Madrid Spain.- New research from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) reveals that Paris is the world’s leading urban destination, but predicts that it will be overtaken by Beijing by 2032.
The report, sponsored by Visa and conducted in collaboration with Oxford Economics, looked at key indicators such as travel and tourism’s contribution to GDP, employment and traveler spending.
Covid-19 has had a devastating impact on the sector Travel and tourism and especially in big cities around the world as countries have closed their borders in response to the pandemic.
As borders reopened, many travelers swapped urban visits for less populated destinations such as coastal and rural destinations, but the latest WTTC research shows that city breaks are back and increasingly popular.
Paris will be crowned the most powerful urban destination in the world, the travel and tourism sector will be worth almost US$36 trillion by 2022 in terms of direct contribution to the city’s GDP.
In the next 10 years, WTTC predicts it will drop to third place, although its value will grow to more than $49 billion.
Beijing is currently the second largest urban destination in the world, with a travel and tourism sector worth nearly US$33 billion. However, the WTTC predicts that it will overtake Paris in the next 10 years to grow to a staggering $77 billion.
Often referred to as the theme park capital of the world, Orlando’s travel and tourism sector was estimated to be worth $31 billion in 2022, but despite projections showing it will grow nearly 50% to $45 billion by 2032, it will fall to become the fourth largest urban destination.
China’s domestic travel and tourism sector has experienced phenomenal growth over the past decade as the country has invested in new hotels, transport infrastructure and new tourist destinations.
This investment in Travel and tourism He predicts that the Shanghai sector, worth nearly $30 billion last year, will double to nearly $71 billion by 2032 and become the world’s second-largest urban destination.
Las Vegas is the only city on the top 10 list to retain its spot, firmly holding on to the 5th largest city spot.
Las Vegas’ travel and tourism sector was worth nearly $23 billion last year and is projected to grow to more than $36 billion by 2032.
Julia Simpson, president and CEO of WTTC, said that “major cities like London, Paris and New York will remain global powers, but in the coming years Beijing, Shanghai and Macau will rise up the list of top urban destinations.”
“Tourists will always have favorite cities they return to, but as other countries prioritize travel and tourism, we will see more and more destinations challenging traditional favourites.”
Other cities outside the top 10 showing promising growth as new destinations include Poland’s capital Warsaw, whose contribution to GDP in 2022 increased by 14.4% compared to 2019.
Sanya, the Chinese coastal city that has become a popular tourist destination in recent years as tourists flock to its beautiful beaches, saw a 10.2% increase over the same period. Its travel and tourism sector accounts for an incredible 43.6% of the city’s total economy. Macau’s travel and tourism sector accounts for 40.4% of the city’s total economy.
Orlando and Las Vegas are the only cities currently in the top 10 most powerful urban destinations by sectoral value that rely heavily on the sector as part of the overall urban economy.
Travel and tourism accounts for 20.4% of Orlando’s economy and 16.3% of Las Vegas’ economy. For comparison, in 2022, the travel and tourism sector of Paris accounts for only 3.5% of the capital’s economy.