Tourism, hotel and food & beverage services

The tourism sector is a major driver of economic growth, enterprise development and job creation, particularly for women, youth, migrant workers and local communities. In recent decades, it has experienced continued expansion and diversification to become one of the largest, most dynamic, and in many countries, resilient sectors of the global economy. In 2019, tourism accounted, directly and indirectly, for one in ten jobs worldwide and 10.4 per cent of global GDP. Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises represent the majority share of the industry and its workers.

However, although differences between regions exist, the sector continues to face decent work deficits, such as the prevalence of informality, variable and long working hours, low wages, limited access to social protection, gender-based discrimination, poor occupational safety and health practices and weak regulation, enforcement and organization of labour. In some cases tourism is also affected by the lack of an enabling environment for sustainable enterprise development, insufficient and inadequately skilled workforce and productivity challenges.

The bar charts show global and regional point estimates at the sectoral level, based on data from the ILO Harmonized Microdata collection. These estimates cannot be directly compared across different periods and may be updated as new information becomes available. The estimates provided and published by the ILO may differ from those produced and released at the national level.

For more detailed labour market indicators and country-level data, visit the Sectoral Employment Statistics page of the ILOSTAT database.

The Sectoral Policies Department (SECTOR)

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