According to Statista, Croatia is the only EU country where the travel and tourism industry has not only recovered but has also surpassed its pre-pandemic contribution to GDP in 2022. According to SchengenVisaInfo.com, this industry contributed for roughly 26% of Croatia’s GDP.
Portugal and Greece placed second and third in 2022, with travel and tourism accounting for 15.8 percent and 18.5 percent of their respective GDPs. Travel and tourism are critical to the economy of various European countries, including Greece, Portugal, and Spain.
While the travel and tourism sector contributes less than 8% of GDP in most European Union member countries, there are a few exceptions.
Spain, for example, experienced a significant proportion of 13.6% in 2022, a tiny reduction from 14.1% in 2019. Malta and Cyprus also made considerable contributions in 2022, with 12.6 percent and 12.2 percent, respectively, compared to 15% and 13.7 percent in 2019. Italy’s share remained largely steady, at 10.2 percent in 2022 against 10.6 percent in 2019.
Other nations that made significant contributions were Austria, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Germany, Estonia, Luxembourg, and France.
Finland is one of the countries where the travel and tourism sector contributed less than 8% of GDP, falling from 7.7% in 2019 to 6.6% in 2022. Sweden’s unemployment rate fell from 7.1% in 2019 to 6.7%. Hungary’s share went from 8.3 percent to 6.6 percent, and Bulgaria’s contribution fell from 9.9 percent in
2019 to 6.5 percent in 2022.
Similarly, Latvia’s participation fell from 7.6 percent in 2019 to 6.4 percent in 2020.
Furthermore, numerous nations, including Denmark, Romania, Belgium, Slovakia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Ireland, have travel and tourism contributions to GDP of less than 6% in 2022.
Ireland had the lowest GDP contribution of any EU country, accounting for only 3%.
Austria is out in Central Europe, providing 9.5% of GDP in 2022, down from 10.8% in 2019, while Estonia stands out among the Baltic nations, contributing 8.7% of GDP in 2022, down from 12.3% in 2019.
Travel and tourism contributed more than €1,981.23 billion to Europe’s GDP in 2019, but by 2022, this value had fallen to €1,838.65 billion. Similarly, the contribution in the United Kingdom was €235.59 billion in 2019, falling to €224.78 billion in 2022.
Tags: Croatia, European Union (EU), Tourism
