The global travel and tourism sector grew at a rate of around 4% in 2019, and has been growing faster than the world economy for eight consecutive years, although the coronavirus pandemic will clearly make 2020 extremely challenging year for this sector.
Contributing around USD9 trillion to the global economy and supporting over 300 million jobs worldwide, travel and tourism is a massive industry. The recreation industry is more difficult to define but the global sports market is estimated to be worth around USD500 billion a year and other forms of recreation may collectively generate an additional USD1 trillion or more each year.
In the UK, this sector is estimated to be worth around GBP180 billion annually, around 8% of GDP. The industry supports 3.8 million jobs across the country, although 54% of all inbound visitor spending is concentrated in London. The UK is one of the countries with the largest revenues from travel and tourism, along with the United States and Spain.
Globally, 1% of all market research conducted in 2018 was commissioned by travel and tourism clients.
FieldworkHub’s has supported a wide range of different projects in the travel, tourism and recreation sector including focus groups about airport duty free shopping in the UK, France and China, focus groups about the impact of a new high-speed rail line in the UK, and focus groups with football fans in Milan about the proposed redevelopment of the San Siro stadium. We have also arranged telephone interviews with owners of holiday cottages in the UK, depth interviews about applying for UK visas in India and the UAE, and run an online survey about travel insurance.
