Governments improve the Competitiveness and Sustainability of Tourism.

17 February 2010 - Tourism plays a crucial role in supporting economic growth and development and in sustaining employment. What has been the impact of the crisis on tourism and what are the main challenges now facing the tourism industry?

A new OECD report, OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2010, reviews the impact of the crisis on tourism, analyses trends and policies in 42 countries, including all OECD countries and selected non member economies such as Chile, Brazil, India or South Africa and makes a set of policy recommendations on how countries can make their tourism industries more innovative, competitive and sustainable. A detailed statistical profile is given for each country. All 264 tables in the report have OECD Stat Links and are fully downloadable as Excel tables.

OECD countries continue to play a predominant role in international tourism, representing about 60% of the global tourism market. They also benefit from a domestic tourism which is in many economies more important that international tourism. During the last 20 years, the growth rate of international tourism arrivals in OECD countries, whilst 1.6% below the worldwide rate, has averaged 2.8% per year, well ahead of the GDP growth rate of 2.4% for the zone, with OECD countries accounting for about 60% of the global tourism market. In the OECD area, tourism GDP accounts for up to 11% of GDP and even more in terms of employment.

Tourism has been hit by the financial and economic crisis that hit the world economy. Tourism flows started to decline in the second half of 2008. That decline deepened at the beginning of 2009 (–12.5% and –6.5% respectively in the first and second quarters). International tourism has been affected more than domestic tourism, business tourism more than leisure tourism, hotels more than other types of accommodation and air transport more than other types of transport. Paradoxically, certain forms of tourism have been impacted only slightly or have even experienced growth in this crisis period, for example, cruise tourism fared pretty well and the 2008-09 winter season in the Alps enjoyed a record year.

Among the report’s recommendations: