Tourism supports millions of jobs, but the reported total depends on whether a source counts only direct tourism employment or wider tourism-related industries. OECD, Eurostat, and national figures show a sector that suffered a sharp pandemic shock and then recovered unevenly across countries and subsectors.
Contents
- OECD benchmarks before and after COVID-19
- The scale and mix of EU tourism employment
- Who works in EU tourism industries
- Selected European country statistics
- Canada and South Africa
- How tourism employment is measured
OECD benchmarks before and after COVID-19
Before COVID-19, tourism directly accounted for an average 6.9% of employment across OECD countries. It also contributed an average 4.4% of OECD GDP and generated 20.4% of service-related exports. These are direct tourism benchmarks for the pre-COVID-19 period, reported by the OECD in Strengthening the tourism workforce: OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024.
The pandemic changed the economic picture quickly. The average direct tourism contribution to GDP fell to 2.5% in 2020. Across the same OECD-country set, it recovered to 3.9% in 2022. The recovery in output did not mean that every tourism job had returned: employment in OECD accommodation and food services was still 5.3% below its 2019 level in 2022.
The comparison is useful because it separates a broad pre-pandemic benchmark from the specific recovery years:
| OECD indicator | Reference period | Reported figure |
|---|---|---|
| Direct share of employment | Pre-COVID-19 | 6.9% |
| Direct contribution to GDP | Pre-COVID-19 | 4.4% |
| Share of service-related exports | Pre-COVID-19 | 20.4% |
| Direct contribution to GDP | 2020 | 2.5% |
| Direct contribution to GDP | 2022 | 3.9% |
| Accommodation and food-services employment versus 2019 | 2022 | -5.3% |
These figures should not be read as a single universal employment series. The GDP and export measures describe tourism’s direct economic contribution, while the accommodation and food-services measure is an employment comparison for a particular group of activities.
The scale and mix of EU tourism employment
Eurostat reported 11.3 million people employed in EU economic activities related to tourism in 2021. Food and beverage activities represented the largest component, with 6.8 million jobs. Accommodation accounted for 2.1 million, transport for 1.8 million, and travel agencies and tour operators for 0.4 million. Accommodation, travel agencies or tour operators, and air transport together employed 2.8 million people in the EU in 2021, according to Eurostat’s “EU tourism industries employed 11.3 million people”.
Eurostat’s later business statistics reported 13.4 million people in tourism-characteristic activities across the EU in 2023. Within that 2023 measure, food and beverage serving services represented 56.7% of employment and accommodation represented 19.6%, as reported in Key figures on European business – 2026 edition.
The 2021 and 2023 totals provide two important snapshots, but they are not a directly comparable time series. Eurostat’s tourism industries include activities that can serve tourists as well as non-tourists. The definitions and activity coverage therefore matter when interpreting the apparent difference between 11.3 million and 13.4 million.
Who works in EU tourism industries
The workforce profile of selected EU tourism industries differs from the broader EU business workforce. In 2023, women represented 57.6% of workers in the selected tourism industries, compared with 36.4% of the workforce in the EU non-financial business economy. Part-time work accounted for 21.3% of tourism-industry employment, versus 15.2% in the non-financial business economy.
Younger workers were also more prominent in tourism. People aged 15–24 represented 11.0% of EU tourism-industry employment in 2023, compared with 9.0% of employment in the EU non-financial business economy. People with lower educational attainment represented 20.2% of tourism-industry employment, compared with 18.9% of employment in the EU total economy. These comparisons come from Eurostat’s tourism-industry release.
| Workforce measure, 2023 | Selected EU tourism industries | Comparison economy |
|---|---|---|
| Women | 57.6% | 36.4% of EU non-financial business economy |
| Part-time work | 21.3% | 15.2% |
| Ages 15–24 | 11.0% | 9.0% |
| Lower educational attainment | 20.2% | 18.9% of EU total economy |
| Foreign citizens | 15.9% | 10.6% of EU non-financial business economy |
| Temporary contracts | 20.8% | 12.0% |
| Current job held for less than one year | 23.1% | 14.8% |
Foreign citizens represented 15.9% of the EU tourism-industry labour force in 2023. The reported composition included 7% from other EU countries and 9% from outside the EU; the component figures are rounded and should not be treated as a more precise decomposition than the published percentages. Foreign citizens represented 10.6% of the EU non-financial business economy labour force.
Temporary contracts covered 20.8% of tourism-industry employees, compared with 12.0% in the non-financial business economy. Employees who had held their current job for less than one year represented 23.1% of tourism-industry employment, compared with 14.8% in the comparison economy. Together, these measures describe a workforce with relatively high shares of younger, part-time, foreign, temporary, and recently hired workers; they do not identify why an individual holds a particular job arrangement.
Selected European country statistics
National estimates illustrate how different definitions and economic structures produce different tourism-employment shares. Germany’s tourism sector employed 1.9 million people, or 4.2% of total employment, in 2022. A newer German estimate put tourism-industry employment at 2.7 million people, or 6% of total employment, in 2024. Both figures are reported by the OECD’s Germany profile, but the years and estimates should be kept distinct.
Luxembourg recorded 40,421 direct tourism jobs in 2022, 6.6% above its pre-pandemic level. Tourism accounted for 8.1% of total employment that year, according to the OECD’s Luxembourg profile.
Spain’s tourism sector directly employed 2,975,000 registered workers in 2025. That represented 13.4% of the total workforce, and the number of people employed in Spanish tourism increased 1.9% from 2024 to 2025. The figures are from the OECD’s Spain profile.
Other national snapshots include:
- Austria directly contributed 177,000 full-time-equivalent tourism jobs in 2024, equal to 4.3% of total employment. The share was 0.2 percentage points higher than in 2023, according to the OECD’s Austria profile.
- Lithuania employed 49,400 people in tourism in 2024, representing 4.5% of the total workforce. Employment increased 1% from 2023 to 2024, according to the OECD’s Lithuania profile.
- Finland’s tourism sector directly provided 122,800 full-time-equivalent jobs, or 5.3% of total employment, in 2023. The corresponding 2019 figure was 128,600 jobs, or 5.6% of total employment, according to the OECD’s Finland profile.
- The Netherlands recorded 458,000 tourism jobs, or 5.5% of total employment, in 2024. Dutch tourism employment was 1.3% higher than in 2023, according to the OECD’s Netherlands profile.
- Serbia recorded approximately 165,000 jobs in tourism-related industries in 2024, equal to 7.0% of total employment. The figure increased 2.6%, or 4,200 jobs, from 2023 to 2024, according to the OECD’s Serbia profile.
These country figures mix direct employment, tourism-related industries, and full-time-equivalent measures. They are best used as country-specific benchmarks rather than as a ranking produced from one identical methodology.
Canada and South Africa
Canadian tourism directly supported 702,650 jobs in 2024. When direct and wider support were combined, tourism supported 10% of Canadian jobs in total in 2024. For 2023, the direct figure was 676,700 jobs, or 3.4% of total employment. Canadian tourism jobs increased 35% from 2020 to 2023, rising from 500,300 to 676,700 direct jobs. These figures are reported in the OECD’s Canada profile.
South African tourism directly contributed an estimated 954,000 jobs in 2024. That estimate represented 5.7% of the total workforce, up 1.0 percentage point from 2023, according to the OECD’s South Africa profile. The word “estimated” is important: it identifies the status of the South African figure and should remain attached to the 2024 number.
Canada’s 10% measure is a combined direct-and-wider-support figure, while its 3.4% measure is direct tourism employment. South Africa’s figure is an estimated direct contribution. These distinctions prevent the percentages from being treated as like-for-like country rankings.
How tourism employment is measured
Tourism employment is not always captured by one employment category. The OECD notes that accommodation and food services account for approximately 50% of tourism employment and are used as a partial proxy when broader tourism employment data are unavailable. Across countries with Tourism Satellite Account data, accommodation and food services account for more than 50% of tourism jobs in the 2019 comparison.
The proxy has limits. Accommodation and food services can include work serving local customers, while tourism also creates jobs in activities beyond those sectors. The OECD workforce assessment also notes that informal and casual work can be missed by official statistics. This means a reported direct total may be lower than the full amount of work connected to visitor spending, depending on the statistical framework.
Workforce pressure can also be visible in policy indicators rather than employment counts. Austria’s annual quota for seasonal tourism workers was reported as 1,200 in 2022, 3,000 in 2022, 3,400 in 2023, and 4,300 in 2024 as the sector addressed labour needs. The repeated 2022 value is preserved as reported in the OECD workforce chapter; the quota is a workforce-policy indicator, not a count of people employed.
For readers comparing tourism employment statistics, the most important checks are the reference year, geography, unit, and coverage. A percentage may describe total employment, a count may describe direct jobs, and a full-time-equivalent estimate may not equal the number of people. Keeping those definitions beside each figure is essential when interpreting tourism’s recovery, workforce composition, or labour needs.