G20 leaders told to boost tourism amid recession

Tourism chiefs called on G20 world leaders today to consider the “massive job-creating” ability of the tourism sector when coming up with stimulus packages.

The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) said tourism represented around 5% of the gross domestic product of the G20 countries and 6% of their jobs.

The UK government could help by easing taxation on tourism including the Air Passenger Duty airport departure tax, added UNWTO assistant general-secretary Geoffrey Lipman.

He went on: “Tourism is a massive creator of jobs and it is vital that the G20 leaders recognise this. Chancellor Alistair Darling has talked about helping poor countries and the best way of doing this is to get people to visit them.”

UNWTO acting secretary-general Taleb Rifai added: “Tourism and travel means jobs, infrastructure, trade and development. These are the issues that world leaders are emphasising in co-ordinated recovery plans.

“What we need is recognition of the value of travel in this mix and most importantly its capacity to generate jobs.”

Mr Lipman said he reckoned world tourism as measured by the number of international arrivals in each country was likely to dip by around 3-5% in 2009 compared with last year.

He went on: “There are things governments can do. We are not asking for special treatment or bailouts but it’s important that world leaders recognise the role of tourism. If there is tourism growth, there are more jobs.”