Numbers don’t lie. And the latest numbers from the travel sector show that the industry is a force to be reckoned with.

The travel sector has a huge footprint in the world’s economy, a report by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) indicates. The travel industry contributed more than $7.2 trillion to the global GDP in 2015—and that accounts for nearly 9.8 percent of the world’s economic output.

WTTC’s Travel and Tourism Economic Impact report [PDF] shows the profound effect the industry has on employment in 184 countries and 24 world regions. The travel sector was responsible for more than 107 million jobs in 2015, a figure that’s expected to grow by 2 percent this year.

And travelers aren’t out of the picture. More than 1 billion people traveled in 2015, while the WTTC predicts 1.2 billion will travel worldwide this year.

“Terror attacks, disease outbreaks, currency fluctuations, and geopolitical challenges have impacted the sector at a country or regional level, but travel and tourism at the global level continues to produce another robust performance,” WTTC CEO David Scowsill said in a statement, according to Skift.

The WTTC estimates there will be 2 billion travelers in 2026. That means that, based on population projections, 25 percent of the world’s population will be traveling internationally.

Projections for the future abound: Scowsill added that 370 million jobs in the world are to be accounted to the travel and tourism industry in 2026.

Tweet of the Day

Great thoughts on how to incorporate and grow from voices of opposition #assnchat https://t.co/q20FqUnSUu

— Lowell Aplebaum, FASAE, CAE (@Lowellmatthew) March 31, 2016

Seek out the opposition. We’ve all had negative naysayers on our teams during our careers. It’s time to hear them out, and it may be for the best.

“If you step back from the personal reactions you have to opposition and take a systems lens to the dialogue,” Jennifer Porter proposes at Harvard Business Review, “you see that opposition plays a crucial role in helping teams assess the quality of ideas, differentiate between different approaches, limit unproductive conversation, and ultimately make high-quality decisions.”

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It’s always nice to give volunteers a parting gift … except maybe your organization shouldn’t. Tessa Srebro writes at VolunteerMatch’s blog on why you should avoid it and offers alternative ways to show appreciation.

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