International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) has published a white paper that brings clarity to the economic value and impact of luxury travel to communities, individuals and businesses, as well as a podcast that details the findings.
Both the white paper and podcast are now available on ILTM’s website.
The white paper, produced by Barton Consulting under ILTM’s order, highlights several key discoveries. Valued at US$2.05 trillion, the global luxury travel universe would rank in the top 10 if it were a global economy; if it were a country, it would be bigger than Italy; and it is considerably larger than a number of other discretionary global goods and services industries, such as consumer electronics and fashion retail, according to the report.
The white paper also finds that 105.9 million people are directly employed within travel across the world and whose livelihood is dependent on High Net Worth (HNW) travellers, even though the latter comprise only 0.3 per cent of the global population.
The global luxury travel ecosystem of activities, valued at US$1.54 trillion, provides employment for an additional 62 million people globally.
The white paper also states that luxury travel is a vital component in the distribution of wealth across the globe: local economies are dependent on luxury travellers for arts, culture, restaurants, guides, sporting events, etc.
In the podcast entitled, Luxury Travel’s true impact on business and employment, Barton’s Winston Chesterfield explains how such a small community of HNW travellers can make such a big economic impact by spreading their wealth to benefit local economies, communities, individuals and businesses. He explores how these individuals will be the first to kick start the industry post-Covid-19, and why the wealth they control is vital to keep the world moving.
Explaining the move to commission the white paper and podcast, Alison Gilmore, ILTM portfolio director, said in a statement: “We wanted to contribute to our industry and provide some new insight, facts and figures that we hope will give comfort to those who have suffered as a result of the Covid-19 shutdown of this industry.
“When the time is right, a new future will emerge and ILTM is here as a catalyst, however long this journey takes”.
