In an interview, Messina said that the tourism industry faces inflationary risks, which are shown in price increases on flights and hotels.
“But despite this, we are seeing a very strong recovery, despite the fact that hotel nights in some regions may double, we are seeing very high hotel occupancy, even higher than in 2019,” Messina emphasized.
That year, the tourism industry represented more than 10% of the world economy.
For the WTTC directive, in some countries pre-pandemic levels have already been reached, and have even been exceeded, while others will have a recovery in 2023.
According to Messina, 2021 represented a 22% recovery globally.
“We are seeing an almost recession, it is going to see an impact, but the sector continues to recover. The prospects for the following year continue to be very strong,” he said.
In a press conference, at the start of the WTTC Global Summit Riyadh, Julia Simpson, President and CEO of the WTTC, expressed that this year records are being broken, with more business leaders.
Messina added that Saudi Arabia will make an unprecedented investment of 11 billion dollars in the next five years.
By 2032, the contribution of the travel and tourism sector to the GDP of that country can reach 169.3 billion dollars, which represents more than 17% of the total economy, according to WTTC figures.
global event
The WTTC summit brings together more than 3,000 delegates from 85 countries around the world, with 50 ministerial delegations and more than 100 CEO’s of large hotel chains and companies.
In this edition, the topics that will be discussed are: how to make the tourism sector a solution for the future; the importance of the investment; economic challenges; technology applied to ensure travel safety, and the environmental crisis.
In addition to the challenges in terms of sustainability (NET-ZERO), resilience in the different sectors of the industry and the strengthening of collaboration mechanisms between the private and public sectors.
The annual WTTC Global Summit is the most influential travel and tourism event on the global industry agenda.
Ban Ki Moon, former Secretary General of the United Nations, and Theresa May, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, are expected to participate.
