Leading countries in the Travel & Tourism Development Index 2021

In 2021, Japan, the United States, and Spain recorded the highest score in the Travel & Tourism Development Index (TTDI), with 5.2 points out of seven. That year, France and Germany followed behind, with a TTDI score of 5.1. The Travel & Tourism Development Index analyzes a range of factors and policies supporting the development of the travel and tourism sector in a sustainable and resilient way. It covers 117 countries and is made up of five sub-indexes, addressing a series of relevant topics for the sector, such as safety and security, prioritization of travel and tourism, infrastructure, environmental sustainability, and more.

The economic contribution of travel and tourism

The total contribution of travel and tourism to the global gross domestic product (GDP) increased in 2021 over the previous year, following a sharp drop in 2020 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Overall, this sector's total contribution to the GDP worldwide amounted to 5.81 trillion U.S. dollars in 2021, rising by 21.7 percent from 2020 but remaining below the peak recorded in 2019. Meanwhile, the number of travel and tourism jobs worldwide followed a similar trend. It fell significantly in the first year of the health crisis, then went up in 2021 without catching up with pre-pandemic figures.

Impact of COVID-19 on international tourism arrivals worldwide

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, countries worldwide enacted emergency measures limiting non-essential travel. As a result of the health crisis, the number of international tourist arrivals worldwide experienced a dramatic decline that year, reaching the lowest figure recorded since 1989. This scenario improved in 2021, with international arrivals totaling around 421 million. However, this figure only accounted for less than 30 percent of the volume reported in 2019.