4. Mass Tourism
Employment Figures in Tourism
Leisure and tourism constitute one of the most employment intensive economic sectors. The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC 2005) registers 74.2 million employees who are employed in the core area of tourism. There are another 147.3 million jobs to be added, which are indirectly connected to tourism, for example in the building sector, nutritional economy, trade, and tourism-connected production and services. The WTTC calculates an employment proportion of 8.3% and an amount of 10.6% of the global gross national product worldwide.
Source: Tourism Watch
Tasks:
1. Annotate the text to the figure.
2. What are the positive and negative developments of employment in the tourism sector?
Leisure and tourism is not only of economic significance, but enjoys respectable social status. Even in countries of the so called Third World travel ranks highly in the social appreciation (Gebhardt et al. 2007).
Tasks: Why does travel have such a high social status? Discuss the question in a group or class discussion.
Photo: Isabelle Kollar
