The global travel and tourism industry employs more people than car manufacturing, mining and financial services combined, according to research by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).
The WTTC Benchmarking Report 2015 shows the industry employed 105 million people directly in 2014 and supported 277 million jobs in total or 9.4% of world employment.
The report assessed travel and tourism alongside eight sectors comparable in size and presence across 26 countries.
It rates travel and tourism third of the eight as a major employer, behind the retail sector and agriculture.
The industry employs seven times as many workers direct as motor manufacturing (14 million), five times as many as chemicals (20 million), four times as many as banking or mining (both 27 million) and almost twice as many as financial services (59 million).
The WTTC identifies the sector as the second-fastest growing globally, with annual growth forecast at 3.9% over the next ten years.
It calculates travel and tourism generated $7.6 trillion of global GDP last year or 9.8%, putting it behind mining, financial services and retail but ahead of chemicals, agriculture, education, motor manufacturing and banking.
WTTC president and chief executive David Scowsill said: “This research demonstrates the huge importance of travel and tourism in creating jobs around the world.
“It confirms our sector is one of the biggest contributors to global GDP, and is forecast to outpace the global economy every year over the next decade.”