Emerging economies will receive more international tourist arrivals than advanced economies from 2015 and will surpass the one billion mark by 2030, industry and business body Assocham said on Saturday.

An Assocham-Yes Bank joint study, released here by Gujarat Tourism Minister Saurabh Patel, said international arrivals in emerging economy destinations are expected to keep growing annually at double the pace (4.4%) of advanced economies (2.2%). In absolute terms, emerging economies will add, on average, 30 million arrivals a year, compared to 14 million by advanced economies.

It said that, over the past six decades, tourism and hospitality industry has experienced continued expansion in terms of diversification and has become one of the largest and fastest-growing economic sectors in the world. International tourist arrivals have shown virtually uninterrupted growth – from 25 million in 1950 to 1,035 million in 2012.

Nearly 260 million jobs worldwide are supported directly or indirectly by travel and tourism. The study reveals that with 98 million people directly employed in 2011, this industry directly employs six times more people than automotive manufacturing, five times more than chemicals industry, four times more than mining, twice more than the communications industry and a third more than financial services.

The travel and tourism industry’s contribution to India’s GDP was expected to increase from 6.6% in 2012 to 7.9% by 2023.

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