Tourism

Tourism is one of the most inclusive and scalable engines of job creation and economic development. The travel and tourism sector supports:

10% of global GDP, contributing US$10.9 trillion in 2024

357 million jobs worldwide—about one in every ten jobs

US$1.9 trillion in international visitor spending in 2024.

Tourism links global demand to local suppliers across long value chains—hospitality, transport, food systems, cultural services, and retail—creating entry points for women, youth, and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

When managed well, tourism catalyzes diversified growth. It stimulates private investment, expands markets for local producers, and spreads income beyond cities into rural and coastal communities. It also helps finance the conservation of natural and cultural assets and can anchor climate-friendly livelihoods central to the blue and green economy.

Critically, tourism has a jobs multiplier effect: every direct tourism job generates additional jobs in supply chains and supporting services. This makes tourism particularly effective at turning investment into widespread employment. The sector’s tradable yet place-based nature—drawing spending from international visitors while channeling benefits locally—means countries can capture foreign exchange and fiscal revenues while strengthening domestic firms. And because women comprise a majority of the workforce in many contexts and youth hold a significant share of jobs, targeted skilling and inclusion policies can quickly improve job quality and earnings.

However, the sector’s benefits are not automatic. Without resilient infrastructure, well-coordinated destination management, and safeguards for environmental and cultural assets, tourism can underperform or create social and ecological pressures. The World Bank Group supports countries to design and implement strategies that maximize net-positive impacts—prioritizing high-potential destinations, strengthening governance, and crowding in private investment—so tourism delivers more and better jobs, higher productivity, and durable, inclusive growth.

The World Bank Group’s approach to tourism is organized around three reinforcing pillars that turn demand into sustainable employment: foundational infrastructure, enabling regulation and governance, and private investment.

• Foundational infrastructure: Countries need reliable, resilient infrastructure systems—such as transport links, energy, water and sanitation, waste management, and digital connectivity—to make tourism work. The World Bank Group finances the development of quality infrastructure which lowers business costs, improves service quality, builds skills, and lengthens stays and spending, directly creating jobs in construction and operations and indirectly in logistics, retail, and local services. Integrated spatial planning connects tourism sites into corridors and clusters, ensuring investments unlock scale and reduce seasonality.

• Enabling regulation and governance: Clear rules, streamlined permits, and effective institutions give investors confidence and coordinate multiple actors across the tourism sector. The World Bank Group supports countries to establish Destination Management Organizations and strengthen data systems, standards, and certification to align land use, conservation, safety, and market development. These measures formalize micro, small, and medium enterprises, improve job quality, and ensure tourism revenues help preserve the natural and cultural assets that drive demand.

• Private investment: Hospitality and experience providers generate most tourism jobs. The World Bank Group mobilizes private capital—through IFC financing and MIGA guarantees—while embedding Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), gender, and skills requirements to raise job quality and inclusion. Linkage programs connect hotels and tour operators to local suppliers, expanding opportunities for micro, small, and medium and women-led enterprises. Skilling is a cross-cutting accelerator: demand-driven training, apprenticeships, and digital learning match labor supply with employer needs, improving placement and wages.

Together, these pillars crowd in investment, reduce risk, and scale people-centered employment. By prioritizing high-potential destinations, protecting the assets that make them competitive, and tying investments to skilling and inclusion, the World Bank Group helps client countries convert tourism demand into resilient, formal jobs and broad-based local prosperity.

• Indonesia: A US$955 million World Bank loan supported the Integrated Infrastructure Development for National Tourism Strategic Areas, improving tourism-relevant infrastructure, services, and local economic linkages across six destinations. The project catalyzed nearly US$900 million in private investment, added over 11,000 hotel rooms, and upskilled more than 83,000 tourism professionals. Community-based tourism expanded as 18,000 participants from 75 villages launched attractions to capture visitor spending. An initial impact assessment by Indonesia’s National Planning Agency found a 27.5% rise in job opportunities across the six destinations, with over 975,000 jobs created.
• Madagascar: A US$450 million series of World Bank and IFC-supported operations strengthened enabling infrastructure, SME capacity, and the investment climate in priority regions to grow sustainable tourism. Results include more than 10,000 jobs created and over 30,000 businesses registered. During COVID-19, the program provided emergency support to the Ministry of Tourism and the National Tourism Promotion Board to plan and implement recovery measures, while offering direct assistance to affected tourism firms and worker groups to enable a gradual sector relaunch.
• Sierra Leone: The Economic Diversification Project targets investment and entrepreneurship in non-mining sectors with a strong focus on sustainable tourism. Despite COVID-19 headwinds, the project rebranded the country, doubled tourist arrivals, created 17,000 jobs (14,000 across the tourism value chain), and leveraged US$40 million in private investment. It also advanced environmental sustainability—reducing single-use plastics, piloting circular tourism business models—and supported the expansion of women-run tourism enterprises.
• Pakistan: IDA-financed projects in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa aim to enhance security perceptions, strengthen public sector capacity, improve workforce skills, expand community participation, and provide connectivity infrastructure. To date, more than 32 tourism and heritage sites have been upgraded, including improvements to museums, signage, and visitor facilities. The projects produced eight Destination Management and Investment Plans and pre-feasibility studies, identifying 30+ investment-ready opportunities for private partners. Over 200,000 people have benefited so far, including 45,000 women.

• Urban Development
• Resilience & Disaster Management