EXECUTIVE SUMMARY W ith 54% of the world’s population living in urban areas, cities have becomeglobal economic hubs.These urban centres are drivers of growth, innovationand job creation, which will continue to attract more people who will cometo live, do business and discover them. In fact, by 2050, 68% of the global population isexpected to live in cities. This growth is translated in the rise of city tourism - a trendwhich is forecasted to last.CITIES REPRESENT 45% OF GLOBAL INTERNATIONAL TRAVELWith over half a billion trips taken to cities annually, metropoles have become catalystsof global travel, driving signifcant increases in Travel & Tourism within city boundaries andfor wider country destinations. In efect, in the past decade, travel to city destinations hasgrown more rapidly than total international travel demand. This growth directly generated$625 billion or 6.7% total GDP across the 72 cities in this study, while the industrygenerated 3.2% of global GDP.EMERGING AND DEVELOPING MARKETS CONTINUE TO RISE In the past decade, there has been a clear shift from North to South and West to East.This is particularly visible in the rankings of top global city destinations by GDP, with tenof the top 20 largest cities by market size and seven of the top 20 by GDP contributionlocated in the Asia-Pacifc region.This is even more apparent when looking at the fastest growing cities in terms of directTravel & Tourism GDP over the past decade,where all top ten cities are in emerging anddeveloping countries, including Chongqing, Shanghai, Lagos, Tehran and Mumbai amongothers. While the majority of these cities are expected to remain top performers in thecoming decade, with China leading the way, a slowdown in growth is expected. DOMESTIC AND LEISURE TRAVEL LEAD THE WAY Despite the buzz around international travel, domestic travel represents the vast majorityof global Travel & Tourism expenditure, amounting to 73% of the total vs. 27% forinternational travel.Domestic contributions can run as high as 85% or 90%. In Shanghai andBeijing for instance, the domestic share of Travel & Tourism GDP exceeds 87%. Conversely,cities such Macau and Dublin rely primarily on international demand, with the internationalshare of tourism accounting for 97% of tourism GDP. Looking ahead, the proportion ofinternational travel is expected to rise with the rapid growth of emerging markets.Similarly, leisure travel signifcantly outweighs business travel in terms of expenditure,accounting for 78% of total global expenditure. Travel and Tourism’s contribution to cityGDP is signifcantly higher in leisure driven cities, in turn leading to increased relianceon the sector. In efect, the eight highest ranked city destinations in terms of Travel &Tourism share of total GDP are all leisure destinations, with Cancn leading the way atnearly 50% of its GDP. Larger cities, and capital cities tend to host other important sectors,including fnancial and business services, which make much larger contributions to GDP. Assuch, these cities may have large and thriving Travel & Tourism sectors, but as a share ofGDP the sector has a smaller impact. THE SECTOR DRIVES JOB CREATION IN CITIES Overall, Travel & Tourism directly generates more than 10% of total city employment in 13cities in this study, with Cancn (37.7%) and Macau (27.6%) as leaders. The top ten cities interms of employment growth cross all continents, with Abu Dhabi (10.4%), Tehran (6.8%)and Chongqing (6.0%) as leaders over the 2007-2017 period.CITY TRAVEL & TOURISM IMPACT 2018 C I T Y I M P A C T T R A V E L & T O U R I S M For more information, please contact: ROCHELLE TURNER | Research Director rochelle.turner@wttc 45%of global international travel isrepresented by cities 72global cities analysed in the latestresearch from the World Travel &Tourism Council. THE IMPORTANCEOF CITIESEXECUTIVE SUMMARY Cover: Vancouver, Canada With US$2.7 trillion, the Asia-Pacifc region generates the largest proportion of Travel& Tourism GDP globally, accounting for 36% of the sector. Europe and the Americascome 2nd and 3rd, jointly amounting to 59% of global Travel & Tourism GDP, andindividually contributing over US$2 trillion to the global Travel & Tourism GDP.In 2017, domestic travel represented the vast majority of global Travel & Tourismexpenditure, amounting to 73% of the total. While international travel accounts fora smaller proportion at 27%, this fgure is expected to increase. In efect, the rapidgrowth of middle-class income in emerging markets, particularly in India and China, isexpected to enable increased afordability of international travel.Leisure travel signifcantly outweighs business travel in terms of expenditure,accounting for 78% of total global tourism expenditure. This fgure is consistentacross all regions, with leisure travel accounting for between 69% and 80% of totaltourism expenditure. Asia-Pacifc is not only the fastest growing region, with 7.5%Travel & Tourism growth per annum over the last decade, but is also the largestregion with 80% of total expenditure attributable to leisure.1. The diference between the sum of the regions, and global total T&T GDP (US$8.3 trillion in 2017), is exported goods related to Travel & Tourism activity. This is removed from country and regional estimates to ensure we comply with TSA: RMF 2008 guidelines, but isadded back at the global level to ensure that the sector is fully quantifed.1 LARGEST CITYDESTINATIONS1.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAVEL & TOURISM The Travel & Tourism sectorcontributes 10.4% to globalGDP, and supports nearly 1in 10 jobs Rapid growth in middleclass income householdsin emerging markets hasbeen an important driverof global Travel & Tourismactivity, notably in the Asia- Pacifc region1. APAC, US$ 2,675 bn, 36% 2. Americas, US$ 2,200 bn, 30% 3. Europe, US$ 2,109 bn, 29% 4. Middle East, US$ 224 bn, 3% 5. Africa, US$ 178 bn, 2% 1.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAVEL & TOURISM TRAVEL & TOURISM IS A DRIVER OF GROWTH & JOB CREATION Tourism is one of the world’s largest economic sectors, accounting for 10.4% of GDP (3.2% is directly generated by the sector) andsupporting nearly 1 in 10 jobs on the planet. FIGURE 1: TOTAL TRAVEL & TOURISMGDP BY REGION 20171CITY TRAVEL & TOURISM IMPACT 2018|51.2 THE IMPORTANCE OF CITIES AS TOURISM DESTINATIONS1.2 THE IMPORTANCE OF CITIES AS TOURISMDESTINATIONS This report focuses on 72 major tourism cities and provides estimates of the GDP andemployment directly generated by the Travel & Tourism sector. This does not include thefurther GDP and employment impacts generated by tourism across supply chains andthrough the spending of revenues gained through the tourism sector – so-called indirectand induced employment and income impacts. The calculations are consistent with theWTTC Economic Impact Research (EIR) which quantifes the contribution of the Travel& Tourism sector by country and relies on inputs from the Global Cities Travel (GCT)databases from Oxford Economics. 72 CITIES GENERATED $625 BILLION THROUGH TRAVEL & TOURISM Cities are not only popular destinations but often gateways to other regions of countriesgiven their proximity to international airports.While Travel & Tourism directly accounted for 3.2% of global GDP in 2017, this proportiontended to be higher in cities.In this study, 50 of the 72 cities boasted larger contributionto GDP from Travel & Tourism than the global average. When combined, an estimatedUS$ 625 billion was directly generated by the sector across the 72 cities, amounting to6.7% of their total GDP. Ten of the top 20 largest cities by market size and seven of the top 20 cities by GDPcontribution are in the Asia-Pacifc region. Only eight out of the 72 cities rank both in thetop 20 by size and in the top 20 as a share of total city GDP: Shanghai, Beijing, Orlando,Bangkok, Mexico City, Las Vegas, Macau SAR and Miami.FIGURE 2: TOURISM MARKET SIZE & GDP CONTRIBUTION, 2017* City tourism GDP % total city GDP Travel & Tourism directlygenerated US$ 6