‘Travel and tourism is the fastest growing sector in the world’s economy’

Ray Kearney of TU Dublin told delegates at the Irish Hotels Federation Annual Conference in Killarney that tourism offered substantial long-term growth opportunities through integration into Ireland’s enterprise strategy, while the sector needed to secure greater political and financial backing at European level.

He explained that growth encompassed different dimensions including demand, supply, short-term gains, and long-term development. Kearney welcomed the inclusion of tourism in the emerging Enterprise 2035 strategy, which opened possibilities for startups, incubators, accelerators, innovation, research, decarbonisation, and digitalisation. He argued that tourism businesses deserved the same access to finance and export-quality opportunities currently available to export-facing sectors.

Kearney described travel and tourism as the fastest-growing sector globally, outpacing technology, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, and agriculture. He cited forecasts that by 2035 one in seven jobs created in the EU would be supported by travel and tourism, with the sector already accounting for approximately 10 per cent of EU GDP, 22m jobs, and 3.5m businesses.

Despite the sector’s scale, Kearney pointed to entrenched barriers identified in a recent PwC report from October 2025, including low political prioritisation, unclear mandates, limited coordination, and restricted access to funding. He noted that only 11 people worked on tourism matters in the European Commission, compared with 852 in agriculture, and that the European Parliament’s tourism task force faced a proposed reduction in meetings from four to two in the current year.

Kearney highlighted positive developments including the appointment of a new commissioner for tourism in December 2025, which elevated the unit from one of 39 within DG GROW to a standalone priority. A new EU tourism strategy was due in May 2026, negotiations on the next multi-annual financial framework were under way, and the United Nations had designated 2027 as the International Year of Sustainable and Resilient Tourism.

He urged Ireland to capitalise on its upcoming EU Presidency to advance tourism through collaboration with partners Lithuania and Greece. Kearney believed that placing tourism firmly on the political agenda would drive meaningful progress.

“Travel and tourism is the fastest growing sector in the world’s economy. More than technology, more than um financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, etc. So, it’s a hugely important sector and it’s growing”

“By 2035 one in seven jobs created by the EU or in the EU will be supported by travel and tourism and that’s very significant in the context of the conversations around AI obviously and also just to say that you know tourism represents 10% of um the EU’s GDP approximately 22m jobs and 3.5m tourism businesses”

“A recent report by PWC in October of just last year pointed to entrenched barriers that tourism faces in the EU27 and they were listed as low political prioritization, unclear mandates, limited coordination and access to funding”

Ray Kearney shared “there was never a better time for us as a country to advance tourism given the backdrop that we have and we will do that our partners Lithuania and Greece and I think there’s a very exciting potentially you know high level work program that we can do on tourism as part of that kind of presence and like we know if it’s on the political agenda then you you do see progress which is all important. So an opportunity here with all eyes on Ireland for a short time at least”