WTTC Opens its Global Summit in Kigali

As the World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) 23rd Global Summit kicked off in Kigali. WTTC President & CEO Julia Simpson revealed that the global Travel & Tourism sector is making a robust comeback, bouncing back to the pre-pandemic vigour of 2019.
 
The latest data from WTTC and its partner Oxford Economics shows that global travel is surging back, with all regions recovering faster than previously expected, with Asia-Pacific leading the way.

Speaking at the opening of the Global Summit in Kigali, WTTC President & CEO Julia Simpson said: “Our latest data highlights our sector’s enduring appeal and resilience and is recovering faster than anticipated. 

“This trend underlines the longstanding consumer appetite for travel, and despite China's full recovery potential yet to be realised, the global sector’s performance is exceeding expectations.”

WTTC recently launched the latest industry-shaping Environmental Impact Research data (ESR), in partnership with the Sustainable Tourism Global Center (STGC), part of the Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia.

Last year, during the WTTC Global Summit in Riyadh, the two organisations launched the collaboration and unveiled the inaugural results including the sector’s accurate greenhouse gas emissions for the first time ever. 

This represents the most comprehensive environmental data in Travel & Tourism’s history including the sector’s energy, and water use footprint. 

Not only tells the sector’s direct impact, but also its supply chain impacts, both within national borders and those that are embedded in Travel & Tourism’s international supply chains.

According to the data, Travel & Tourism was responsible for 8.1% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, 10.6% of total global energy and 0.9% of freshwater use. The groundbreaking ESR data covers 185 countries across all regions and will be updated each year with the latest figures.