WTTC Rome Summit: €8bn investment and travel workforce shortfall

At its 25th Global Summit in Rome this week, the World Travel & Tourism Council launched two major reports and announced more than 8 billion euros in new investment commitments for Italy, underscoring the sector's postpandemic recovery and flagging a looming global labour shortfall that could constrain future growth. The summit, hosted in partnership with Italy's tourism ministry and local authorities, brought together industry leaders, ministers and executives to discuss growth, jobs and sustainability.

WTTC's Economic Impact Research Trends report showed Europe remains central to international tourism, with five of the world's top 10 travel markets by contribution to GDP. The United States was the largest market in 2024, contributing 2.6 trillion dollars to GDP, followed by China at 1.64 trillion. Italy's travel and tourism sector contributed 248.3 billion euros last year and is projected to add 258 billion euros and support 3.1 million jobs in 2025, the council said. Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Spain also posted substantial contributions, reinforcing Europe's broad-based strength in heritage, meetings and events, and sustainable tourism investment.