ILO emphasizes role of tourism in employment( Xinhua) 20:47, September 25, 2013 Tourism had boosted global employment and been a key driver of poverty reduction inpast decades, and this trend should accelerate during the next decade, the InternationalLabor Organization (ILO) said Wednesday.
Ahead of World Tourism Day on Sept. 27, the U.N. agency called for an agenda promotingdecent work across the industry to guarantee its future sustainability, competitiveness andproductivity.
The ILO's latest data, released in April, showed travel and tourism in 2012 were estimatedto have created more than 260 million jobs worldwide and generated about 9 percent ofglobal GDP. It forecast that, by 2022, total tourism employment worldwide would reach328 million jobs, or nearly one in 10 jobs in the global workforce.
In its working paper, ILO highlighted the industry allowed for quick entry into theworkforce for youth, women and migrant workers.
Tourism had an inter-sectoral link with other areas of the economy, it said. And being alabour-intensive service industry, tourism had the potential to contribute to povertyalleviation through localization, by developing value chains and integrated approaches tosustainable tourism development and with a wide range of micro-enterprises thatdominate the sector in many countries.
ILO further called for more efforts to strengthen social dialogue mechanisms that wouldfavor respect of labour rights, improvement of working conditions and the ability ofcompanies to better respond to the needs and demands of the labour market. （Editor：GaoYinan、Wang Jinxue）
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