Tourism employment drives economic recovery
We have talked about various issues related to tourism and scarcity in the past recent weeks. I have talked to you about the factors causing lack of qualified labor in the hotel segment and the lack of accessible and affordable housing for workers in the sector; a problem that affects both Puerto Vallarta and the Riviera Nayarit.
Today, however, I will talk about abundance, it’s paradoxical though, while it is increasingly difficult to fill jobs in companies, tourism employment continues to show signs of recovery.
In the state of Nayarit, 85 thousand 374 new direct tourism jobs were generated in the first quarter of this year, according to the latest report generated by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), representing 14.35% of the state. However the number of indirect jobs was 256 thousand 122. What caught my attention is that these figures exceed those of 2019 (before the pandemic) when direct jobs registered were 80 thousand 477 and indirect jobs 241 thousand 431.
There’s more! Data from INEGI reveals more than half of the 594,000 people working in the state of Nayarit are related to tourism, directly or indirectly.
This shows that despite the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, there is constant recovery in the sector, there’s still new companies being created and there are more and more entrepreneurs starting projects and creating jobs.
This growth is already occurring globally. Recently, the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of Mexico indicated that in the period from January to March 2022, tourism employment grew by 2.9%, this means 123,930 people employed, compared to 4,264,000 people in the previous quarter. This gives us a total of 4 million, 387 thousand 930, representing 8.6% of the employed population in México.
The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) also indicated in its latest Economic Impact Report (EIR) that México will generate more than 2.7 million new jobs in the next 10 years on the tourism industry with an average annual growth rate of 3.2%. It is estimated that the growth of the total national economy is barely 2% for the same period in comparison.
The WTTC forecasts a 7% increase in employment in México this year, compared to 2021, with more than 419 thousand new jobs in the travel and tourism sector. In addition, it predicts a contribution of 190.71 billion dollars to the national GDP, with which the industry will represent 14.7% of the national economy.
It is clear to me that México will continue to be a tourism power force, its rapid recovery after the global crisis due to the pandemic shows this. It is not the first time that the country has faced though times, but the strength of the sector has always been evident; and this time will not be the exception.
What do you think? I’ll be reading your comments.
