Chicago, IL – May 20-23, 2017; the National Restaurant, will once again produce its National Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show (NRA) – McCormick Place, Chicago. The Global Travel & Tourism industry, of which the Global Hospitality (restaurants, bars + other types foodservice establishments), is a part, is the world’s largest economic driver. This is so contrary to much debate against it. Of course, you have to consider the trillions of dollars in direct and indirect revenue generated for the multitude of direct and indirect supplier industries.
An example of the impact of tourism can be seen by examining the economic impact of tourism on Chicago. Chicago is one of three U.S. cities to welcome more than 50 million visitors annually with direct spending by visitors reaching an estimated $14.9 billion in 2015, a 34 percent increase since 2010. Domestic visitors to Chicago increased 4.6 percent to a record 50.97 million in 2015. The total number of visitors, including international, is expected to exceed 52 million. In 2017. Chicago’s tourism industry supported an estimated 139,800 jobs, direct jobs.
Current, statistics, from the National Restaurant Association, put the total US employment attributed to the Restaurant industry alone, at 14.7M or 10% of the total US workforce. The jobs created by direct suppliers, indirect suppliers and indirect beneficiary business could be double or triple the direct job numbers. Consider when a visitor shops stores, in a destination, these numbers are not attributed to tourism; We all know how much travelers shop, at there destination. The purchase of gas or medical services, by visitors, also are not attributed to the tourism economy of destinations. The actual total for indirect jobs and economic impact is hard to pin down, but rest assured it is more than substantial.
Globally in 2016 Travel & Tourism directly supported 108,741,000 jobs (3.6% of total employment globally). This is expected to rise by 2.1% in 2017 and rise by 2.2% pa, to 138,086,000 jobs (4.0% of total employment) in 2027. In 2016, the total contribution of Travel & Tourism to employment, including jobs indirectly supported by the Visitor exports generated USD1,401.5bn (6.6% of total exports) in 2016. This is forecast to grow by 4.5% in 2017, and grow by 4.3% pa, from 2017-2027, to USD2,221.0bn in 2027 (7.2% of total).
Travel & Tourism generated jobs 1n 2016 was 9.6% of total global employment (292,220,000 jobs). This is expected to rise by 1.9% in 2017 to 297,896,000 jobs and rise by 2.5% pa to 381,700,000 jobs in 2027 (11.1% of total). The US Restaurant industry generates $799B in annual revenue, which is 4% of the US GDP, and employs 14.7M, which is 15 of the US employed workforce.
The four-day National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show is the Western Hemisphere’s largest foodservice and hospitality industry event. Founded in 1919, the annual NRA Show forum typically brings together approximately 2,000 exhibiting organizations and 60,000 attendees from all 50 states and over 100 countries at McCormick Place in Chicago.
The NRA show has been approved to be part of the U.S. Department of Commerce “International Buyer Program”, and as such, the U.S. Commercial Service will be recruiting buyer delegations from the following countries: Argentina, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Trinidad & Tobago, & Uruguay.
Another reason why the Restaurant Show is important, is because it is one of the Tier 2 drivers, of group business tourism. Business tourism is the lion’s share of the Global Travel & Tourism industry, referred to as MICE (meetings, incentives, conference, events + exhibitions). Of the business tourism. segment of Global Travel & Tourism; conferences + exhibitions are Tier 2 big prize for destinations globally; because destination stakeholders can build relations with the organizers and participants, possibly sustaining the business long term. As stated the Restaurant Show is been pumping millions of dollars in Chicago’s economy since 1919. The Tier 1 driver of Business Tourism is the individual business traveler segment.
The NRA’s Restaurant Show’s, average 4 days in Chicago per attendee, injects an estimated $200,000,000 into the Chicago economy and generates approximately $1.2B in annual sales for hospitality industry suppliers, including many small businesses which, otherwise would not have access to such selling opportunity.
The Global Tourism and Hospitality industry is also leading the way for innovation in and use of sustainable business practices, building design conservation, ecology and technology innovations. More on the here on #BNTheMix, in a subsequent article.
For more insight into the hospitality industry and the NRA’s Restaurant Show, go to https://show.restaurant.org/Home, @NationalRestaurantAssociationShow, @NRAShow,