Tourism generates 52 billion dollars in Argentina

An investigation carried out by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), a global organization representing the private Travel and Tourism sector, revealed that this industry contributed to the Argentine economy during 2018 with 52 billion dollars , a figure that represented 10% of the country's GDP and that allowed the generation of 1.8 million jobs, that is, 9.4% of the total.
The study, sponsored by American Express, compares the economic impact of the industry with eight others that are key: agriculture, mining, health, automobile manufacturing, retail sales, financial services, banking and construction, in 26 countries and 10 regions of the world.
It also reveals that in Argentina the contribution of the Travel and Tourism industry to GDP was greater than that shown by banks (5.8%), mining (4.6%) and automotive manufacturing (2.6%).
It also shows that the direct contribution of the Travel and Tourism industry to the economy increased at an annual average of 2.4% between 1995 and 2018, exceeding the growth rate of the economy in general, which expanded at a rate of 2.1%, in addition to directly employing more people than the sectors of financial services, banking, mining and automotive manufacturing.
For every direct job that is generated in the sector, almost two additional ones are created indirectly, which makes their links stronger than those presented by banking, financial services, health, construction and the retail industry.
 
Global vision
In 2018, the contribution of the Travel and Tourism industry to global GDP was 10.4%, which meant 8 thousand 800 million dollars and represented 1.4 times more than the contribution that agriculture had (7.7%), 1.5 times more than banking (7.1%) and 1.7 times higher than mining (6.0%).
Among the sectors analyzed, the Travel and Tourism industry was the fastest growing with 3.9%, followed by the automotive (3.7%), health (3.3%), and exceeded for the eighth consecutive time that observed by the global economy that presented a 3.2% advance.
The strong growth in Travel and Tourism is driven by the continued expansion in the number of middle-class households, the solid growth in global consumer spending, low unemployment rates and currency depreciation.
In 2018, the so-called ‘industry without chimneys’ contributed 319 million jobs worldwide, to represent 10% of total jobs, surpassing the financial sector (9.1%) and health (7.4%).
Gloria Guevara, President and CEO of the WTTC mentioned: “Argentina is a world reference point for places and security that it offers to local and international tourists. As we know and now we are reaffirming this research, the Travel and Tourism sector supports a large part of the expenses and supports jobs in Argentina. The WTTC praises the government for recognizing the clear importance of the Travel and Tourism industry as an engine of economic growth and for its strategy to spread the benefits of the industry throughout the country".