World tourism will grow by nearly 6% per year and create 126 million jobs over the next decade as part of the recovery from the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, according to forecasts by the World Tourism Council.

In a statement quoted by Lusa, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) - which held its annual meeting in Manila between last Wednesday and Friday - states that tourism will be responsible for the creation of one in every three jobs in the world in the next decade and will far exceed the growth rate of 2.7% expected for the world economy.

According to the entity, which represents the private tourism sector worldwide, tourism's contribution to global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to increase by 43.7% by the end of 2022, which would mean 8.5% of GDP.

During the opening ceremony of the meeting, WTTC President Julia Simpson highlighted the resilience and recovery of the industry, which managed to withstand the violent impact of the pandemic, whose restrictions on the movement of people destroyed millions of tourism jobs.

"It is important that governments continue to work with businesses to get the industry fully recovered," Simpson said, recalling the $9.6 billion that tourism contributed to the world economy as recently as 2020, the first year of the pandemic, accounting for 10 % of global economic activity.

"We are catching up and by 2023 we will reach the same levels of growth as in 2019," the WTTC president congratulated, calling on governments to accelerate the reopening of borders to boost national economies and job creation.

In his speech, Simpson also encouraged national authorities to digitally integrate people's health status into their travel documentation, pointing to the digital certificate implemented by the European Union as "a good example": "It is essential to standardize procedures to facilitate the transit of travelers globally," he said.