Tourism Contributes to 10.25% of Employment

CNTA New York recently organized experts and scholars from the China Tourism Academy, Research Institute of Statistical Sciences of the National Bureau of Statistics, Research Institute of Labor Sciences of the Ministry of Human Resources and social Security, and Tourism Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences to conduct specific research on the employment driven by entrepreneurship and innovation on the basis of sample surveys, business investigations, and modelling.

I. Overall Status of Employment in Tourism

In 2015, 27.98 million people were directly employed by the tourism industry, and 79.11 million worked in the industry directly or indirectly, accounting for 10.21% of China’s working population. It is expected that in 2016, 28.2 million people will be directly employed by the tourism industry, and 79.74 million work in the industry directly or indirectly, making up 10.25% of the working population.

II. Employment in Core Tourism Sectors

— Travel agencies. More than 340,000 people were employed by about 27,000 travel agencies in China, and 850,000 people held tour guide certificates.

— Accommodation. 1,362,000 people were employed by star-rated hotels, and six million worked in two million agritainment facilities.

— Tourist attractions. There were a total of 1,229,000 employees in A-level scenic spots across the country.

III. Employment Driven by Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Entrepreneurship and innovation directly employed 3,394,500 people, accounting for 12.13% of the total population directly employed by the tourism industry, and it provided jobs for a total of 9,523,000 people directly or indirectly, making up 12.04% of people working in the tourism industry.

i. New accommodation pattern

There were 42,658 homestays and inns in China, employing nearly 900,000 people.

The number of economy hotels exceeded 17,000, and that of their employees reached 200,000.

The nonstandard accommodation pattern based on the mode of sharing economy created about 6,400 jobs.

ii. Online tourism enterprises

Leading online tourism companies including Ctrip, ly.com, Qunar and Lvmama had a staff of about 63,000 in total. The 60 national and regional online travel service providers were estimated to employ about 120,000 people.

iii. Theme parks and resorts

Shanghai Disney Resort, Fantawild, Chimelong and about 70 ocean parks and aquariums in China employed 180,000 people. They together were estimated to occupy a market share of 70%, meaning that various theme parks and resorts across the country directly employed 250,000 people.

iv. Online tourism transportation enterprises

About 15,985,600 people were directly employed by online transportation platforms. Calculated according to a proportion of 12%, online tourism transportation created about 1,918,000 jobs.