INNOVATION REPORT 2015


Passenger Water Transport


Passenger Air Transport


EMPLOYMENT TRENDS IN UK TRAVEL INDUSTRY


2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000


0 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014


YOUR GUIDE TO THE SHAPE AND SIZE OF THE KEY TRAVEL SECTORS


20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000


0 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Travel Agents


50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 300,000 350,000


0 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Tour Operators T


he Office for National Statistics (ONS) data that Kew Associates crunches for this Innovation


Report sets the scene for the analysis by detailing the size and scale of the UK travel sector. The figures show the sector as a 0


10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000


whole employed 479,083 people in the UK in 2014, or 1.5% of the 30.75million people employed in the country. Industry employment fell by 4.7%


travel employment league, with three times as many staff as tour operators. Trends since the start of the


2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014


recession in 2008 reveal a contrasting picture for the five travel sectors this report looks at. Travel agents hit a low in 2013 when 0


5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000


employee numbers dipped under 60,000 before recovering slightly in 2014 to just over 61,000.


between 2008, the start of the recession, and 2010. It recovered to pre-recession levels in 2012 (482,335), only to fall back again (chart, this page). In the travel industry, hotels are by


far the largest employers, the sector accounting for two-thirds of all employment with 316,600 staff in 2014. The smallest travel sector in terms


of number of employees is passenger water transport, which is about a tenth of the size of passenger air transport, the second- heaviest travel employer. Travel agents,


meanwhile, are in third place in the


TRAVEL INDUSTRY, 2008-14 ALL TRAVEL INDUSTRY SECTORS


490,000 480,000 470,000 460,000 450,000


2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 SOURCE: ONS


EMPLOYEES INTHE UK


Hotels


The low coincided with the year


Thomas Cook, then under new management, shed 1,200 jobs, including many frontline high street travel agents, as it closed 195 stores nationwide. In contrast, tour operator


2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014


size of the UK travel industry, 2008-14 (by employment – All Travel Industry Sectors)


employment has seen a steady rise since 2010, reflecting a shifting business dynamic in the UK of firms once regarded as agents starting to operate as tour operators. The hotel sector is the one whose


employment trends most closely match those of the UK as a whole. However, the sector lags the wider economy by a year, indicating a lead-in time between job creation and an upturn in domestic leisure and corporate travel spend. Air transport saw a spike in 2012,


while water transport picked up quickly after the depth of the recession in 2009, only to fall away again. While the employment data points


to the vibrancy of the travel sector, figures on passenger numbers and turnover have been looked at against UK GDP trends to provide a clearer picture.


TRAVOLUTION.CO.UK — FEBRUARY 2015 — 13


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