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G20 Summits • 2015 Antalya Summit • Tourism Ministers

6th T.20 Meeting: Declaration

Antalya, September 30, 2015
[PDF]

Tourism, SMEs and Employment – Policies to Stimulate Job Creation and Inclusiveness

We, Ministers of Tourism and Heads of Delegation of G20 member countries and invited States, meeting under Turkey's G20 Presidency, alongside the representatives of the European Commission (EC), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Cooperation Council of the Turkic Speaking States, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), in Antalya, Turkey, on September 30, 2015,

Recalling that,

1. tourism accounts for as much as 10% of world's GDP, considering its direct, indirect and induced impacts[1];
2. tourism represents one of the fastest growing and most resilient economic activities. Forecasts suggest that international tourism will experience sustained growth in the coming years, reaching 1.8 billion international tourist arrivals in 2030[2];
3. tourism plays a major role in international trade. Exports from international tourism, including passengers' transport, reached US$ 1.5 trillion, ranking fourth worldwide and accounting for 6% of the global exports of goods and services and 30% of service exports, in 2014[3];
4. international tourism represents 21% of service exports in OECD countries[4], 45% of service exports for Least Developed Countries (LDCs)[5] and has been identified by many LDCs and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as a powerful engine for economic growth, poverty reduction and one of the most competitive ways to access the global economy;
5. tourism is included within the Sustainable Development Goals in three goals and namely in Goal 8, Target 8.9 – "by 2030, devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products";
6. tourism is one of the six initial programmes of the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns (10YFP), the global framework of action to enhance international cooperation to accelerate the shift towards sustainable consumption and production (SCP) in both developed and developing countries;
7. G20 Leaders recognized in 2012 in Mexico, the role of tourism as "a vehicle for job creation, economic growth and development".

Considering that,

8. tourism is a key sector to support robust and inclusive growth across the world and all levels of government within each state contribute to the development of the sector;
9. tourism and culture are strongly interlinked and both contribute to social and economic growth and to job creation;
10. tourism is a labour intensive service sector which is estimated to account for one in eleven jobs in the world (direct, indirect and induced impacts);
11. tourism creates jobs at all skills levels, not only directly in the sector, but through its value chain in many other sectors such as agriculture, construction, manufacturing, handicrafts, financial services or information and communication technologies;
12. tourism is specially effective at creating opportunities to enter the labour market, gain experience, develop skills and move up into higher level, better paid jobs and improved working conditions in tourism and in other sectors;
13. tourism accounts for a higher share of women's employment and entrepreneurship as compared to the whole economy and can thus be an effective means to promote gender equality and women's empowerment;
14. tourism creates employment opportunities for young people and thus significantly contributes to reducing youth unemployment;
15. tourism is a sector made mostly of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with low technical and capital thresholds, providing major opportunities to integrate MSMEs and start-ups into the value chain;
16. 'accommodation and restaurants', together with other 'private sector services', are expected to create jobs at the fastest rate of any sector in the economy for the next five years;
17. the geographic distribution of tourism within the territory promotes job creation and entrepreneurship at local level, supporting employment in rural areas, including in indigenous communities, and promoting regional development;
18. tourism, as a growth economic activity, demands skills which are widely developed in other areas thus providing job opportunities for people transitioning from many other sectors;
19. tourism has been identified as one of the eleven priority sectors to drive the shift to the Green Economy by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)[6] and can thus play a fundamental role in promoting green jobs.

Recognizing that,

20. data related to tourism employment and MSME's, including for planning future skills needs, is limited;
21. employment in tourism faces important perception challenges;
22. issues such as seasonality, non-standard working conditions, including working hours and remuneration levels, low skill levels and high turnover in some of the tourism industries are important challenges in tourism employment and in ensuring decent work in tourism;
23. work and skills demands in tourism are fast evolving in view of the social, digital and other technological changes occurring in the tourism markets;
24. access to financing remains one of the major challenges for tourism MSMEs, impacting business performance and development and limiting the participation of tourism MSMEs in global value chains;
25. the competitiveness of tourism depends on the quality of the service and thus the sector requires increased investment in human resources development, including education and vocational training, as well as improvement in working conditions and social dialogue;
26. there is a need for more proactive demand and supply side strategies to address continued labour and skills shortages and mismatches and for tourism policies to take better account for human capital development and labour market considerations.

Taking into consideration,

27. the overall aim of the G20 of promoting strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth;
28. the objectives of the G20 of promoting more inclusive labour markets, increasing investment on human resources and achieving successful implementation through effective monitoring;
29. that G20 economies need more and better jobs as a foundation for decent work, sustained growth and the wellbeing of their societies;
30. the objectives set by the G20 Ministers of Labour and Employment meeting held in Ankara on 3-4 September 2015 of reducing the share of young people who are most at risk of being left permanently behind in the labour market (low skilled or informally employed young people and the young people who are neither in employment nor in education or training (NEETs)) by 15% by 2025;
31. the importance to the G20 economies of economic integration to drive growth and job creation and the significant role of tourism in this regard.

In line with the overall priorities of Turkish G20 Presidency – Inclusiveness, Investment for growth and Implementation –, agree to

32. accelerate efforts in the measurement of tourism labour markets in the framework of the UN adopted Tourism Satellite Accounts and the International Recommendations on Tourism Statistics;
33. foster stronger links between the private sector, the public sector and education and training institutions in the area of research in order to identify and address the gaps between training needs and market requirements as well as to support policies that promote decent work in tourism, entrepreneurship, gender equality and youth employment;
34. encourage increased investment in education, training and capacity building in tourism;
35. promote policies appropriate to national circumstances that advance decent work in tourism including improving wage-setting mechanisms, institutions for social dialogue, social protection systems, employment services and active labour market policies;
36. enable cooperation between developing countries and G20 countries in tourism in order to promote inclusive economic opportunities and job creation, with a particular focus on women's education and empowerment;
37. strengthening the links between tourism and trade policies to enhance the access of MSMEs to international markets and global value chains so as to foster the integration of MSMEs into the global economy;
38. define goals and indicators to promote gender equality in working conditions in tourism employment according to the framework defined by UNWTO and UN Women in their 2010 Joint Report[7];
39. promote sustainable development in tourism, by developing more and better job opportunities and including tourism in the Employment Generation Agenda;
40. promote the value of employment in tourism to reflect more accurately the opportunities and benefits of tourism jobs and to attract and retain talent in the sector;
41. strengthen efforts to promote the highest inclusion of tourism businesses in the formal economy;
42. support the objectives set in the G20 Labour and Employment Ministerial Declaration (Ankara, 3-4 September 2015); and
43. encourage G20 Leaders to consider tourism as a priority sector for its capacity to deliver on the objectives of "creating quality jobs for all, investing in skills and reducing inequalities to promote inclusive and robust growth"[8].

We express our gratitude to the Turkish Presidency of the G20 and to the Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey, Mr. Yalcin Topcu, for his leadership in hosting the 6th T.20 Ministers' Meeting.

Antalya, 30 September, 2015.

[1] World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), Economic Impact of Travel and Tourism, 2015; [back to text]
[2] World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Tourism Towards 2030, 2011; [back to text]
[3] UNWTO, Tourism Highlights, 2015; [back to text]
[4] OECD, Tourism Trends and Policies, 2014; [back to text]
[5] UNWTO, Tourism Highlights, 2015; [back to text]
[6] UNEP, Towards a Green Economy, Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication, 2011; [back to text]
[7] UNWTO/UN Women, Global Report on Women in Tourism 2010, 2010; [back to text]
[8] G20 Labour and Employment Ministerial Declaration, Ankara, 03-04 September, 2015. [back to text]

Source: Official website of the Turkish G20 Presidency