Globally, the travel and tourism industry has much to celebrate. It employs 300 million people worldwide — one in 10 people — and, as research by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) shows, that number is set to grow to one in nine, with 100 million additional sector-dependent jobs to be created by 2028. We are also flying more, with the number of air travelers expected to nearly double from 4.2 billion in 2018 to 8.2 billion by 2037.
This scale of growth brings enormous opportunity, but it also brings pressure on security systems, infrastructure, and sustainability. At the same time, technology and innovation are transforming customer habits and expectations, rapidly revolutionizing how people plan, book, experience, and evaluate their travel experiences.
At the 2019 WTTC Global Summit, hosted in Seville and headlined by former US President Barack Obama, the theme was “Changemakers", looking at the people, firms, initiatives, and governments shaping the tourism and travel industry. The conversations that followed centered on three themes that will define the future: the technology making travel more seamless, the cybercrime threatening to undermine it, and the sustainability agenda that will determine whether its growth can last.
Biometric technology is making airport security faster and simpler
Anyone who has taken a flight knows how many times they have to stop and prove who they are, from check-in to security, the boarding gate and the hotel desk. Breakthroughs in biometric technology, including facial recognition, are starting to change that. The WTTC’s Seamless Traveller Journey initiative aims to replace document checks with a single biometric scan, from the moment a traveler enters the airport to when they collect their bags.
This has the potential to extend to hotels, rental car agencies, and cruise lines. The technology platforms are still being developed, but the goal is less paperwork, faster journeys, and security that works harder without making the experience worse.
Cybercrime is the fastest growing threat facing the travel industry
Tourism is an information business. Every booking, every loyalty program, every passport scan generates data — and that data is a target. Foreign governments, organized crime groups, and individual hackers all see the travel sector as attractive, and the consequences of a serious attack go beyond financial loss to disruption of services and even catastrophic disaster. It’s important that the industry as a whole tackles this challenge. Concrete actions could include intelligence sharing, incident-insight collaboration, working together to promote cyber-defense strategies, and helping organizations resume services and recover in the event of a severe attack. Training and testing for cyber incidents needs to be prioritized at all levels and built into every new technology the industry adopts.
Sustainability must underpin the travel industry’s growth
Travel and tourism grew at 3.9% in 2019, outpacing the 3.2% expansion of global gross domestic product — but that growth has to be built on solid, sustainable foundations. The industry must help protect the very things that make travel appealing: the landscapes, wildlife, cultures, and communities that enrich tourism experiences. This can be done in a variety of ways. One example is destination stewardship, where industry stakeholders invest in and help to plan developments in such a way that the entire community benefits and the flow of new travelers does not lead to overcrowding.
Other efforts to protect biodiversity include the WTTC’s Travel & Tourism Declaration on Illegal Wildlife Trade, which aims to help safeguard the preservation of local species of animals and plants. A third example can be promoting urban mobility innovations that reduce the industry’s carbon footprint.
Technology, climate change, and geopolitics are posing new challenges for travel
Digitization, geopolitical forces, the climate crisis, and shifting consumer preferences are redefining the current era and reshaping expectations for the travel industry. This means organizations must radically rethink what they stand for, what they do, and how they do it. The ones that get it right will be the “changemakers” that will lead a positive transformation that benefits travelers, businesses, communities, and ultimately, the planet.
Originally published in April 2019