Travel Industry Roars Back to Pre-Recession Employment Level!

I’ve posted a couple recent articles below I think you’ll find interesting if you’re already leading tours, considering it and or a traveler.

I’m proud and love working in Travel and Tourism, but you have probably heard me say that many times.  I enjoy what I do and what it does for others and the world.  I have watched tourism change the world for years and getting very little credit.  It does so much to bring the world together by fighting cultural misunderstandings, supporting developing communities, supporting historical sites and museums, saving wildlife reserves and much, much more.   

We used to use the term eco-tourism a lot.  Today you’ll hear the term, sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism goes even further with green facilities and concern about the ‘footprint’ left behind by the travelers.   The UNWTO, the United Nations World Tourism Organization, promotes tourism to help developing countries and communities.

The UNWTO, now has a new handbook linking tourism and peace.  It’s tough to admit this but when I started leading tours, I lead tours to the USSR and China when some still wore Mao jackets.  (I was very young!)   My career has given me the opportunity to watch the world change and see the opinions of my tour member’s change through their travel experiences.  A number of my past students are having the same opportunity leading tours to Cuba through the People to People cultural exchange program.  I’ve posted the article about the new WTO handbook below.

Good news!  ”Jobs Report Milestone: Travel Industry Roars Back to Pre-Recession Employment Level”.   Jobs!  See the article below.

Wishing everyone the very best!

Cherie

Jobs Report Milestone: Travel Industry Roars Back to Pre-Recession Employment Level

Published on : Saturday, February 8, 2014

The U.S. travel industry has returned to its pre-Great Recession employment level, while most of the economy still struggles to reach that mark, according to the latest U.S. Department of Labor figures released Friday.

With an addition of 7,000 travel jobs in January, plus a substantial upward revision of previous data, the new labor report reveals that the travel industry actually reached the milestone in October, and now stands 11 percent above the pre-recession employment peak of February 2008.

Since the recovery began, the travel industry has added jobs at a rate 19 percent faster than the rest of the economy overall, which has replaced only 88 percent of the jobs lost during the recession.

“We’ve always known that travel had the tools to outperform most of the economy even in very troubled times, so it’s not a surprise that we’ve reached this mark while industries such as construction, manufacturing, real estate and finance are far from fully recovered,” said David Huether, U.S. Travel’s senior vice president for research and economics. “We had long suspected we would get back to pre-recession levels before the end of 2013, and lo and behold, the data revisions show we got there in October.”

Travel supports 14.6 million American jobs, directly employs one in eight Americans across key job sectors—including transportation, hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues, among others—and is a top-10 employer in 47 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Travel-related jobs are notable for their quality as well as quantity. The average maximum salary for someone who started their career in the travel industry is $81,900—significantly higher than other industries—-and two in five of those go on to salaries in excess of $100,000 per year.

“This latest data leaves little room for doubt: travel is a job-creating powerhouse,” said U.S. Travel President and CEO Roger Dow. “It’s nice to have reached this milestone, but there is much more we can do to build further upon this record of success. We’re excited about the possibilities our industry holds for the U.S. economy and workers.”

Dow concluded by noting that policymakers could encourage more U.S. travel job creation by passing the Jobs Originated through Launching Travel (JOLT) Act—which has been introduced in the House as H.R. 1354, and provisions of which were included in the Senate-passed immigration bill—and reauthorizing Brand USA, a non-profit, public-private partnership dedicated to increasing inbound international travel to the United States.

http://www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article/jobs-report-milestone-travel-industry-roars-back-to-pre-recession-employment-level/?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Travel%20And%20Tour%20World&utm_content=Jobs+Report+Milestone%3A+Travel+Industry

UNWTO Launched International Handbook on Tourism and Peace

Published on : Saturday, February 8, 2014

With the help of the Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth and the Ministry of European and International Affairs of Austria, the International Handbook on Tourism and Peace launched. The Handbook offers an inclusive collection of perspectives on tourism and peace from leading international experts with topics ranging from sustainable development and conflict resolution to eco-tourism and heritage preservation and includes several case studies.

Published by the Centre for Peace Research and Peace Education of the Klagenfurt University, in collaboration with UNWTO, within the framework of their combined ‘Tourism and Peace’ project, this publication aims to make a significant academic contribution, even as providing also important insights for the broader public in presenting tourism as a powerful tool within the international peace building agenda.

Experts contributing both case studies and theoretical approaches make the Handbook an exclusive and powerful contribution to the overall discussion about new pathways to peace. Based on the diversity, the editors of the book conclude that aspects of “peace sensitive” tourism can be carved out and used by various tourism stakeholders and tourists, as well as international and development organizations.

http://www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article/unwto-launched-international-handbook-tourism-peace/?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Travel%20And%20Tour%20World&utm_content=Jobs+Report+Milestone%3A+Travel+Industry