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It is urgent that authorities and the private initiative invest at least 29 billion dollars in tourism infrastructure in Oceania in the next decade to boost employment and economic benefits from this activity, warned Virginia Messinavice president of World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC, for its acronym in English).
“It is urgent that these injections be made correctly in sustainable infrastructure to be able to create more than 300 thousand jobs in the region,” he said during the presentation of the study “Opening opportunities for travel and tourism in Oceania” during the 24th edition of the world summit of the organization.
He explained that Oceania has not yet recovered the levels of travelers it had in 2019before the impact of the pandemic, but highlighted that there is great potential towards 2030.
He revealed that the sector can increase its potential from 224 billion dollars in 2024 to more than 306.9 billion in 2034. With this, employment could increase from 2.33 million to more than 3.18 million people.
“It depends on this creation of greater infrastructure of airports, communications and hotels that in the next 10 years, 73.1 billion dollars can be captured from spending by international travelers in 2034, compared to the 43.6 billion in 2024,” he explained.
He commented that the target audience of international tourism that Australia and New Zealand seeks to attract are Chinese. and Americans; However, there are several areas of opportunity such as expanding its airport network and the number of airlines to connect to the destination, in addition to having visa policies that can be much more functional, especially for these two nationalities.
“Another is to increase labor mobility, as well as the education and upskilling of its workforce, adopting mitigation strategies and the development of sustainable tourism and communal experience,” said Nejc Jus, WTTC research director.
As for domestic tourism, this could also grow by 119.4 billion dollars which are estimated for 2024 (30.9 percent more than before the pandemic) in the area that includes Australia, New Zealand and several of the islands surrounding the southernmost continent on the planet, to more than 146.6 billion in 2034, when it means 68 percent of total local tourism.
“When we look at the differential between national and international spending, visitors from other countries are still below 2019 levels. So, while the sector in general is covered compared to pre-pandemic, we know that, obviously, tourism national has gained importance (…) we did the right study to understand the potential forward, which can be just beyond its borders, if the right decisions are made,” Messina said.
