14 September 2012

The Travel & Tourism industry in China is substantially bigger than automotive manufacturing and supports almost as many jobs as the mining sector.

This is according to new research from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) sponsored by American Express, released today during a speech by WTTC's President & CEO, David Scowsill, at the 'International Tourism Industry Expo' in Guangdong, China.

The research, undertaken by Oxford Economics, shows that the sector's direct contribution to China's GDP is CNY1.2 trillion which is 13% more than the contribution to the GDP of automotive manufacturing and larger than communications services and the education sector.

Travel & Tourism's total contribution to GDP in China was around 9% of total GDP. This compares to 8% for automotive manufacturing, 7% for education and 5% for communications services.

With 62 million direct, indirect and induced jobs in China, Travel & Tourism supports more jobs than the financial service sector's 48.5 million.

The new research also showed that Travel & Tourism's contribution to GDP is growing faster than most other sectors in China. It will grow by more than 9% over the next ten years, a faster growth rate than the total economy (7.6%).

It highlights that Travel & Tourism is a significant source of exports for revenue for China. In 2011, visitor exports totalled over CNY 300 billion, which was 27% of all service exports and 2% of all exports (including goods and services).

The study also compared the effect of Travel & Tourism spending on GDP and the wider economy.

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Tourism in China contributes more to GDP than automotive manufacturing