In 2007, the tourism industry was worth US$7,000 billion. According to The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the industry is expected to rise to US$13,232 billion by 2017. The WTTC also notes that global employment relating to the travel and tourism sector reached 240 million jobs in 2008.
Often, our largest and most direct economic impact comes from decisions about local business partners, hotel locations, employment levels and suppliers. Hotels provide opportunities for economic development: they pay taxes and provide much needed jobs. We ensure that the benefits of our operations are realised in our local communities by managing environmental impacts, employing local people and supporting their career development, sourcing products and services locally, and encouraging tourists to use local services and experience local culture.
We view our economic impacts as important as our environmental and community impacts. Economic success allows us to support long-term environmental and community initiatives; which are especially important to developing economies.
In many cases the lack of a skilled work force is a barrier for developing nations to fully tap into the economic benefits that travel and tourism has to offer. This is why we launched the IHG Academy, a public private partnership that provides hospitality job training in our local communities.
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Sustainability is about balancing environmental, economic, and social impacts. In terms of responsible tourism this means ensuring tourism benefits the local community through the use of local businesses, job creation for local people and the payment of local taxes. We think our economic impacts are as important as our environmental and community impacts. Read more in this section about:
