Travel and Tourism at a Turning Point 2025

Labour and skills crisis The sector faces workforce challenges as it seeks to add more than 100 million new jobs by 2034. Despite creating substantial employment opportunities, T&T struggles with persistent labour shortages, high turnover rates and skills gaps that threaten growth and service quality. Labour shortages persist even years after the post-pandemic recovery. In the United States, pre-pandemic hiring in the leisure and hospitality sector consistently outpaced job openings (in nine months of 2019),68 whereas this occurred only twice in 2023 and four times in 2024 (Figure 6). This persistent gap exists despite wages increasing by over 16 percentage points above inflation,69 indicating structural challenges rather than cyclical. Turnover rates in accommodation and food services are among the highest across sectors, creating substantial operational challenges and costs. Current statistics show that the employee turnover rate in the hospitality industry ranges from 30% to 73% worldwide.70 As an example, in the United Kingdom, 41% of workers changed employers in 2022–2023, while an additional 12% left the workforce entirely, creating a combined turnover of 53%, which far exceeds that in other sectors.71 Projected increase in ratio of visitors to residents in most-visited cities FIGURE 6 Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics72 Hires Job openings Salar y2,400 2,0002,200 1,600 1,2001,400 1,000 600800 Jul 25 Jan 25 Jul 24 Jan 24 Jul 23 Jan 23 Jul 22 Jan 22 Jul 21 Jan 21 Jul 20 Jan 20 Jul 19 Jan 19 Jul 18 Jan 181617181920212223 +43%Number of monthly job hire s and openings (thousands)Average hourly ear nings ($)7 Caption: Mongolian man with a golden eagle, Mongolia Travel and Tourism at a Turning Point: Principles for Transformative Growth 16