management programs to lower the risk of wildfires.
To be honest, the line between sustainable and regenerative tourism is blurred. Proponents of the latter say that being sustainable isn’t enough and that more positive action is needed. Is this just another ‘fad’? It’s too early to say but certainly the concept is growing and it may well be the encouragement that many, particularly younger, tourists respond to. It’s another way of getting people to travel again and stimulate the increase in those much-needed jobs worldwide.