An aging global population presents an opportunity for the travel sector to exploit, according to a leading economist.

Speaking at The Advantage Travel Partnership’s annual conference in Benidorm, professor Trevor Williams shared a positive outlook for the industry despite the global economic uncertainty.

The former chief economist for Lloyds Bank told delegates that living standards across the world are increasing and people are generally “consuming more than ever before”, as he highlighted how rising life expectancy could favour travel agents and operators.

“Global savings are rising because people are saving for their retirement,” he said. “Lots of travellers increasingly are getting older, and they tend to be wealthier and want to do more stuff.”

United Nations data shows that by 2050, one in six people in the world will be aged over 65 (16%), up from one in 11 in 2019 (9%). In 2018, for the first time in history, the number of people across the world aged 65 or above outnumbered children under five-years-old.

The economist went on to say that while some sectors have been slow to bounce back after the Covid pandemic, tourism has rebounded at a quicker pace.

“Tourism has already rebounded,” he said. “It’s picking back up, not quite back to where it was at the peak of 2019, but not far off.” Williams expects the sector to recover to 2019 levels once China has fully resumed international travel, after which he expects it to “boom”.

He said people will “do anything to travel” regardless of what socio-political or economic issues the world is facing, which should bring hope to the travel sector.

“Of course travel will always continue – the human urge to travel is evolutionary, that’s how we colonised the planet,” he said. “People will do anything to travel.”

Overall in the UK, Williams said the economy would be “stagnant” this year but is likely to expand in 2024, despite Britain’s trading position being weakened by Brexit.

“The economy has not contracted over a two-year period; it just hasn’t caught up with where it was prior to the crisis,” he added.

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