Industry Overview

The following information should serve as “snapshots” of the current hospitality and tourism industry from a Global, Canadian and local (Cape Breton Island) perspective.

Global Tourism Industry

On October 10, 2018, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) released its’ World Tourism Barometer. The report notes that after a record year in 2017, international tourist arrivals grew by 6% in the first two quarters of 2018. Europe and the Asia Pacific led the global growth at 7% and growth lagged in the Americas registering an increase of 3%.

The World Tourism & Travel Council (WTTC) released its’ global economic impact analysis in March 2018 for the record setting 2017 year noted by the UNWTO. The indicators are quite staggering, reporting:

• 4% of global GDP originates in travel and tourism;
• 9% of global employment is supported by the sector, and
• 20% of all global net job growth in the last decade has been in this sector.

Canadian Tourism Industry

Destination Canada presented its national tourism indicators for the first two quarters of 2018 and the information was released by Statistics Canada on September 27, 2018. Tourism expenditures rose by 5.7%. Most of the growth was domestic, suggesting that Canada is not matching the growth in international export. The contribution to the Canadian economy is significant:

• 9% of Canadian GDP in the first half of 2018, valued at $18.7 billion was attributed to tourism spending. This represented an increase of 6.2% over 2017;
• This contribution to the Canadian economy saw a 1.4% increase in sectoral employment contributing to an employment base of 733,800 for the first two quarters.
• Employs 1.8 million Canadians annually.