how many employees work in tourism industry

The future of tourism: Bridging the labor gap, enhancing customer experience

As travel resumes and builds momentum, it’s becoming clear that tourism is resilient—there is an enduring desire to travel. Against all odds, international tourism rebounded in 2022: visitor numbers to Europe and the Middle East climbed to around 80 percent of 2019 levels, and the Americas recovered about 65 percent of prepandemic visitors 1 “Tourism set to return to pre-pandemic levels in some regions in 2023,” United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), January 17, 2023. —a number made more significant because it was reached without travelers from China, which had the world’s largest outbound travel market before the pandemic. 2 “ Outlook for China tourism 2023: Light at the end of the tunnel ,” McKinsey, May 9, 2023.

Recovery and growth are likely to continue. According to estimates from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) for 2023, international tourist arrivals could reach 80 to 95 percent of prepandemic levels depending on the extent of the economic slowdown, travel recovery in Asia–Pacific, and geopolitical tensions, among other factors. 3 “Tourism set to return to pre-pandemic levels in some regions in 2023,” United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), January 17, 2023. Similarly, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) forecasts that by the end of 2023, nearly half of the 185 countries in which the organization conducts research will have either recovered to prepandemic levels or be within 95 percent of full recovery. 4 “Global travel and tourism catapults into 2023 says WTTC,” World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), April 26, 2023.

Longer-term forecasts also point to optimism for the decade ahead. Travel and tourism GDP is predicted to grow, on average, at 5.8 percent a year between 2022 and 2032, outpacing the growth of the overall economy at an expected 2.7 percent a year. 5 Travel & Tourism economic impact 2022 , WTTC, August 2022.

So, is it all systems go for travel and tourism? Not really. The industry continues to face a prolonged and widespread labor shortage. After losing 62 million travel and tourism jobs in 2020, labor supply and demand remain out of balance. 6 “WTTC research reveals Travel & Tourism’s slow recovery is hitting jobs and growth worldwide,” World Travel & Tourism Council, October 6, 2021. Today, in the European Union, 11 percent of tourism jobs are likely to go unfilled; in the United States, that figure is 7 percent. 7 Travel & Tourism economic impact 2022 : Staff shortages, WTTC, August 2022.

There has been an exodus of tourism staff, particularly from customer-facing roles, to other sectors, and there is no sign that the industry will be able to bring all these people back. 8 Travel & Tourism economic impact 2022 : Staff shortages, WTTC, August 2022. Hotels, restaurants, cruises, airports, and airlines face staff shortages that can translate into operational, reputational, and financial difficulties. If unaddressed, these shortages may constrain the industry’s growth trajectory.

The current labor shortage may have its roots in factors related to the nature of work in the industry. Chronic workplace challenges, coupled with the effects of COVID-19, have culminated in an industry struggling to rebuild its workforce. Generally, tourism-related jobs are largely informal, partly due to high seasonality and weak regulation. And conditions such as excessively long working hours, low wages, a high turnover rate, and a lack of social protection tend to be most pronounced in an informal economy. Additionally, shift work, night work, and temporary or part-time employment are common in tourism.

The industry may need to revisit some fundamentals to build a far more sustainable future: either make the industry more attractive to talent (and put conditions in place to retain staff for longer periods) or improve products, services, and processes so that they complement existing staffing needs or solve existing pain points.

One solution could be to build a workforce with the mix of digital and interpersonal skills needed to keep up with travelers’ fast-changing requirements. The industry could make the most of available technology to provide customers with a digitally enhanced experience, resolve staff shortages, and improve working conditions.

Would you like to learn more about our Travel, Logistics & Infrastructure Practice ?

Complementing concierges with chatbots.

The pace of technological change has redefined customer expectations. Technology-driven services are often at customers’ fingertips, with no queues or waiting times. By contrast, the airport and airline disruption widely reported in the press over the summer of 2022 points to customers not receiving this same level of digital innovation when traveling.

Imagine the following travel experience: it’s 2035 and you start your long-awaited honeymoon to a tropical island. A virtual tour operator and a destination travel specialist booked your trip for you; you connected via videoconference to make your plans. Your itinerary was chosen with the support of generative AI , which analyzed your preferences, recommended personalized travel packages, and made real-time adjustments based on your feedback.

Before leaving home, you check in online and QR code your luggage. You travel to the airport by self-driving cab. After dropping off your luggage at the self-service counter, you pass through security and the biometric check. You access the premier lounge with the QR code on the airline’s loyalty card and help yourself to a glass of wine and a sandwich. After your flight, a prebooked, self-driving cab takes you to the resort. No need to check in—that was completed online ahead of time (including picking your room and making sure that the hotel’s virtual concierge arranged for red roses and a bottle of champagne to be delivered).

While your luggage is brought to the room by a baggage robot, your personal digital concierge presents the honeymoon itinerary with all the requested bookings. For the romantic dinner on the first night, you order your food via the restaurant app on the table and settle the bill likewise. So far, you’ve had very little human interaction. But at dinner, the sommelier chats with you in person about the wine. The next day, your sightseeing is made easier by the hotel app and digital guide—and you don’t get lost! With the aid of holographic technology, the virtual tour guide brings historical figures to life and takes your sightseeing experience to a whole new level. Then, as arranged, a local citizen meets you and takes you to their home to enjoy a local family dinner. The trip is seamless, there are no holdups or snags.

This scenario features less human interaction than a traditional trip—but it flows smoothly due to the underlying technology. The human interactions that do take place are authentic, meaningful, and add a special touch to the experience. This may be a far-fetched example, but the essence of the scenario is clear: use technology to ease typical travel pain points such as queues, misunderstandings, or misinformation, and elevate the quality of human interaction.

Travel with less human interaction may be considered a disruptive idea, as many travelers rely on and enjoy the human connection, the “service with a smile.” This will always be the case, but perhaps the time is right to think about bringing a digital experience into the mix. The industry may not need to depend exclusively on human beings to serve its customers. Perhaps the future of travel is physical, but digitally enhanced (and with a smile!).

Digital solutions are on the rise and can help bridge the labor gap

Digital innovation is improving customer experience across multiple industries. Car-sharing apps have overcome service-counter waiting times and endless paperwork that travelers traditionally had to cope with when renting a car. The same applies to time-consuming hotel check-in, check-out, and payment processes that can annoy weary customers. These pain points can be removed. For instance, in China, the Huazhu Hotels Group installed self-check-in kiosks that enable guests to check in or out in under 30 seconds. 9 “Huazhu Group targets lifestyle market opportunities,” ChinaTravelNews, May 27, 2021.

Technology meets hospitality

In 2019, Alibaba opened its FlyZoo Hotel in Huangzhou, described as a “290-room ultra-modern boutique, where technology meets hospitality.” 1 “Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has a hotel run almost entirely by robots that can serve food and fetch toiletries—take a look inside,” Business Insider, October 21, 2019; “FlyZoo Hotel: The hotel of the future or just more technology hype?,” Hotel Technology News, March 2019. The hotel was the first of its kind that instead of relying on traditional check-in and key card processes, allowed guests to manage reservations and make payments entirely from a mobile app, to check-in using self-service kiosks, and enter their rooms using facial-recognition technology.

The hotel is run almost entirely by robots that serve food and fetch toiletries and other sundries as needed. Each guest room has a voice-activated smart assistant to help guests with a variety of tasks, from adjusting the temperature, lights, curtains, and the TV to playing music and answering simple questions about the hotel and surroundings.

The hotel was developed by the company’s online travel platform, Fliggy, in tandem with Alibaba’s AI Labs and Alibaba Cloud technology with the goal of “leveraging cutting-edge tech to help transform the hospitality industry, one that keeps the sector current with the digital era we’re living in,” according to the company.

Adoption of some digitally enhanced services was accelerated during the pandemic in the quest for safer, contactless solutions. During the Winter Olympics in Beijing, a restaurant designed to keep physical contact to a minimum used a track system on the ceiling to deliver meals directly from the kitchen to the table. 10 “This Beijing Winter Games restaurant uses ceiling-based tracks,” Trendhunter, January 26, 2022. Customers around the world have become familiar with restaurants using apps to display menus, take orders, and accept payment, as well as hotels using robots to deliver luggage and room service (see sidebar “Technology meets hospitality”). Similarly, theme parks, cinemas, stadiums, and concert halls are deploying digital solutions such as facial recognition to optimize entrance control. Shanghai Disneyland, for example, offers annual pass holders the option to choose facial recognition to facilitate park entry. 11 “Facial recognition park entry,” Shanghai Disney Resort website.

Automation and digitization can also free up staff from attending to repetitive functions that could be handled more efficiently via an app and instead reserve the human touch for roles where staff can add the most value. For instance, technology can help customer-facing staff to provide a more personalized service. By accessing data analytics, frontline staff can have guests’ details and preferences at their fingertips. A trainee can become an experienced concierge in a short time, with the help of technology.

Apps and in-room tech: Unused market potential

According to Skift Research calculations, total revenue generated by guest apps and in-room technology in 2019 was approximately $293 million, including proprietary apps by hotel brands as well as third-party vendors. 1 “Hotel tech benchmark: Guest-facing technology 2022,” Skift Research, November 2022. The relatively low market penetration rate of this kind of tech points to around $2.4 billion in untapped revenue potential (exhibit).

Even though guest-facing technology is available—the kind that can facilitate contactless interactions and offer travelers convenience and personalized service—the industry is only beginning to explore its potential. A report by Skift Research shows that the hotel industry, in particular, has not tapped into tech’s potential. Only 11 percent of hotels and 25 percent of hotel rooms worldwide are supported by a hotel app or use in-room technology, and only 3 percent of hotels offer keyless entry. 12 “Hotel tech benchmark: Guest-facing technology 2022,” Skift Research, November 2022. Of the five types of technology examined (guest apps and in-room tech; virtual concierge; guest messaging and chatbots; digital check-in and kiosks; and keyless entry), all have relatively low market-penetration rates (see sidebar “Apps and in-room tech: Unused market potential”).

While apps, digitization, and new technology may be the answer to offering better customer experience, there is also the possibility that tourism may face competition from technological advances, particularly virtual experiences. Museums, attractions, and historical sites can be made interactive and, in some cases, more lifelike, through AR/VR technology that can enhance the physical travel experience by reconstructing historical places or events.

Up until now, tourism, arguably, was one of a few sectors that could not easily be replaced by tech. It was not possible to replicate the physical experience of traveling to another place. With the emerging metaverse , this might change. Travelers could potentially enjoy an event or experience from their sofa without any logistical snags, and without the commitment to traveling to another country for any length of time. For example, Google offers virtual tours of the Pyramids of Meroë in Sudan via an immersive online experience available in a range of languages. 13 Mariam Khaled Dabboussi, “Step into the Meroë pyramids with Google,” Google, May 17, 2022. And a crypto banking group, The BCB Group, has created a metaverse city that includes representations of some of the most visited destinations in the world, such as the Great Wall of China and the Statue of Liberty. According to BCB, the total cost of flights, transfers, and entry for all these landmarks would come to $7,600—while a virtual trip would cost just over $2. 14 “What impact can the Metaverse have on the travel industry?,” Middle East Economy, July 29, 2022.

The metaverse holds potential for business travel, too—the meeting, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) sector in particular. Participants could take part in activities in the same immersive space while connecting from anywhere, dramatically reducing travel, venue, catering, and other costs. 15 “ Tourism in the metaverse: Can travel go virtual? ,” McKinsey, May 4, 2023.

The allure and convenience of such digital experiences make offering seamless, customer-centric travel and tourism in the real world all the more pressing.

Three innovations to solve hotel staffing shortages

Is the future contactless.

Given the advances in technology, and the many digital innovations and applications that already exist, there is potential for businesses across the travel and tourism spectrum to cope with labor shortages while improving customer experience. Process automation and digitization can also add to process efficiency. Taken together, a combination of outsourcing, remote work, and digital solutions can help to retain existing staff and reduce dependency on roles that employers are struggling to fill (exhibit).

Depending on the customer service approach and direct contact need, we estimate that the travel and tourism industry would be able to cope with a structural labor shortage of around 10 to 15 percent in the long run by operating more flexibly and increasing digital and automated efficiency—while offering the remaining staff an improved total work package.

Outsourcing and remote work could also help resolve the labor shortage

While COVID-19 pushed organizations in a wide variety of sectors to embrace remote work, there are many hospitality roles that rely on direct physical services that cannot be performed remotely, such as laundry, cleaning, maintenance, and facility management. If faced with staff shortages, these roles could be outsourced to third-party professional service providers, and existing staff could be reskilled to take up new positions.

In McKinsey’s experience, the total service cost of this type of work in a typical hotel can make up 10 percent of total operating costs. Most often, these roles are not guest facing. A professional and digital-based solution might become an integrated part of a third-party service for hotels looking to outsource this type of work.

One of the lessons learned in the aftermath of COVID-19 is that many tourism employees moved to similar positions in other sectors because they were disillusioned by working conditions in the industry . Specialist multisector companies have been able to shuffle their staff away from tourism to other sectors that offer steady employment or more regular working hours compared with the long hours and seasonal nature of work in tourism.

The remaining travel and tourism staff may be looking for more flexibility or the option to work from home. This can be an effective solution for retaining employees. For example, a travel agent with specific destination expertise could work from home or be consulted on an needs basis.

In instances where remote work or outsourcing is not viable, there are other solutions that the hospitality industry can explore to improve operational effectiveness as well as employee satisfaction. A more agile staffing model  can better match available labor with peaks and troughs in daily, or even hourly, demand. This could involve combining similar roles or cross-training staff so that they can switch roles. Redesigned roles could potentially improve employee satisfaction by empowering staff to explore new career paths within the hotel’s operations. Combined roles build skills across disciplines—for example, supporting a housekeeper to train and become proficient in other maintenance areas, or a front-desk associate to build managerial skills.

Where management or ownership is shared across properties, roles could be staffed to cover a network of sites, rather than individual hotels. By applying a combination of these approaches, hotels could reduce the number of staff hours needed to keep operations running at the same standard. 16 “ Three innovations to solve hotel staffing shortages ,” McKinsey, April 3, 2023.

Taken together, operational adjustments combined with greater use of technology could provide the tourism industry with a way of overcoming staffing challenges and giving customers the seamless digitally enhanced experiences they expect in other aspects of daily life.

In an industry facing a labor shortage, there are opportunities for tech innovations that can help travel and tourism businesses do more with less, while ensuring that remaining staff are engaged and motivated to stay in the industry. For travelers, this could mean fewer friendly faces, but more meaningful experiences and interactions.

Urs Binggeli is a senior expert in McKinsey’s Zurich office, Zi Chen is a capabilities and insights specialist in the Shanghai office, Steffen Köpke is a capabilities and insights expert in the Düsseldorf office, and Jackey Yu is a partner in the Hong Kong office.

Explore a career with us

Interactive visualization requires JavaScript

Related research and data

• Air passengers
• Air passengers per fatality
• Average length of stay of international visitors
• Employment in food and beverage serving activities per 1,000 people
• Fatal airliner accidents and hijacking incidents
• Fatal airliner accidents per million commercial flights
• Fatalities from airliner accidents and hijackings
• Foreign guests in hotels and similar establishments
• Global aviation fatalities per million passengers
• International one-day trips
• International one-day trips per 1,000 people
• International tourist departures
• International tourist departures per 1,000 people
• International tourist departures per 1,000 people vs. GDP per capita
• International tourist expenditure abroad
• International tourist expenditure within the country they visit
• International tourist trips
• International tourist trips by destination region
• International tourist trips by region of origin
• International tourist trips per 1,000 people
• International trips for business and professional reasons
• International trips for personal reasons
• International trips for personal vs. business and professional reasons
• Local guests in hotels and similar establishments
• Local vs. foreign guests in hotels and similar establishments
• Monitoring of sustainable tourism
• Monthly CO₂ emissions from commercial passenger flights
• Monthly CO₂ emissions from domestic and international commercial passenger flights
• Per capita CO₂ emissions from domestic commercial passenger flights
• Per capita CO₂ emissions from commercial aviation, tourism-adjusted
• Per capita CO₂ emissions from international commercial passenger flights, tourism-adjusted Clarke & UNWTO
• Per capita CO₂ emissions from international passenger flights, tourism-adjusted Graver & World Bank
• Ratio of business trips to trips for personal reasons
• Ratio of inbound to outbound tourist trips
• Ratio of same-day trips to tourist trips
• Share of global services exports
• Share of tourism in total GDP
• Trips by domestic tourists per 1,000 people

Our World in Data is free and accessible for everyone.

Help us do this work by making a donation.

Hospitality & Tourism …

Almost 15 million Americans work in tourism and hospitality—in hotels, amusement parks, art museums, and restaurants—making it the fifth largest industry in the country. 1 Many of these jobs depend on our immigration and visa systems. International tourists create high demand for the tourism industry. Meanwhile, many employers have trouble finding enough American workers to staff resorts, hotels, and attractions. Current policies not only discourage international tourists and business travelers, but also keep American businesses from finding the workers on which the tourism industry relies.

1 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), “Industry employment and output projection to 2024,” Monthly Labor Review, December 2015. Available online.

Immigrant Workers

It is hard to imagine the country’s $700 billion tourism and hospitality industry 2 without the contributions of immigrants. In 2015, foreign-born workers made up more than one out of every five workers in the sector—and even larger shares of those employed in more labor-intensive roles. 3 In states where tourism and hospitality is especially vital, immigrants represent a significantly larger share of the workforce than the population overall. Sources: 2 U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, “Table 1: Value Added by Industry,” annual estimates for 2015, accessed October 25, 2016. Available online. 3 Author’s calculations from the 2015 American Community Survey. Table sources: Author’s calculations from the 2015 American Community Survey.

Share Immigrant Workers

More Workers Needed

As the tourism and hospitality industry expands, it will need additional workers to maintain, service, and manage venues across the country. However, between 2010 and 2020, almost 80 percent of all the projected new positions in the industry will require less than a bachelor’s degree. 4 This growth is at odds with nationwide demographic trends, as the number of U.S.-born individuals at that skill level is declining. Sources: 4 Author’s calculations of a straight-line projection using data from the Current Population Survey, 2002-2015. 5 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), “Industry employment and output projection to 2024,” Monthly Labor Review, December 2015. Available online. Table source: Burning Glass Technologies

Share More Workers Needed

The Impact of International Visitors

While domestic travelers still account for the largest share of U.S. tourism expenditures, international tourists are critical to the strength of the industry overall. On average, international tourists spend $4,500 on goods and services each time they visit the United States—making tourism our country’s largest export in recent years. 6 That spending has a ripple effect on the broader economy. The U.S. Travel Association estimates that every $1 million spent by foreign visitors creates 6.6 tourism jobs. 7 Each tourism job, in turn, indirectly supports 1.5 jobs in related industries such as construction, marketing, accounting, and manufacturing. 8 Sources: 6 "Statement from U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker on President Obama’s Executive Actions to Welcome More International Visitors," Commerce.gov, May 22, 2014. Available online. 7 U.S. Travel Association, “Travel Exports: Driving Economic Growth and Creating American Jobs,” September 10, 2014. Available online. 8 World Tourism Organization and International Labour Organization, “Measuring Employment in the Tourism Industries – Guide with Best Practices,” UNWTO, Madrid, 2014. Available online. Table source: Burning Glass Technologies

Share The Impact of International Visitors

The Current System Hampers International Travel

Since September 11, necessary security measures and visa restrictions have made travel more difficult for many international tourists. One way to increase the number of international travelers to the United States, while still safeguarding security, would be to expand the number of countries eligible for the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). Participating countries must meet stringent security standards for vetting potential U.S. visitors and share information about possible terrorist and criminal threats, general and specific, with the U.S. government. Research finds that when a country joins VWP, the number of visitors from that country to the United States increases substantially. Sources: 9 New American Economy, "Passport to Future Economic Growth," December 15, 2014. Available online. 10 Ibid.

Share The Current System Hampers International Travel

Reforming the H-2B Visa

Tourism and hospitality companies across the United States depend on immigrant workers to help fill seasonal and labor-intensive jobs that would otherwise remain vacant. In 1986, under President Ronald Reagan, the H-2B visa program was created to allow immigrants to enter the country legally as temporary workers. Unfortunately, as currently administered, the H-2B program is too cumbersome and costly—and riddled with delays—to be useful to many U.S. businesses. Many employers say the supply of available visas is also far too limited to meet actual labor needs. Sources: 11 Estimate based on figures provided by the H-2B Workforce Coalition and the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Foreign Labor Certification’s 2015 Annual Report . 12 “Immigration Myths and Facts,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce, April 14, 2016. Available online.

Share Reforming the H-2B Visa

Impact on the States

Getting immigration reform right for the tourism and hospitality industry will be critical for many states, particularly those where the sector accounts for a substantial share of the state’s GDP. For example: in 2014, more than one out of every six dollars of GDP in Nevada was tied to the tourism and hospitality industry, as were almost one in 10 dollars of GDP in Hawaii. In Nevada , immigrants frequently hold the kinds of low-level and labor-intensive jobs that not only allow hotels and casinos to thrive, but also help create jobs for American workers at a variety of skill levels. Table sources: Data on GDP come from the BEA’s estimates for annual GDP by state by major industry sector. Information about jobs comes from the 2014 American Community Survey.

Share Impact on the States

• State/District: All Alabama    Alabama, District 1    Alabama, District 2    Alabama, District 3    Alabama, District 4    Alabama, District 5    Alabama, District 6    Alabama, District 7 Alaska    Alaska, At Large Arizona    Arizona, District 1    Arizona, District 2    Arizona, District 3    Arizona, District 4    Arizona, District 5    Arizona, District 6    Arizona, District 7    Arizona, District 8    Arizona, District 9 Arkansas    Arkansas, District 1    Arkansas, District 2    Arkansas, District 3    Arkansas, District 4 California    California, District 1    California, District 2    California, District 3    California, District 4    California, District 5    California, District 6    California, District 7    California, District 8    California, District 9    California, District 10    California, District 11    California, District 12    California, District 13    California, District 14    California, District 15    California, District 16    California, District 17    California, District 18    California, District 19    California, District 20    California, District 21    California, District 22    California, District 23    California, District 24    California, District 25    California, District 26    California, District 27    California, District 28    California, District 29    California, District 30    California, District 31    California, District 32    California, District 33    California, District 34    California, District 35    California, District 36    California, District 37    California, District 38    California, District 39    California, District 40    California, District 41    California, District 42    California, District 43    California, District 44    California, District 45    California, District 46    California, District 47    California, District 48    California, District 49    California, District 50    California, District 51    California, District 52    California, District 53 Colorado    Colorado, District 1    Colorado, District 2    Colorado, District 3    Colorado, District 4    Colorado, District 5    Colorado, District 6    Colorado, District 7 Connecticut    Connecticut, District 1    Connecticut, District 2    Connecticut, District 3    Connecticut, District 4    Connecticut, District 5 Delaware    Delaware, At Large District of Columbia Florida    Florida, District 1    Florida, District 2    Florida, District 3    Florida, District 4    Florida, District 5    Florida, District 6    Florida, District 7    Florida, District 8    Florida, District 9    Florida, District 10    Florida, District 11    Florida, District 12    Florida, District 13    Florida, District 14    Florida, District 15    Florida, District 16    Florida, District 17    Florida, District 18    Florida, District 19    Florida, District 20    Florida, District 21    Florida, District 22    Florida, District 23    Florida, District 24    Florida, District 25    Florida, District 26    Florida, District 27 Georgia    Georgia, District 1    Georgia, District 2    Georgia, District 3    Georgia, District 4    Georgia, District 5    Georgia, District 6    Georgia, District 7    Georgia, District 8    Georgia, District 9    Georgia, District 10    Georgia, District 11    Georgia, District 12    Georgia, District 13    Georgia, District 14 Hawaii    Hawaii, District 1    Hawaii, District 2 Idaho    Idaho, District 1    Idaho, District 2 Illinois    Illinois, District 1    Illinois, District 2    Illinois, District 3    Illinois, District 4    Illinois, District 5    Illinois, District 6    Illinois, District 7    Illinois, District 8    Illinois, District 9    Illinois, District 10    Illinois, District 11    Illinois, District 12    Illinois, District 13    Illinois, District 14    Illinois, District 15    Illinois, District 16    Illinois, District 17    Illinois, District 18 Indiana    Indiana, District 1    Indiana, District 2    Indiana, District 3    Indiana, District 4    Indiana, District 5    Indiana, District 6    Indiana, District 7    Indiana, District 8    Indiana, District 9 Iowa    Iowa, District 1    Iowa, District 2    Iowa, District 3    Iowa, District 4 Kansas    Kansas, District 1    Kansas, District 2    Kansas, District 3    Kansas, District 4 Kentucky    Kentucky, District 1    Kentucky, District 2    Kentucky, District 3    Kentucky, District 4    Kentucky, District 5    Kentucky, District 6 Louisiana    Louisiana, District 1    Louisiana, District 2    Louisiana, District 3    Louisiana, District 4    Louisiana, District 5    Louisiana, District 6 Maine    Maine, District 1    Maine, District 2 Maryland    Maryland, District 1    Maryland, District 2    Maryland, District 3    Maryland, District 4    Maryland, District 5    Maryland, District 6    Maryland, District 7    Maryland, District 8 Massachusetts    Massachusetts, District 1    Massachusetts, District 2    Massachusetts, District 3    Massachusetts, District 4    Massachusetts, District 5    Massachusetts, District 6    Massachusetts, District 7    Massachusetts, District 8    Massachusetts, District 9 Michigan    Michigan, District 1    Michigan, District 2    Michigan, District 3    Michigan, District 4    Michigan, District 5    Michigan, District 6    Michigan, District 7    Michigan, District 8    Michigan, District 9    Michigan, District 10    Michigan, District 11    Michigan, District 12    Michigan, District 13    Michigan, District 14 Minnesota    Minnesota, District 1    Minnesota, District 2    Minnesota, District 3    Minnesota, District 4    Minnesota, District 5    Minnesota, District 6    Minnesota, District 7    Minnesota, District 8 Mississippi    Mississippi, District 1    Mississippi, District 2    Mississippi, District 3    Mississippi, District 4 Missouri    Missouri, District 1    Missouri, District 2    Missouri, District 3    Missouri, District 4    Missouri, District 5    Missouri, District 6    Missouri, District 7    Missouri, District 8 Montana    Montana, At Large Nebraska    Nebraska, District 1    Nebraska, District 2    Nebraska, District 3 Nevada    Nevada, District 1    Nevada, District 2    Nevada, District 3    Nevada, District 4 New Hampshire    New Hampshire, District 1    New Hampshire, District 2 New Jersey    New Jersey, District 1    New Jersey, District 2    New Jersey, District 3    New Jersey, District 4    New Jersey, District 5    New Jersey, District 6    New Jersey, District 7    New Jersey, District 8    New Jersey, District 9    New Jersey, District 10    New Jersey, District 11    New Jersey, District 12 New Mexico    New Mexico, District 1    New Mexico, District 2    New Mexico, District 3 New York    New York, District 1    New York, District 2    New York, District 3    New York, District 4    New York, District 5    New York, District 6    New York, District 7    New York, District 8    New York, District 9    New York, District 10    New York, District 11    New York, District 12    New York, District 13    New York, District 14    New York, District 15    New York, District 16    New York, District 17    New York, District 18    New York, District 19    New York, District 20    New York, District 21    New York, District 22    New York, District 23    New York, District 24    New York, District 25    New York, District 26    New York, District 27 North Carolina    North Carolina, District 1    North Carolina, District 2    North Carolina, District 3    North Carolina, District 4    North Carolina, District 5    North Carolina, District 6    North Carolina, District 7    North Carolina, District 8    North Carolina, District 9    North Carolina, District 10    North Carolina, District 11    North Carolina, District 12    North Carolina, District 13 North Dakota    North Dakota, At Large Ohio    Ohio, District 1    Ohio, District 2    Ohio, District 3    Ohio, District 4    Ohio, District 5    Ohio, District 6    Ohio, District 7    Ohio, District 8    Ohio, District 9    Ohio, District 10    Ohio, District 11    Ohio, District 12    Ohio, District 13    Ohio, District 14    Ohio, District 15    Ohio, District 16 Oklahoma    Oklahoma, District 1    Oklahoma, District 2    Oklahoma, District 3    Oklahoma, District 4    Oklahoma, District 5 Oregon    Oregon, District 1    Oregon, District 2    Oregon, District 3    Oregon, District 4    Oregon, District 5 Pennsylvania    Pennsylvania, District 1    Pennsylvania, District 2    Pennsylvania, District 3    Pennsylvania, District 4    Pennsylvania, District 5    Pennsylvania, District 6    Pennsylvania, District 7    Pennsylvania, District 8    Pennsylvania, District 9    Pennsylvania, District 10    Pennsylvania, District 11    Pennsylvania, District 12    Pennsylvania, District 13    Pennsylvania, District 14    Pennsylvania, District 15    Pennsylvania, District 16    Pennsylvania, District 17    Pennsylvania, District 18 Rhode Island    Rhode Island, District 1    Rhode Island, District 2 South Carolina    South Carolina, District 1    South Carolina, District 2    South Carolina, District 3    South Carolina, District 4    South Carolina, District 5    South Carolina, District 6    South Carolina, District 7 South Dakota    South Dakota, At Large Tennessee    Tennessee, District 1    Tennessee, District 2    Tennessee, District 3    Tennessee, District 4    Tennessee, District 5    Tennessee, District 6    Tennessee, District 7    Tennessee, District 8    Tennessee, District 9 Texas    Texas, District 1    Texas, District 2    Texas, District 3    Texas, District 4    Texas, District 5    Texas, District 6    Texas, District 7    Texas, District 8    Texas, District 9    Texas, District 10    Texas, District 11    Texas, District 12    Texas, District 13    Texas, District 14    Texas, District 15    Texas, District 16    Texas, District 17    Texas, District 18    Texas, District 19    Texas, District 20    Texas, District 21    Texas, District 22    Texas, District 23    Texas, District 24    Texas, District 25    Texas, District 26    Texas, District 27    Texas, District 28    Texas, District 29    Texas, District 30    Texas, District 31    Texas, District 32    Texas, District 33    Texas, District 34    Texas, District 35    Texas, District 36 United States of America Utah    Utah, District 1    Utah, District 2    Utah, District 3    Utah, District 4 Vermont    Vermont, At Large Virginia    Virginia, District 1    Virginia, District 2    Virginia, District 3    Virginia, District 4    Virginia, District 5    Virginia, District 6    Virginia, District 7    Virginia, District 8    Virginia, District 9    Virginia, District 10    Virginia, District 11 Washington    Washington, District 1    Washington, District 2    Washington, District 3    Washington, District 4    Washington, District 5    Washington, District 6    Washington, District 7    Washington, District 8    Washington, District 9    Washington, District 10 West Virginia    West Virginia, District 1    West Virginia, District 2    West Virginia, District 3 Wisconsin    Wisconsin, District 1    Wisconsin, District 2    Wisconsin, District 3    Wisconsin, District 4    Wisconsin, District 5    Wisconsin, District 6    Wisconsin, District 7    Wisconsin, District 8 Wyoming    Wyoming, At Large
• Type: All Admin Arts & Culture Feature In the News Poll Press Release Research State & Local Uncategorized Updates Video

View All Issues

Explore States & Districts in: Hospitality & Tourism

Immigrants and Migrants in Hawai’i: Essential Contributors to the State’s Workforce and Economy

Arts & Culture

United States of America

New American Festival

“The Fight” & Sybil’s Bakery Recipe

TERANGA Special Recipe

Yeyo’s El Alma De Mexico Special Recipe

MáLà Project Special Recipe

James Chang Special Recipe

La Newyorkina Special Recipe

Sambuxa NYC Special Recipes

Sybil’s Bakery Special Recipe

New American Economy is a bipartisan research and advocacy organization fighting for smart federal, state, and local immigration policies that help grow our economy and create jobs for all Americans. More…

March 15, 2022

New Report Shows Immigrants in Montgomery County Paid Over $219 Million in Taxes and Held Over $562 Million in Spending Power in 2019

March 2, 2022

New Report Shows Immigrants in Southwest Kansas Paid Over $192 Million in Taxes and Held More than $595 Million in Spending Power in 2019

February 3, 2022

New Report Shows Immigrants in Passaic County Paid Over $1.3 Billion in Taxes and Held $3.6 Billion in Spending Power in 2019

How does NAE define an immigrant? Learn More

Tourism Employment Tops 2 Million, but Hiring Challenges Continue

Canadian tourism labour market snapshot.

Tourism employment saw positive gains this July, growing to 2,034,400 workers (representing a month-over-month increase of 106,300 or 5.5%). The sector’s total labour force grew to 2,108,900 (a nearly identical increase of 106,300 or 5.3%). This marks the first time since February 2020 that monthly tourism sector employment has topped the 2 million mark—which it had consistently done pre-pandemic, throughout 2018 and 2019.

The tourism unemployment rate for July (3.5%) improved slightly over the previous month (3.7%). Employment increased for all tourism industries but was significantly higher in three of the five industry groups when compared to the previous month. Employment increased by 11.6% for recreation and entertainment, to 606,500 workers, while the employment level in travel services and food and beverage services increased by 5.0% and 4.1%, respectively. Employment in accommodations (1.1%) and transportation (1.2%) grew slightly but remained relatively flat.

Additional positive signs for the tourism labour market can be seen when comparing July 2022 employment indicators to the same month in the previous year. When compared to July 2021, there were significant improvements in employment levels and the unemployment rate across all tourism industry groups. Employment in the transportation and recreation and entertainment industry groups grew by 27.7% and 25.2%, respectively.

However, looking at the same month pre-pandemic, this month’s overall tourism labour force (2,108,900) accounted for 223,800 fewer workers (or -9.6% growth) than it did in July 2019 (2,332,700). And, when compared to July 2019, tourism employment continues to lag, with overall employment data this month revealing a decline of -181,500 workers (or -8.2%) from the pre-pandemic baseline. Meanwhile, job vacancies in the spring of 2022 remained elevated for the accommodation and food services industry and the arts, entertainment, and recreation industry, with May 2022 job vacancies reaching 161,115 and 18,845, respectively.

In sum, July Labour Force Survey (LFS) data reveals an eagerly anticipated positive uptick in tourism sector labour force and employment levels; however, with many signs of increased consumer demand for tourism products and services, job vacancies remain a significant challenge for the sector. As consumer demand and the number of travellers rise during the peak tourism summer period of late July and August, a heightened need for workers should be anticipated across all five tourism industry groups.

Tourism Labour Force Saw Positive Growth (5.3%) in July 2022

Labour Force Survey data [1] released for July 2022 reveals that, at 2,108,900 participants, Canada’s tourism labour force [2] saw positive growth after declining between May and June.

The labour force grew by 5.3% (or 106,300 participants) from last month; it grew by 12.0% when compared to July 2021—gaining 225,300 members. [3] Though this is a positive sign for tourism’s labour force in the coming months, the current level has 223,800 fewer participants than the pre-pandemic total tourism labour force of July 2019.

While significant monthly labour force gains were seen in the food and beverage services, travel services, and recreation and entertainment industries this month, accommodations proved to be an outlier, with -0.6% change between June and July 2022.

July 2022 Tourism Employment = 10.1% of Canadian Workforce

With a total of 2,034,400 workers, tourism comprised 10.1% of total Canadian employment for July 2022 (up from 9.6% the previous month). Total tourism employment increased by 5.5%, with growth across all five industry groups this month.

The most significant employment gains were in the recreation and entertainment and travel services industries. Looking at the same month in previous years reveals that employment in the tourism sector has grown significantly since July 2021 (up 13.4% overall) but continues to lag behind the levels seen pre-pandemic (July 2019) with close to 181,500 fewer workers (a change of -8.2%).

July 2022 Tourism Unemployment Rate = 3.5%

In July 2022, the unemployment rate in the tourism sector was at 3.5%, which is 1.3% percentage points lower than the rate reported in July 2021, and lower than the previous month (June), when the unemployment rate stood at 3.7%. At 3.5%, tourism’s unemployment rate was well below Canada’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate of 5.2%.

With the exception of food & beverage services, all tourism industry groups have reported lower unemployment rates than in the same month last year.

On a provincial basis, tourism unemployment rates ranged from 1.8% in Manitoba to 5.8% in Alberta. The seasonally unadjusted unemployment rates for tourism in each province, with the exception of Alberta, were below the rates reported for the provincial economy.

Looking at full- and part-time employment this month, tourism saw a significant shift between these employment types. Part-time employment in the tourism sector declined sharply (-35,600), while full-time employment increased by 141,900.

Total Actual Hours Worked in Tourism Increased in July

The total actual hours worked in the tourism sector continued to increase over the summer months. In July 2022, the total actual hours worked increased by 6.4% from June 2022. However, this number remains below pre-pandemic levels: while it was 13.7% higher than in July 2021, it was 10.4% lower than July 2019’s totals.

Most tourism industry groups saw a month-over-month increase in the total hours worked. The recreation and entertainment industry saw the biggest gains in the total hours worked, with an increase of 12.5% from June, followed by the accommodations industry (11.6%), the travel services industry (10.0%), and the food and beverage services industry (5.5%). The transportation industry was the exception, with a decrease of 2.5% in the total hours worked.

On a year-over-year basis, the total actual hours worked in the five tourism industries grew from July 2021 to July 2022, among which the transportation industry saw the biggest gains (31.6%). However, no tourism industries have recovered to July 2019 levels regarding the total actual hours worked. The travel services industry and accommodations industry, in particular, are 25.4% and 22.6% lower, respectively, than the total actual hours worked in July 2019.

Job Vacancies for Tourism Show Hiring Challenges

Job vacancy data for April and May 2022 was recently released by Statistics Canada. Job vacancies remained high for the accommodation and food services industry and the arts, entertainment, and recreation industry. In May 2022, the total number of job vacancies for the accommodation and food services industry and the arts, entertainment, and recreation industry reached 161,115 and 18,845, respectively. Typically, job vacancies for tourism-related industries are the highest in off-peak months. The most recent data signals that tourism businesses faced difficulty in hiring employees throughout the spring of 2022—a crucial ramp-up period for the sector.

For a full look at the latest tourism workforce trends, please visit the Tourism Employment Tracker .

[1] Source: Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey, customized tabulations. Based on seasonally unadjusted data collected for the period of July 10 to 16, 2022.

[2] The labour force comprises the total of number of individuals who reported being employed and unemployed (but actively looking for work) in the tourism industries.

[3] As defined by the Canadian Tourism Satellite Account. The NAICS industries included in the tourism sector are those that would cease to exist or would operate at a significantly reduced level of activity as a direct result of an absence of tourism.

[4] Source: Statistics Canada. Table: 14-10-0372-01. Job vacancies, payroll employees, and job vacancy rate by industry sector, monthly, unadjusted for seasonality

• Work & Careers
• Life & Arts

Become an FT subscriber

To read this article for free register now.

Once registered, you can:

• Read free articles
• Get our Editor's Digest and other newsletters
• Follow topics and set up personalised events
• Access Alphaville: our popular markets and finance blog
• Global news & analysis
• Expert opinion
• Special features
• FirstFT newsletter
• Videos & Podcasts
• Android & iOS app
• FT Edit app
• 10 gift articles per month

Explore more offers.

Standard digital.

• FT Digital Edition

Premium Digital

Print + premium digital, ft professional, weekend print + standard digital, weekend print + premium digital.

Then $75 per month. Complete digital access to quality FT journalism. Cancel anytime during your trial.

• Global news & analysis
• Exclusive FT analysis
• FT App on Android & iOS
• FirstFT: the day's biggest stories
• 20+ curated newsletters
• Follow topics & set alerts with myFT
• FT Videos & Podcasts
• 20 monthly gift articles to share
• Lex: FT's flagship investment column
• 15+ Premium newsletters by leading experts
• FT Digital Edition: our digitised print edition
• Weekday Print Edition
• Videos & Podcasts
• Premium newsletters
• 10 additional gift articles per month
• FT Weekend Print delivery
• Everything in Standard Digital
• Everything in Premium Digital

Today's FT newspaper for easy reading on any device. This does not include ft.com or FT App access.

• 10 monthly gift articles to share
• Everything in Print
• Make and share highlights
• FT Workspace
• Markets data widget
• Subscription Manager
• Workflow integrations
• Occasional readers go free
• Volume discount

Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.

Terms & Conditions apply

Explore our full range of subscriptions.

Why the ft.

See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times.

Tourism employment

Employment in tourism data refer to people or jobs.

Select a language

Employment in tourism data refer to people or jobs. In the case of people, the data refer to employees only or to employees and self-employed people (employed people). Full-time equivalent employment is the number of full-time equivalent jobs, defined as total hours worked divided by average annual hours worked in full-time jobs.

• Industry, business and entrepreneurship
• Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities
• Measuring the labour market

Access the source dataset in Data Explorer

Related data.

• Indicator Native-born participation rates The native-born participation rate is calculated as the share of employed and unemployed native-born persons aged 15-64 in the total native-born population (active and inactive persons) of that same age.
• Indicator Labour productivity forecast Labour productivity is defined as real gross domestic product (GDP) per hour worked.
• Indicator Unemployment rates by education level This indicator shows the unemployment rates of people according to their education levels.
• OECD unemployment rate stable at 4.9% in April 2024 13 June 2024
• OECD unemployment rate stable at 4.9% but rising among women in March 2024 16 May 2024
• OECD employment rate remains at record high in the fourth quarter of 2023 17 April 2024

News That Matters Support us

Hawaii News

Investigative stories and local news updates.

• Latest News
• Environment
• Legislature
• Honolulu Rail
• Browse All Topics

Coverage of the 2023 wildfire destruction of Lahaina.

Top Stories

• The Lives We Lost
• The Long Road Home
• Maui Events

2024 Elections Guide

Latest elections news, candidate info, ballot drop box locations, how to register to vote, financial disclosures and more.

• Candidate Q&As
• The 2024 Ballot
• Financial Disclosures
• Latest Stories

Commentary, Analysis and Opinion.

• Community Voices

Special Projects

Award winning in-depth reports and featured on-going series.

• Browse Projects & Series

Newsletters

Get the week’s news delivered straight to your inbox.

• Terms of Service
• Reprint Policy
• About Civil Beat
• Jobs at Civil Beat
• Our Supporters

Hawaii’s Tourism Industry Is Bouncing Back. But Where Are All The Jobs?

As Hawaii’s tourism industry rebounds from a pandemic that shut down the industry in 2020, a question continues to stump economists: Where are all the jobs?

Hawaii’s passenger arrivals averaged more that 30,000 per day in July , and August has been just as strong , with 32,500 arrivals on average for the first four days of the month, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Although softer than the normal summer crush, that’s still roughly equal to the average arrivals for 2019, before the pandemic, when Hawaii had more than 10 million tourists.

Meanwhile, hotels reported 31,572 jobs in Hawaii midway through 2021, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association. That’s up from 2020’s low of about 21,000, but still about 12,700 fewer than in 2019, a 29% decline.

And the reason the hotel jobs haven’t caught up with visitor numbers?

“I don’t think anybody knows,” said Matt Insco, an economist with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics in San Francisco.

Carl Bonham, executive director of the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, was similarly stumped.

Hawaii’s unemployment rate was 7.9% in June, a significant improvement from the 21.9% rate in May 2020, when Hawaii’s economy was largely shut down. But, Bonham says, that rate doesn’t count underemployed people – part-timers who want full-time jobs, for instance, and discouraged workers who bailed out of the workforce altogether.

Counting those, Hawaii’s broader unemployment rate, known as U-6 unemployment, was 18.5% for the second quarter, which translates to about 120,000 workers, Bonham said.

The U-6 unemployment rate, which includes underemployed workers, paints an employment picture far worse than Hawaii’s standard unemployment rate.

Meanwhile, employers report not being able to find people to fill vacant jobs.

“It’s going to be several years before economists understand what happened to the labor market during this episode,” Bonham said.

Unemployment Insurance Assistance Does Not Fully Explain Issue

In the meantime, there are some oft-cited explanations that actually don’t seem to explain what’s going on.

One frequently purported cause for the soft jobs recovery is federal stimulus money, which provides $300 a week of additional unemployment insurance money to jobless workers. Some employers cite the federal money as providing an incentive for people not to work — and something that’s driving what the BLS reports as record hospitality industry job openings, including 1.2 million hotel and restaurant job openings in May.

But a recent study refutes that idea.

To see whether the federal money was keeping workers sidelined, Arindrajit Dube , an economist from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, looked at employment trends in 22 mainly red states that have opted to cut the federal payments before the September deadline , when the money will run out in other states, including Hawaii.

If the unemployment insurance benefit was keeping people from working, this should have driven more people into the workforce when the benefit went away. But, Dube reported, that didn’t happen.

“Certainly there was no immediate boost to employment during the two to three weeks following the expiration of the pandemic UI benefits,” he reported.

Another possible factor is that, despite Hawaii’s strong visitor numbers, travelers from Asia still haven’t returned. That means no business for employers who cater to that market.

Domestic travel since March has been strong and has actually exceeded 2019 in July and August, according to DBEDT . But Asia travel has been almost non-existent. The result is some businesses that cater to international visitors have been slower to reopen.

Take the Halekulani Hotel. The landmark property in Waikiki has been closed since April and took the opportunity to renovate its guest rooms and oceanfront bar, the House Without a Key. And while it offered continuing medical coverage to all of its nearly 800 workers, the hotel doesn’t plan to reopen until October. And even then not all of the workers will be coming back.

“For those who may not have an immediate return to work opportunity, we are continuing to provide coverage of medical benefits through the end of the year, December 31, 2021,” the company said in a statement .

Changes in hotel policies and procedures also may be contributing to less need for workers. Automation of certain functions , already affecting staffing needs before COVID-19, appear to have accelerated during the pandemic. Features like apps that allow guests to check themselves in have led to a decline in need for desk clerks, for example.

Beyond automation, there’s been a push among hotels to let guests opt out of daily room cleanings, which has worried hotel worker unions who say the change kills jobs for the legions of housekeepers who make up a major part of the workforce at big hotels.

Nonetheless, Honolulu hotel housekeeping jobs rose steadily before the pandemic, peaking at 7,240 as of May 2019 according to the BLS. Then came COVID-19, and the jobs for 2020 plummeted to 5,230, a 28% drop.

The BLS doesn’t have numbers for 2021 yet, but UNITE HERE Local 5 , the union that represents hotel housekeepers, said hotels are intentionally putting a lid on the need for housekeepers by discouraging guests from getting rooms cleaned daily.

Kekoa McClellan, a Hawaii spokesman for the American Hotel and Lodging Association, said hoteliers are merely following CDC COVID-19 guidelines by limiting room cleanings, and he said cleaning protocols have created more work for hotels and increased the need for some staff. But the union isn’t buying it.

Gemma Weinstein, UNITE HERE’s Hawaii president, noted that guests can still get their rooms cleaned daily if they ask for it, but what’s changed is that guests now must ask.

Still, the situation isn’t all bad for workers, simply because the workforce, for whatever reason, has gotten smaller.

Retirements and people leaving Hawaii — and its high cost of living — almost certainly are contributing to Hawaii’s worker shortage, Bonham said. In addition, in a recent survey conducted by the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii , employers pointed to another factor keeping workers on the bench: the need for child care during a time when public schools were mostly closed.

Bonham notes that one BLS data source, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover, or JOLT data, indicates the employees who are in the workforce seem to be moving around from job to job, presumably seeking positions with better compensation as employers outbid each other to hire a relatively small number of workers.

“Wages are increasing the fastest in the leisure and hospitality industry,” said Insco, the BLS economist in San Francisco.

Although the sample size for Hawaii is miniscule, Bonham said the national trend almost surely applies here.

“Why should businesses be the only ones maximizing their revenue?” Bonham said. “It makes perfect sense.”

What’s driving Hawaii’s hospitality labor dynamics soon might become more clear. Public school reopenings have freed up parents who were once stuck at home with kids forced to learn remotely, which means more people soon could rejoin the workforce. And the federal unemployment insurance boost is scheduled to end in September.

But how much difference these will make is far from clear, Bonham says, especially with the COVID-19 delta variant driving Hawaii’s case counts to record highs.

“I think all of these things matter,” he said. “None of them individually is what’s driving this.”

“ Hawaii’s Changing Economy ” is supported by a grant from the Hawaii Community Foundation as part of its CHANGE Framework project.

--> Sign up for our FREE morning newsletter and face each day more informed. --> Sign up for our FREE morning newsletter and face each day more informed.

Help power local journalism..

Now more than ever, local news is a vital community resource: connecting neighbors, uplifting voices and sharing information that empowers people to make informed decisions in their everyday lives.

But did you know that only 1% of Civil Beat readers donate?

Support Civil Beat’s growth today with a gift of any amount — it only takes a minute. And for those who can, please consider supporting our local journalism with a monthly donation. Thank you.

About the Author

Is Growing Your Own Food Considered Agriculture? Hawaii County Says No

Court Ruling Could Have Major Impact On State Oversight Of The Office Of Hawaiian Affairs

Residents Say Indefinite Closure Of Park Leading To Haiku Stairs Is Unfair

Where The Jury Found Mike Miske ‘Not Guilty’

Jonathan Okamura: Ethnic Names Give Hawaii Candidates An Advantage — And They Know It

John Pritchett: Not Going Down With The Ship

The Weekly News Quiz: July 18

Candidate Q&A: State House District 18 — Gene Ward

Candidate Q&A: Honolulu City Council District 3 — Esther Kiaaina

Get in-depth reporting on hawaii’s biggest issues, sign up for our free morning newsletter.

You're officially signed up for our daily newsletter, the Morning Beat. A confirmation email will arrive shortly.

In the meantime, we have other newsletters that you might enjoy. Check the boxes for emails you'd like to receive.

• Breaking News Alerts What's this? Be the first to hear about important news stories with these occasional emails.
• Special Projects & Investigations What's this? You'll hear from us whenever Civil Beat publishes a major project or investigation.
• Environment What's this? Get our latest environmental news on a monthly basis, including updates on Nathan Eagle's 'Hawaii 2040' series.
• Ideas What's this? Get occasional emails highlighting essays, analysis and opinion from IDEAS, Civil Beat's commentary section.

Inbox overcrowded? Don't worry, you can unsubscribe or update your preferences at any time.

Employment in industry (% of total employment) (modeled ILO estimate)

All Countries and Economies

Country Most Recent Year Most Recent Value

• Privacy Notice
• Access to Information

This site uses cookies to optimize functionality and give you the best possible experience. If you continue to navigate this website beyond this page, cookies will be placed on your browser. To learn more about cookies, click here.

• Why We’re Different
• Join Our Team
• Collaborators
• Why Tourism
• Strategic Planning
• Tourism Development
• Workforce Development
• Destination Management
• Destination Marketing
• Solimar DMMS
• Creative Portfolio
• Testimonials
• Tourism for Development Blog
• Case Studies
• Useful links

10% of Jobs are Worldwide Connected to the Tourism Industry – What Does That Mean?

Written by Izabela Soja on October 7, 2022 . Posted in Uncategorized .

Tourism is one of the world’s largest industries. According to WTTC , tourism prior to the pandemic accounted for 1 in 4 of all new jobs created across the world, 10.3% of all jobs (333 million), and 10.3% of the global GDP (US $9.6 trillion). Taking the above statistics into consideration, we can conclude that the sector contributes significantly to the economies and employment, being one of the main economic engines for nations. But how is it exactly possible that tourism creates so many jobs?

This article explores all the different employment opportunities tourism provides, explains why they are so important for the industry, and presents some of the challenges in the current workforce stemming mostly from the COVID-19 pandemic:

What are the employment opportunities in tourism?

Tourism can provide diversified employment in many different sectors, as the travel industry comprises various activities and services that create an overall tourist experience. Industries within the tourism value chain include accommodation, transport, food and beverage services, entertainment, and many more. Just think of your recent vacation – you first hopped on a plane, booked a hotel, and during your stay, you ate in different restaurants, went to different shops, and maybe even participated in local events. All the above aspects are part of the tourism industry, because you got involved in them as a tourist. 

The employment opportunities in tourism can be divided into those created directly or indirectly. This is because the tourism value chain is exceptionally vast and creates further employment impacts, which are not necessarily limited to tourism. 

Direct employment in tourism

All jobs where employees are involved in the creation of a direct tourism output fall under the category of direct tourism employment. Examples include hotels, airlines, travel agencies, tour operators, museums, national parks, state parks, cruise lines… and the list goes on. What these industries have in common is their sole focus on tourism – they operate for tourists, and because of tourists.  

Accommodation and transport activities are the most vital and integral ones in the tourism industry. They provide a base from which people can start their travel journey. Within the accommodation sector, there are multiple different types of lodging, ranging from hotels, hostels, B&B’s, or guesthouses. These can be either individually or family-owned, but also belong to the multi-chain operators. Therefore, employment opportunities are endless, as each accommodation type requires both high-skilled and low-skilled workers – from managers, and finance operators, to the housekeeping and cooking team. 

Indirect employment in tourism

According to the UNWTO report , “one job in the core tourism industry creates about one and a half additional (indirect) jobs in the tourism-related economy”. Moreover, “there are three workers indirectly dependent on each person working in hotels, such as travel agency staff, guides, taxi and bus drivers, food and beverage suppliers, laundry workers, textile workers, gardeners, shop staff for souvenirs and others, as well as airport employees”. 

Tourism is an extraordinarily labor-intensive industry. Each direct tourism provider carries several different suppliers crucial for the efficient operation of that provider. Some of the examples of indirect employment opportunities that tourism supports are restaurant suppliers, marketing agencies, accounting services, manufacturers, or souvenir producers. They may not be exclusively linked to tourism, but they are essential for its success. Therefore, these types of jobs are also considered part of the tourism industry – just behind the scenes. And when they all add up together, there’s no wonder why tourism holds such a great power to generate employment!

The importance of tourism in providing employment opportunities 

Anyone can start working in tourism.

In terms of employment opportunities, tourism is a great industry for anyone starting their career journey. There are many roles that do not require any specific qualifications and are relatively easy to get into – for example in hospitality. This is especially important for young people seeking a part-time job alongside school or university, migrant workers, women , minority groups, and many more. 

People are at the heart of the tourism industry

Given that tourism is such a vast and diverse industry, it can attract people from different backgrounds. Tourism relies on its exceptionally skilled workforce in order to provide high-quality services and experiences to visitors. Therefore, recruiting suitable staff should be at the heart of each tourism business. Tourists’ experiences are highly dependent on the service they are provided, so fostering relationships between human resources and the tourism industry is crucial.

Connecting with local people during travels

Tourism is a tool for poverty alleviation

Tourism can also be a fantastic tool for poverty alleviation, which is especially important in underdeveloped countries. The industry has a great potential to generate direct income for the poor in the places they live. Many tourism businesses are owned by individuals and their families, which in turn enables deeper interactions between guests and host communities. These small-scale businesses often include guesthouses and restaurants as they often do not require much capital to invest into. Therefore, many communities can start making their living through tourism.

One of the greatest examples of how travel connects locals and visitors is ResiRest – a social enterprise that works as an impact connector between local families and travelers. This organization links local home-cooks to international visitors for a unique and authentic food experience. “Eating local” is a fantastic way not only to support local communities, but also allows for more enriching and memorable experiences during travels. And what better way to immerse in a different culture than by trying local food?   

Solimar is also involved in projects that facilitate revenue generation for the host communities – Artisan Development in Morocco is one of many examples. This project aimed to create direct linkages between local artisans and buyers, while decreasing the use of middlemen in sales of the crafts!

Current challenges in the tourism workforce

Although tourism is such a powerful industry for generating employment, it is currently facing significant challenges due to staff shortages . Resolving this issue is essential for tourism’s growth and bouncing back after the Covid-19 pandemic. Travel restrictions made a number of employees move into different industries – therefore, tourism must now compete with other sectors in order to attract new workers. Other contributing factors include the lack of migrant workers, whose number started shrinking dramatically in 2020. For example, when Brexit was introduced in the UK, many people decided to return to their home countries. This has resulted in the lack of a suitable workforce in many industries, not only tourism.

How can we ensure sustainability in the tourism workforce?

In order to attract new talent to the industry, tourism must implement various incentives and re-evaluate its human resources practices. This could be achieved by providing extensive training opportunities to enable people to work their way up in a company. Next, tourism must facilitate flexible and remote work opportunities. This should be executed not only for the employees’ convenience, but also as a way to overcome travel mobility restrictions. Utilizing digital technologies is a great step towards ensuring productive tourism operations as well.

Tourism truly is a one-of-a-kind industry, providing countless opportunities that can really make a positive impact on our society. If done the right way, tourism can be the most viable option for sustainable economic development. Therefore, considering a career journey in this industry leads to fantastic and rewarding opportunities.   

Interested in working with us? Learn more about our virtual internship opportunities here !

Tags: #sustainabletourismapproach , economics tourism , employment tourism , future of tourism , tourism economic growth , tourism for good , tourism industry , tourism jobs , Tourism trends

Global tech outage hits airlines, banks, health care and public transit

In the u.s., hundreds of flights were canceled friday morning and some public transit systems reported impacts..

A defective update from U.S. cybersecurity software company CrowdStrike crashed Microsoft Windows systems around the globe Friday . The tech outage disrupted operations across industries such as banks, hospitals and 911 call centers, plus grounded flights and hampered public transit systems and. Although a fix was deployed to restore most systems by the afternoon to return to normal, ripple effects may be felt throughout the weekend, experts warn. 

CrowdStrike , which advertises being used by over half of Fortune 500 companies, said one of its recent content updates had a defect that impacted Microsoft's Windows Operating System, adding the incident was "not a security incident or cyberattack."

"Earlier today, a CrowdStrike update was responsible for bringing down a number of IT systems globally," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement on Friday afternoon. "We are actively supporting customers to assist in their recovery."

The company's CEO, George Kurtz, apologized for the disruptions in a post on X, noting the issue has been identified and isolated and a fix has been deployed. CrowdStrike is "working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on." Meanwhile, Microsoft said, "the underlying cause has been fixed" and impacted Microsoft 365 apps and services have been recovered, though the company continues to monitor the issue.

Kurtz went on to warn in his statement, "We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this. I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure that you’re engaging with official CrowdStrike representatives."

In the U.S., thousands of flights were canceled Friday morning . American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines were among those who grounded flights less than an hour after Microsoft said it resolved a cloud-services-related outage that impacted several low-cost carriers.

“Every line is long,” said Chance Ortego, 31, whose flight to New York was canceled Friday morning.

Public transit systems in the U.S. also reported temporary impacts, but for the most part, trains and buses were running as scheduled. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in Washington, D.C., said its "website and some of our internal systems are currently down," but trip-planning applications were later restored. In New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority also said some of its MTA customer information systems were temporarily offline until around 5:30 p.m.

Around the world, the outages disrupted London's Stock Exchange, caused major train delays in the U.K., sent British broadcaster Sky News off air, forced medical facilities in Europe and the U.S. to cancel some services and caused disruptions at airports in Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong and India.

Widespread economic impact from the outage is expected to be small, even though many companies were still trying to resume full operations by the time the stock market closed.

Travel disruptions: Over 2,000 US flights canceled amid global IT outage

Developments:

◾ More than 5,000 flights were canceled globally as of 3:30 p.m. Eastern, about 4.6% of all scheduled commercial flights for the day, according to aviation analytics company Cirium.

◾ Some U.S. border crossings saw impacts amid the outage: Traffic stalled on the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit with Windsor, Ontario, Canada, as well as at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, the Detroit Free Press reported . CBP One, the Customs and Border Patrol app, and the agency’s border wait times website, each appeared to experience outages.

◾ U.S. stocks closed lower on Friday, in the wake of the outage. CrowdStrike shares closed down 11.1% at $304.96, with analysts predicting the outage would cost the company money to fix and restore trust with its customers. It was the lowest close for the shares since May 2. Microsoft shares fared better, closing down only 0.74% at $437.11.

◾ Krispy Kreme gave away free doughnuts  Friday due to the global tech outage.

◾ Some Starbucks locations were reportedly taking only cash Friday, and customers reported being unable to use the coffee chain's mobile app.

◾ Some had a sense of humor through it , with workers who had to muddle through expressing their wishes for a digital snow day from the office − "Knock Teams out" − as the outage didn't equate to a work stoppage for all.

◾ Dubai International Airport said on X it was operating normally following "a global system outage that affected the check-in process for some airlines." It added the affected airlines "promptly switched to an alternate system, allowing normal check-in operations to resume swiftly."

CrowdStrike impact: How a global IT outage unraveled the world's tech

How the CrowdStrike outage played out throughout the day:

Portland issues emergency declaration

Portland, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler issued an emergency declaration Friday over the tech outage, with a statement noting the outages are affecting city servers, employee computers and emergency communications.

Meanwhile, the Maryland Department of Emergency Management increased its state activation level from "normal" to "partial," citing the tech outage. A post on X says a "partial" activation is for incidents that require "significant monitoring or resources," with additional emergency operations staffing from other agencies, functions and supporting organizations.

- Bailey Schulz

What is CrowdStrike?

CrowdStrike is a popular cybersecurity software company created in 2012 by CEO George Kurtz, along with Dmitri Alperovitch, and Gregg Marston.

According to its website, CrowdStrike has the "world's most advanced cloud-native platform that protects and enables the people, processes and technologies that drive modern enterprise."

Alperovitch, CrowdStrike's former Chief Technology Officer, is a member of the Biden administration's Homeland Security Advisory Council , which is meant to provide advice and expertise to support decision-making "across the spectrum of homeland security operations."

- Gabe Hauari , Bailey Schulz

What caused the CrowdStrike outage?

According to an alert sent by CrowdStrike to its clients and reviewed by Reuters, the company's "Falcon Sensor" software caused Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, known informally as the "Blue Screen of Death." 

Kurtz said "there was an issue with a Falcon content update for Windows Hosts" but customers “remain fully protected,” according to a post on X . He also reiterated that Friday's outage "was not a security or cyber incident."

Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, said she spoke to Kurtz Friday and confirmed the incident did not appear to be related to a cyber attack.

“At this point, we believe that it is an IT-related patch, an issue with that patch,” she said while speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. "I think they're determining what went wrong there."

‘I’m just hoping to make it onto a flight’

Chance Ortego had reached the finish line of a nearly two-week work trip when he saw the news all air travelers dread: his flight was delayed. 

Ortego was in the AirTrain en route to his flight from San Francisco International Airport when he heard other travelers discussing the outage. After checking the status of his 7:05 a.m. Delta Air Lines flight to New York – which was pushed back nearly three hours – he rebooked another flight at 9:15 a.m. 

He later learned his original flight had been canceled. Ortego was among the thousands of passengers around the world facing delays, cancellations and problems checking in as airports and airlines were caught up in a massive IT outage that grounded U.S. flights early Friday. 

“I was already planning to sleep,” said Ortego, who works in health care. “Now I'm just hoping to make it onto a flight.” 

Inside the airport, there was more chaos than a typical travel day as airlines recovered from the outage. Many screens were blank except for an error message and airport personnel made announcements directing questions about flights to airlines.

All U.S. airlines issued travel waivers for those affected to easily rebook their plans. Those who opted to cancel can rest easy knowing the Department of Transportation classified the cancellations and delays as controllable, thus airlines are responsible for upholding the commitments they've made to customers when it comes to policies like rebooking or hotel and meal vouchers as the mess gets sorted out. 

- Nathan Diller

Impact on the economy

The outage isn’t expected to have any effect on the broader economy unless it persists for days.

“At this point, the IT outage is more a nuisance than an economic event,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “If it drags on into early next week, the economic damage will begin to mount.”

If the outage is limited to a day or two, canceled flights can be rebooked and banking transactions can be completed later.

“There is plenty of time for activity to be recovered over the remainder of the month,” says Jonathan Miller, senior U.S. economist at Barclays.

- Paul Davidson

Outage impacts US public transit websites, ticketing

Major cities were generally able to keep trains and busses running, but tech issues have been causing problems with ticketing and other tech systems, leading to delays in some cases.

The Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Area Transit Authority reported website and other tech issues, but said trains and buses were running as scheduled.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City reported problems with "customer information systems" but said it's buses and trains were unaffected. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it was not affected but urged riders who might be using public transit to any area airports to check with their airlines before traveling for updates.

New Jersey Transit said some of its ticketing machines may have been impacted but its buses and trains were, for the most part, running on time. Some trains were out of operation Friday due to repairs that had to be made because of the intense heat that blanketed the region all week.

The Chicago Tribune reported Friday morning that commuter rail lines were affected, though it noted traffic is typically lighter on Fridays than other days. Delays on some lines were as long as 45 minutes, the Tribune reported. Chicago Transit bus and rail service was not affected but some CTA customers were unable to add value to their payment cards via the app or machines overnight, but the issue has been resolved.

Some transit systems, including Metro Transit in Minneapolis and Cincinnati Metro reported temporary disruptions to websites, trip planners, social media and other applications but no impact to its bus or trains.

- Phaedra Trethan

Despite summer break, schools disrupted by IT issues

The CrowdStrike outage crashed some computers at colleges Friday and hampered a popular software for enrolling students in K-12 schools for the fall.

The University of Rochester, a private school in New York, told students to keep rebooting their systems until the problem was fixed. The University of Alabama’s technology office said its campus computers using Microsoft Windows crashed. Rutgers University and the University of Kentucky also reported disruptions. 

Despite the summer break, K-12 schools in Maryland and Kansas said they were having problems with PowerSchool, a widely used software for grading and student enrollment. An update posted to the company’s webpage Friday morning said the outage was impacting all its major products, including its enrollment feature. 

- Zachary Schermele

911 call centers disrupted

State and local law enforcement agencies across the country reported disruptions to 911 services after the outage hit.

National reports of 911 outages peaked at more than 100 on Friday just before 3 a.m. according to Downdetector .

Agencies in at least seven states reported temporary outages, including the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office and Faribault Police Department in Minnesota, 911 systems New Hampshire , Fulton County, Indiana , and Middletown, Ohio . 

Non-emergency and 911 calls to multiple dispatch centers in Alaska "were not able to be answered" for around seven hours overnight, Austin McDaniel, communications director for the Alaska Department of Public Safety, told USA TODAY in an email.

"Dispatch centers switched to analog phone systems or to partner dispatch centers that were not impacted to continue taking calls," he wrote. Systems in the state were back up as of 4:23 a.m. local time.

The Phoenix Police Department was also impacted ‒ 911 call centers could take calls, but had to dispatch officers manually, the Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported .

The Federal Communications Commission said in an email to USA TODAY that it was aware of reports of disruptions to 911.

"We’re closely working with other federal agencies to provide assistance and determine the extent of these service disruptions.”

- Cybele Mayes-Osterman

Biden briefed on global outage as federal agencies assess impacts

President Joe Biden has been briefed on the CrowdStrike outage and his team is in touch with the cybersecurity firm, as well as with impacted companies and agencies, according to the White House. Biden will receive "sector-by-sector updates throughout the day and is standing by to provide assistance as needed," the White House added.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement it is working to "fully assess and address system outages."

DHS added it's working alongside the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency as well as CrowdStrike, Microsoft and federal, state, local and critical infrastructure partners to get a grasp on the incident and its impacts.

Over 2K US flights canceled amid outage

Several U.S. carriers, including American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Air Lines, issued ground stops for all their flights early on Friday due to communication problems, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA said operations were no longer impacted as of 10:53 a.m. ET, but it continues to monitor the situation and warned the global IT issue could continue to affect flights this weekend.

There were more than 2,500 U.S. flights canceled and more than 7,900 delays as of 3:25 p.m. EDT, according to flight-tracking website  FlightAware .

Most airlines were able to resume operations as the morning progressed, but many said they expected disruptions to continue throughout the day.

Read more about the outage's travel impacts

Hospitals cancel nonemergency services

Hospitals across the U.S. and overseas were impacted by the outage, which forced some to cancel elective surgeries and halt visitations as well as outpatient services.

Mass General Brigham in Boston canceled previously scheduled nonurgent surgeries, procedures and medical visits, according to a statement sent to USA TODAY. In the same area, Tufts Medical Center told media outlet WHDH it’s still assessing the outage’s effect on clinical and surgical operations.

In Texas, Ben Taub Hospital and Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital suspended "hospital visitation and patient information," citing a "Microsoft Windows failure," according to a statement from Harris Health System . Cincinnati Children's Hospital said many of its Microsoft-based computer systems are down because of the outage, which forced the hospital to cancel early morning appointments.

"We are in touch with the hospital field and the federal government and monitoring the situation closely to better understand its scope and impact," said John Riggi, the American Hospital Association's national adviser for cybersecurity and risk. 

Two hospitals in northern German cities canceled elective operations scheduled for Friday but continued to provide patient care and emergency services.

Outages exposes fragility of internet infrastructure

While there were reports of companies gradually restoring their services, analysts weighed the potential of what one called the biggest-ever outage in the industry and the broader economy.

"This is a very, very uncomfortable illustration of the fragility of the world’s core Internet infrastructure," Ciaran Martin, Professor at Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government and former head of the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre, told Reuters.

"IT security tools are all designed to ensure that companies can continue to operate in the worst-case scenario of a data breach, so to be the root cause of a global IT outage is an unmitigated disaster," said Ajay Unni, CEO of StickmanCyber, one of Australia's largest cybersecurity services companies.

Outages ripple far and wide

From the United Kingdom to Singapore, the effects of tech outages were far-reaching on Friday.

British broadcaster Sky News went off-air and train companies in the U.K. reported long delays. Departure boards at several U.K. airports appeared to freeze, according to passengers who posted reports on social media.

London's Stock Exchange reported experiencing disruptions. Some hospitals also reported difficulties processing appointments and several chain retail stores said they couldn't take payments. The soccer club Manchester United said on X that it had to postpone a scheduled release of tickets.

In Australia, media, banks and telecoms companies suffered outages.

There was no information to suggest the outage was a cybersecurity incident, the office of Australia's National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuinness said in a post on X.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority said some of its systems were offline due to a worldwide technical outage, but have since been restored. It said MTA train and bus services were unaffected.

Spanish authorities reported a "computer incident" at all its airports.

Berlin's main airport said check-ins were delayed because of a "technical fault."

Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, warned passengers of potential disruptions which it said would affect "all airlines operating across the Network." It did not specify the nature of the disruptions.

There were reports a shipping terminal in Gdansk on Poland's Baltic coast was not operating normally.

NetBlocks, a digital-connectivity watchdog, said that the outage reported by global airlines, corporates and infrastructure services firms and others was having "minimal" impact on global Internet connectivity.

Contributing: Reuters

What we know about CrowdStrike’s update fail that’s causing global outages and travel chaos

A faulty software update issued by security giant CrowdStrike has resulted in a massive overnight outage that’s affected Windows computers around the world , disrupting businesses, airports, train stations, banks, broadcasters and the healthcare sector.

CrowdStrike said the outage was not caused by a cyberattack, but was the result of a “defect” in a software update for its flagship security product, Falcon Sensor. The defect caused any Windows computers that Falcon is installed on to crash without fully loading.

“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” said CrowdStrike in a statement on Friday . Some businesses and organizations are beginning to recover, but many expect the outages to drag on into the weekend or next week given the complexity of the fix. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz told NBC News that it may take “some time for some systems that just automatically won’t recover.” In a later tweet , Kurtz apologized for the disruption.

Here’s everything you need to know about the outages.

What happened?

Late Thursday into Friday, reports began to emerge of IT problems wherein Windows computers were getting stuck with the infamous “blue screen of death” — a bright blue error screen with a message that displays when Windows encounters a critical failure, crashes or cannot load.

The outages were first noticed in Australia early on Friday, and reports quickly came in from the rest of Asia and Europe as the regions began their day, as well as the United States.

Within a short time, CrowdStrike confirmed that a software update for Falcon had malfunctioned and was causing Windows computers that had the software installed to crash. Falcon lets CrowdStrike remotely analyze and check for malicious threats and malware on installed computers.

At around the same time, Microsoft reported a significant outage at one of its most used Azure cloud regions covering much of the central United States. A spokesperson for Microsoft told TechCrunch that its outage was unrelated to CrowdStrike’s incident .

Around Friday noon (Eastern time), Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella posted on X saying the company is aware of the CrowdStrike botched update and is “working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online.”

What is CrowdStrike and what does Falcon Sensor do?

CrowdStrike, founded in 2011, has quickly grown into a cybersecurity giant. Today the company provides software and services to 29,000 corporate customers, including around half of Fortune 500 companies, 43 out of 50 U.S. states and eight out of the top 10 tech firms, according to its website .

The company’s cybersecurity software, Falcon, is used by enterprises to manage security on millions of computers around the world. These businesses include large corporations, hospitals, transportation hubs and government departments. Most consumer devices do not run Falcon and are unaffected by this outage.

One of the company’s biggest recent claims to fame was when it caught a group of Russian government hackers breaking into the Democratic National Committee ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. CrowdStrike is also known for using memorable animal-themed names for the hacking groups it tracks based on their nationality, such as: Fancy Bear , believed to be part of Russia’s General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU; Cozy Bear , believed to be part of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR; Gothic Panda , believed to be a Chinese government group; and Charming Kitten , believed to be an Iranian state-backed group. The company even makes action figures to represent these groups, which it sells as swag .

CrowdStrike is so big it’s one of the sponsors of the Mercedes F1 team , and this year even aired a Super Bowl ad — a first for a cybersecurity company. 

Who are the outages affecting?

Practically anyone who during their everyday life interacts with a computer system running software from CrowdStrike is affected, even if the computer isn’t theirs. 

These devices include the cash registers at grocery stores, departure boards at airports and train stations, school computers, your work-issued laptops and desktops, airport check-in systems, airlines’ own ticketing and scheduling platforms, healthcare networks and many more. Because CrowdStrike’s software is so ubiquitous, the outages are causing chaos around the world in a variety of ways. A single affected Windows computer in a fleet of systems could be enough to disrupt the network. 

TechCrunch reporters around the world are seeing and experiencing outages, including at points of travel, doctors’ offices and online. Early on Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration put in effect a ground stop, effectively grounding flights across the United States, citing the disruption. It looks like so far the national Amtrak rail network is functioning as normal. 

What is the U.S. government doing so far?

Given that the problem stems from a company, there isn’t much that the U.S. federal government can do. According to a pool report, President Biden was briefed on the CrowdStrike outage, and “his team is in touch with CrowdStrike and impacted entities.” That’s in large part because the federal government is a customer of CrowdStrike and also affected.

Several federal agencies are affected by the incident, including the Department of Education , and Social Security Administration, which said Friday that it closed its offices as a result of the outage.

The pool report said Biden’s team is “engaged across the interagency to get sector by sector updates throughout the day and is standing by to provide assistance as needed.” 

In a separate tweet, Homeland Security said it was working with its U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA, CrowdStrike and Microsoft — as well as its federal, state, local and critical infrastructure partners — to “fully assess and address system outages.”

There will no doubt be questions for CrowdStrike (and to some extent Microsoft, whose unrelated outage also caused disruption overnight for its customers) from government and congressional investigators. 

For now, the immediate focus will be on the recovery of affected systems.

How do affected customers fix their Windows computers?

The major problem here is that CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor software malfunctioned, causing Windows machines to crash, and there’s no easy way to fix that. 

So far, CrowdStrike has issued a patch, and it has also detailed a workaround that could help affected systems function normally until it has a permanent solution. One option is for users to “reboot the [affected computer] to give it an opportunity to download the reverted channel file,” referring to the fixed file.

In a message to users , CrowdStrike detailed a few steps customers can take, one of which requires physical access to an affected system to remove the defective file. CrowdStrike says users should boot the computer into Safe Mode or Windows Recovery Environment, navigate to the CrowdStrike directory, and delete the faulty file “C-00000291*.sys.”

The wider problem with having to fix the file manually could be a major headache for companies and organizations with large numbers of computers, or Windows-powered servers in datacenters or locations that might be in another region, or an entirely different country.

CISA warns that malicious actors are ‘taking advantage’ of the outage

In a statement on Friday, CISA attributed the outages to the faulty CrowdStrike update and that the issue was not due to a cyberattack. CISA said that it was “working closely with CrowdStrike and federal, state, local, tribal and territorial partners, as well as critical infrastructure and international partners to assess impacts and support remediation efforts.”

CISA did note, however, that it has “observed threat actors taking advantage of this incident for phishing and other malicious activity.” The cybersecurity agency did not provide more specifics, but warned organizations to stay vigilant.

Malicious actors can and will exploit confusion and chaos to carry out cyberattacks on their own. Rachel Tobac, a social engineering expert and founder of cybersecurity firm SocialProof Security, said in a series of posts on X to “verify people are who they say they are before taking sensitive actions.”

“Criminals will attempt to use this IT outage to pretend to be IT to you or you to IT to steal access, passwords, codes, etc.,” Tobac said.

What do we know about misinformation so far?

It’s easy to understand why some might have thought that this outage was a cyberattack. Sudden outages, blue screens at airports, office computers filled with error messages, and chaos and confusion. As you might expect, a fair amount of misinformation is already flying around , even as social media sites incorrectly flag trending topics like “cyberattack.”

Remember to check official sources of news and information, and if something seems too good to be true, it might just well be.

TechCrunch will keep this report updated throughout the day.

TechCrunch’s Ram Iyer contributed reporting.

More TechCrunch

Get the industry’s biggest tech news, techcrunch daily news.

Every weekday and Sunday, you can get the best of TechCrunch’s coverage.

Startups Weekly

Startups are the core of TechCrunch, so get our best coverage delivered weekly.

TechCrunch Fintech

The latest Fintech news and analysis, delivered every Tuesday.

TechCrunch Mobility

TechCrunch Mobility is your destination for transportation news and insight.

WazirX halts trading after $230 million ‘force majeure’ loss

WazirX, one of India’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has “temporarily” suspended all trading activities on its platform days after losing about $230 million, nearly half of its reserves, in a security…

Featured Article

From Yandex’s ashes comes Nebius, a ‘startup’ with plans to be a European AI compute leader

Subject to shareholder approval, Yandex N.V. is adopting the name of one of its few remaining assets, an AI cloud platform called Nebius AI which it birthed last year.

Bethesda Game Studios employees form a ‘wall-to-wall’ union

Employees at Bethesda Game Studios — the Microsoft-owned game developer that produces the Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises — are joining the Communication Workers of America. Quality assurance testers at…

CrowdStrike’s update fail causes global outages and travel chaos

This week saw one of the most widespread IT disruptions in recent years linked to a faulty software update from popular cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Businesses across the world reported IT…

Unpacking how Alphabet’s rumored Wiz acquisition could affect VC

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is in advanced talks to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz for $23 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. TechCrunch’s sources heard similar and…

Microsoft says 8.5M Windows devices were affected by CrowdStrike outage

Around 8.5 million devices — less than 1 percent Windows machines globally — were affected by the recent CrowdStrike outage, according to a Microsoft blog post by David Weston, the…

Some Black startup founders feel betrayed by Ben Horowitz’s support for Trump

Trump is an advocate for a number of policies that could be harmful to people of color.

Strava’s next chapter: New CEO talks AI, inclusivity, and why ‘dark mode’ took so long

TechCrunch sat down with Strava’s new CEO in London for a wide-ranging interview, delving into what the company is prioritizing, and what we can expect in the future as the company embarks on its “next chapter.”

Lavish parties and moral dilemmas: 4 days with Silicon Valley’s MAGA elite at the RNC

All week at the RNC, I saw an event defined by Silicon Valley. But I also saw the tech elite experience flashes of discordance.

Tracking the EV battery factory construction boom across North America

A wave of automakers and battery makers — foreign and domestic — have pledged to produce North American–made batteries before 2030.

Faulty CrowdStrike update causes major global IT outage, taking out banks, airlines and businesses globally

Security giant CrowdStrike said the outage was not caused by a cyberattack, as businesses anticipate widespread disruption.

US cyber agency CISA says malicious hackers are ‘taking advantage’ of CrowdStrike outage

CISA confirmed the CrowdStrike outage was not caused by a cyberattack, but urged caution as malicious hackers exploit the situation.

These startups are trying to prevent another CrowdStrike-like outage, according to VCs

The global outage is a perfect reminder how much of the world relies on technological infrastructure.

CrowdStrike outage: How your plane, train and automobile travel may be affected

The CrowdStrike outage that hit early Friday morning and knocked out computers running Microsoft Windows has grounded flights globally. Major U.S. airlines including United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air…

Twitch reinstates Trump’s account ahead of the 2024 presidential election

Prior to the ban, Trump’s team used his channel to broadcast some of his campaigns. With the ban now lifted, his channel can resume doing so.

M&A activity heats up with Wiz, Graphcore, etc.

This week, Google is in discussions to pay $23 billion for cloud security startup Wiz, SoftBank acquires Graphcore, and more.

CrowdStrike’s rivals stand to benefit from its update fail debacle

CrowdStrike competes with a number of vendors, including SentinelOne and Palo Alto Networks but also Microsoft, Trellix, Trend Micro and Sophos, in the endpoint security market.

CrowdStrike chaos leads to grounded aircraft — and maybe an unusual weather effect

The IT outage may have an unexpected effect on the climate: clearer skies and maybe lower temperatures this evening

The CrowdStrike outage is a plot point in a rom-com 

There’s a man in Florida right now who wants to propose to his girlfriend while they’re on a beach vacation. He couldn’t get the engagement ring before he flew down…

Here’s everything you need to know so far about the global outages caused by CrowdStrike’s buggy software update.

From the Sphere to false cyberattack claims, misinformation runs rampant amid CrowdStrike outage

This serves as an example for how easy it is to spread inaccurate information online during a time of immense global confusion and panic.

Last chance today: Secure major savings for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024!

Today is the final chance to save up to $800 on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 tickets. Disrupt Deal Days event will end tonight at 11:59 p.m. PT. Don’t miss out on…

Paytm loss widens and revenue shrinks as it grapples with regulatory clampdown

Indian fintech Paytm’s struggles won’t seem to end. The company on Friday reported that its revenue declined by 36% and its loss more than doubled in the first quarter as…

Fandango founder dies in fall from Manhattan skyscraper

J. Michael Cline, the co-founder of Fandango and multiple other startups over his multi-decade career, died after falling from a Manhattan hotel, New York’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information tells…

Researcher finds flaw in a16z website that exposed some company data

Venture capital giant a16z fixed a security vulnerability in one of the firm’s websites after being warned by a security researcher.

Apple Vision Pro debuts immersive content featuring NBA players, The Weeknd and more

Apple on Thursday announced its upcoming lineup of immersive video content for the Vision Pro. The list includes behind-the-scenes footage of the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend, an immersive performance by…

Elon Musk is now a villain in Joe Biden’s presidential campaign

Biden centering Musk in his campaign is a notable escalation, considering he spent most of his presidency seemingly pretending the billionaire didn’t exist.

Waymo wants to bring robotaxis to SFO, emails show

Waymo would need a ground transportation permit to operate at SFO, which has yet to be approved.

Why it made sense for an online community college to raise venture capital

When Tade Oyerinde first set out to fundraise for his startup, Campus, a fully accredited online community college, it was incredibly difficult. VCs have backed for-profit education companies in the…

PE firm PartnerOne paid $28M for HeadSpin, a fraction of its $1.1B valuation set by ICONIQ and Dell Technologies Capital

Canadian private equity firm PartnerOne paid $28.2 million for HeadSpin, a mobile app testing startup whose founder was sentenced for fraud earlier this year, according to documents viewed by TechCrunch.…

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

What we know about the computer update glitch disrupting systems around the world

Bobby Allyn

Bill Chappell

Fatima Al-Kassab

Microsoft, which hosts cloud services with businesses and governments, said it was grappling with service outages after a glitch triggered by software distributed by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Haven Daley/AP hide caption

A technological meltdown left employees of airlines, banks, hospitals and emergency services around the world staring at the dreaded “blue screen of death” on Friday as their computers went inert in what is being described as a historic outage.

“This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it's actually happened this time,” internet security analyst Troy Hunt said via X .

Security experts race to fix critical software flaw threatening industries worldwide

From continent to continent, Microsoft users reported being suddenly knocked offline, and the culprit was determined to be cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, which says one of its routine software updates malfunctioned.

“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts,” the company said in a statement.

Customers using Mac and Linux operating systems were not affected, CrowdStrike said.

When the faulty update crashed computer systems, scores of airport travelers were stranded, hospital appointments were delayed and live news broadcasts were cut short.

How big is the outage?

It is massive, far-reaching and sudden.

Some computer problems cascade, creating ripples of failures. But in this case, the flaw permeated Microsoft systems worldwide nearly immediately. The company says its Windows 365 Cloud PCs, apps and services were affected.

Microsoft remains the dominant desktop operating system worldwide, with more than 72% market share, according to the Statcounter website . The CrowdStrike problem does not directly affect all of those machines: its security software is mainly used by businesses and large organizations. The company says its customers include 43 U.S. states and nearly 300 companies in the Fortune 500.

Hundreds of thousands of Microsoft outages were reported on Friday, according to Downdetector , the website that tracks outages based on users’ reports.

In 16 hours, 311,000 global outage reports came in, Michelle Badrian, senior communications manager at Ookla, which owns Downdetector, told NPR. Of that figure, she added, 58,000 reports were from the U.S., 26,000 from the U.K., and 20,000 from India. Large numbers of reports also came in from Germany, Canada and Australia.

There are signs that relief is on the way: Badrian said that as of midday Friday ET, “we are observing report volumes declining both for Microsoft services and for all services overall.”

While server-related outages are common, the scale of the CrowdStrike disruption was astonishing to many tech observers.

“This IT outage is a stark reminder of how dependent we are on technology and many other things that happen behind the scenes that most of us are unaware of,” said Louisville-based tech executive Adam Robinson on X . “Modern society and the many comforts we enjoy is a fragile thing.”

Passengers wait in front of check-in counters at the capital's Berlin Brandenburg Airport, in Schönefeld, Germany, on Friday after a widespread technology outage disrupted flights, banks, media outlets and companies around the world. Christoph Soeder/AP/DPA hide caption

What about air travel?

More than 2,000 flights originating or landing in the U.S. were canceled as of noon ET Friday, and more than twice that number were delayed, according to the FlightAware tracking site.

Delta Airlines, United Airlines and American Airlines announced they were resuming some or all of their scheduled flights after initially being grounded when the problem struck their systems. The airlines also said they were issuing waivers to affected customers.

Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport — a major hub for long-distance flights — said a "global system failure" impacted incoming and outgoing flights on one of the busiest days of the year.

Landings at Zurich airport were suspended and flights in Hungary disrupted.

Spanish airport operator Aena reported a computer systems “incident” at all Spanish airports that it said could cause delays.

What other kinds of services went offline?

In some states, including Alaska and Ohio , 911 phone lines were down.

The U.K.’s National Health Service has been widely affected. The NHS said Friday that doctors’ appointments and patient records had been affected but that there was no known impact on emergency services. The BBC reported that two-thirds of doctors’ practices in Northern Ireland had been affected, with doctors unable to access patient records, generate prescriptions or see the result of laboratory tests.

In Germany, some hospitals canceled non-emergency operations.

Broadcasters around the world were also affected. In France and Australia , live television broadcasts were knocked offline.

Sky News, a major U.K. news channel, was off air for a time on Friday morning. It later returned, but without “ full capabilities , ” its chairman, David Rhodes, said on X Friday afternoon. A post on Australia’s ABC News website said the broadcaster was experiencing a “major network outage.”

The London Stock Exchange’s news service stopped working. Shipping in the Baltic was also impacted, with the container hub of Gdansk in Poland hit by major disruptions.

How do people fix their computers?

CrowdStrike says the problem was not a cyberattack, but rather a software glitch. The company said that after identifying the issue, it withdrew the "problematic channel file" that was affecting customers' systems.

Because of that move, if a Windows system with CrowdStrike's Falcon sensor was brought online after 1:27 a.m. ET Friday , the company said, it wouldn't be affected.

It also published a workaround that involves booting a Windows machine in a recovery environment, deleting a single file in the CrowdStrike directory, and restarting.

An airport information screen displays an error message rather than travel information at San Francisco International Airport on Friday after a computer problem unraveled systems in the U.S. and dozens of other countries. Talia Smith/NPR hide caption

What is CrowdStrike?

It’s a U.S. cybersecurity firm based in Austin, Texas. The company went public in 2019 and is currently in the S&P 500 index. As of early July, CrowdStrike’s stock had been riding months of gains. But share prices fell sharply in early trading Friday.

“This is clearly a major black eye for CrowdStrike,” said WedBush analyst Dan Ives.

CrowdStrike made headlines in 2016, when the company was hired by the Democratic National Committee to investigate a breach of its data systems . CrowdStrike determined that the hack was a case of foreign interference — the work of Russian-backed hacking groups.

The company’s marquee product is its “Falcon” cybersecurity software — and it traced the current problem to a change in a sensor in that system. That also helps explain how and why the resulting failures might have spread so quickly: Rather than being stored locally, the Falcon security platform “is 100% cloud-based.”

The company apologized for the outages on Friday, stating, "We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption."

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Advertisement

Supported by

What We Know About the Global Microsoft Outage

Airlines to banks to retailers were affected in many countries. Businesses are struggling to recover.

• Share full article

By Eshe Nelson and Danielle Kaye

Eshe Nelson reported from London and Danielle Kaye from New York.

Across the world, critical businesses and services including airlines, hospitals, train networks and TV stations, were disrupted on Friday by a global tech outage affecting Microsoft users.

In many countries, flights were grounded, workers could not get access to their systems and, in some cases, customers could not make card payments in stores. While some of the problems were resolved within hours, many businesses, websites and airlines continued to struggle to recover.

What happened?

A series of outages rippled across the globe as information displays, login systems and broadcasting networks went dark.

The problem affecting the majority of services was caused by a flawed update by CrowdStrike , an American cybersecurity firm, whose systems are intended to protect users from hackers. Microsoft said on Friday that it was aware of an issue affecting machines running “CrowdStrike Falcon.”

But Microsoft had also said there was an earlier outage affecting U.S. users of Azure, its cloud service system. Some users may have been affected by both. Even as CrowdStrike sent out a fix, some systems were still affected by midday in the United States as businesses needed to make manual updates to their systems to resolve the issue.

George Kurtz, the president and chief executive of CrowdStrike, said on Friday morning that it could take some time for some systems to recover.

How a Software Update Crashed Computers Around the World

Here’s a visual explanation for how a faulty software update crippled machines.

What was affected?

It is more apt to ask what was not affected. Everything from airlines to banks to health care systems in many countries was hit.

In Australia, passengers were stuck in long lines at Sydney airport as information screens went blank, and programming was disrupted at the national broadcaster. Airports in Britain, Germany and Taiwan had long delays at check-ins and flights were delayed or canceled. At an airport in South Korea, handwritten boarding passes were being slowly handed out.

How the airline cancellations rippled around the world (and across time zones)

Share of canceled flights at 25 airports on Friday

50% of flights

Ai r po r t

Bengalu r u K empeg o wda

Dhaka Shahjalal

Minneapolis-Saint P aul

Stuttga r t

Melbou r ne

Be r lin B r anden b urg

London City

Amsterdam Schiphol

Chicago O'Hare

Raleigh−Durham

B r adl e y

Cha r lotte

Reagan National

Philadelphia

1:20 a.m. ET

Flights continued to be disrupted at some U.S. airports into the morning because of the cascading effect of flight delays and cancellations. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that ground stops and delays would be “intermittent” at some airports as airlines grapple with residual technology issues.

The outage affected emergency 911 lines in multiple states, the U.S. Emergency Alert System said on social media — but most if not all of the emergency system problems appeared to be resolving themselves by midmorning.

A few hospitals in Germany said they would cancel elective procedures; and in Britain, some doctors in the National Health Service were unable to gain access to systems. Kaiser Permanente, a medical system that provides care to 12.6 million members in the United States, said all of its hospitals’ systems were affected, and it activated backup systems to keep caring for patients.

At some banks, including JPMorgan Chase, there were delays in processing trades because bankers could not log into their work systems. TD Bank, the 10th largest in the United States, said customers complained that they could not access their online accounts.

But the problems were not uniform. London’s Heathrow Airport said that its flights were still operating. The London Stock Exchange said that it could not publish news updates but the exchange, where trades take place, was working as normal. The auction system at the Norwegian central bank was briefly interrupted, but other major central banks, the European Central Bank and Bank of England, said there was no effect on their systems.

In some cases, issues were resolved relatively quickly. In Ukraine, Sense Bank and the mobile operator Vodafone reported brief problems with their services. At Dubai International Airport, two airlines switched to alternative systems, allowing operations to resume.

Major grocery chains in the United States appeared largely unaffected, with most stores operating as usual. But the world’s biggest logistics companies, including United Parcel Service and FedEx, did report disruptions, causing delivery delays in some regions. A spokesman for UPS said the company’s computer systems in the United States and Europe were affected.

Who’s to blame?

Mr. Kurtz said CrowdStrike took responsibility for the software bug, sent in a system update, that caused the outage. He said in a post on X that Mac and Linux users were not affected.

The incident was not a cyberattack, Mr. Kurtz said, adding that customers remain “fully protected.” But Mr. Kurtz warned on NBC’s “Today” show that the fix could take some time to put in place.

“We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption,” Mr. Kurtz said. Microsoft offered suggestions to users to help resolve the issue, including restoring backup systems.

While CrowdStrike is at fault for the software bug, J.J. Guy, chief executive of cybersecurity company Sevco, said poor resiliency of Microsoft’s operating system is to blame for extent of the damage.

“Bugs happen all the time and are unavoidable, the result of business complexity and technology,” Mr. Guy said. “But this became a catastrophic incident because of the remediation procedures. The resiliency of the operating system was not sufficient to mitigate the risk of that.”

Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment on its operating system. The company’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, said in a post on X that Microsoft is working with CrowdStrike to offer customers technical guidance and bring systems back online.

Eshe Nelson is a reporter based in London, covering economics and business news for The New York Times. More about Eshe Nelson

Danielle Kaye is a business reporter and a 2024 David Carr Fellow, a program for journalists early in their careers. More about Danielle Kaye

Global IT outage: Computer havoc caused by CrowdStrike outage could take days to fix — as it happened

A massive IT outage caused by issues with CrowdStrike software has caused havoc with computer systems around the world.

Airport check-in systems across the globe have been disrupted, while banks, supermarkets and media companies are among the other businesses reporting the "blue screen of death" and network outages.

Download the ABC News app  and  subscribe to our range of news alerts  for further updates.

Here's how Friday's news unfolded:

• 12:38 PM 12:38 PM Fri 19 Jul 2024 at 12:38pm CrowdStrike CEO admits it could take 'some time' for some customers' systems to 'recover'
• 12:23 PM 12:23 PM Fri 19 Jul 2024 at 12:23pm CrowdStrike CEO apologises 'to anyone affected' by outage
• 11:50 AM 11:50 AM Fri 19 Jul 2024 at 11:50am Microsoft acknowledges continuing impacts on apps and services despite CrowdStrike 'fix'

Live updates

Here's what we know.

By Joseph Dunstan

• Reports of the outage in Australia began flooding in about 3pm AEST
• Outages hit banks and payment systems, forcing some supermarkets and petrol stations to close
• Airport check-in systems have been disrupted and businesses have reported the "blue screen of death" and IT outages
• The Australian government says the outages are not the result of a cybersecurity incident but has been caused by a CrowdStrike update  
• CrowdStrike's CEO says a defect in a recent update for Windows hosts has been identified and a fix has been deployed but some systems could be down for 'some time'  
• Microsoft says apps and services are still experiencing residual impacts
• The prime minister says there has been no impact to critical infrastructure in Australia, such as triple-0 services and core emergency services
• Outages continue to impact health services and air travel around the world

Thanks for reading

By Daniel Nancarrow

That is all for our blog on the major outage that has impacted systems worldwide today.

We will continue to cover the ongoing impact of the CrowdStrike defect on the ABC News website .

Thousands of flights cancelled and delayed across the US as outages continue

By Brad Ryan

In the US, airlines are working to restore systems and resume flights.

More than 1,000 flights had been cancelled and 2,000 delayed by 8:30am Friday morning (US eastern time), according to the FlightAware tracking website.

Still plenty of blue screens at Chicago's O'Hare Airport.

CrowdStrike CEO admits it could take 'some time' for some customers' systems to 'recover'

Kurtz told Today that the impact of the outage could be felt for 'some time' due to the systems of some of the company's customers still experiencing issues.

"Many of the customers are rebooting the system, and its coming up and it'll be operational because we fixed it on our end," Mr Kurtz said.   "And some of the systems that aren't recovering we're working with them.   So it could be some time for some systems that just automatically won’t recover."

CrowdStrike boss says the issue was related to a 'bug' in the company's update

Kurtz told Today a "bug" in the CrowdStrike update caused the issue with the Microsoft operating system.

"This system was sent an update and that update had a software bug in it and it caused an issue with the Microsoft operating system," he said. "We identified this very quickly and remediated the issue, and as systems come back online, as they're rebooted, they're coming up and they're working and now we are working with each and every customer to make sure we can bring them back online. "But that was the extent of the issue in terms of a bug that was related to our update."

CrowdStrike CEO apologises 'to anyone affected' by outage

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz has appeared on US television network NBC, telling viewers the company was sorry for the impact of the defect on people around the world.

"I want to start with saying we're deeply sorry for the impact that we've caused to customers, to travellers, to anyone affected by this including our company," he told NBC's Today show.

Outage impacts doctor services in the UK

The UK's National Health Service (NHS) says the outage is causing problems at most doctors' offices across England.

NHS England said in a statement that the glitch was hitting the appointment and patient record system used across the health service.

The NHS said the issue was affecting the majority of family doctors' practices, but was not hitting the 999 number used to call for emergency ambulances.

The regulatory service at the London Stock Exchange has also stopped working but the outage has not affected trading.

Paris Olympics 2024 IT systems hit by global cyber outage

By Nelli Saarinen

The Paris Olympics' organising committee says its IT operations have been impacted by the global cyber outage, just a week before the Games are set to begin.

"We have activated contingency plans in order to continue operations," the organising committee said in a statement.

The organisers said the outages had impacted the arrival of some delegations. But they said impact was limited and the outages had not affected ticketing or the torch relay.

Reporting with Reuters and AP

Microsoft acknowledges continuing impacts on apps and services despite CrowdStrike 'fix'

Microsoft says while the underlying cause for the outages has been fixed, a "residual impact" is continuing to affect some Microsoft 365 apps and services.

"We're conducting additional mitigations to provide relief", the company Tweeted.

Air travel impacted worldwide by outages

We've been bringing you images of the long lines at Australian airports following the computing outage today.

Similar images have been seen all around the world as travel ground to a virtual halt in many countries.

The US's Federal Aviation Administration says United, American, Delta and Allegiant airlines have all been grounded by the outage.

As we mentioned earlier, airlines and railways have been affected in the UK and Germany, as well as other parts of Europe.

In India, Hong Kong and Thailand, many airlines were forced to manually check in passengers, while an airline in Kenya was also reporting disruptions.

ABC local radio presenter Andre Leslie was in Kuala Lumpur today, and took images of long lines at the airport with AirAsia's self-service kiosks shut down.

CrowdStrike shares fall nearly 12 per cent in premarket trading

Reuters is reporting that CrowdStrike's   Nasdaq-traded shares were down 11.8 per cent in premarket trading early Friday, US time.

Delays of up to 120 minutes expected on Victoria's regional train network

V/Line , the operator of regional rail and coach services in Victoria, has released a statement indicating customers can expect delays of up to 120 minutes as the company works to restore services.

Trains on the V/Line network were stopped at approximately 4.35pm due to a radio system fault linked to a widespread computing outage. Trains resumed about an hour later but significant delays are expected on all lines for a number of hours.

Coaches are in place at major train stations on the network.

For more information visit the V/Line website or call 1800 800 007.

Calls for inquiry into national outage as well as penalties for CrowdStrike's 'bad governance'

Here is associate professor at RMIT's School of Engineering Dr Mark A Gregory speaking on ABC News about the CrowdStrike outage and the need for the government to call an inquiry.

Dr Gregory says questions needed to be answered about compensation for the national outage as well as what penalties the company should face.

He said Australia was quite lax when it came to regulating foreign multinational companies like CrowdStrike.

"We don't appear to have the legislation and regulation to hold them to account to ensure that they follow good engineering practice, and that definitely has not happened in this case, as an inquiry should find," Dr Gregory said.

He attributed the outage to "bad governance" at CrowdStrike.

"There should have been no roll-out to an entire country or to the entire world without testing within CrowdStrike, and also testing on, for example, a company that has agreed to be a test site for that software," he told News Channel. "The idea that this update has been rolled out globally and has caused this sort of problem is unthinkable."

He said after a number of cybersecurity incidents in recent years, such as the 2023 Optus outage, Australia needed to consider stronger legislation and regulation "to ensure this type of event does not happen again".

"In every circumstance to date, Australia and our legislation and regulations have been found wanting," he said.

with Alicia Perera

Expert expects situation to be 'pretty well back to normal' by midday tomorrow

By Greig Johnston

Dr Mark Gregory , a network engineering expert at RMIT University, says he expects the problems to be largely resolved by tomorrow morning .

"Software like CrowdStrike's Falcon platform are typically rolled out from a central part of an organisation," Dr Gregory said. "They have IT support teams … they should be able to quite quickly apply the patch. "As we've heard, a problem exists if a computer has been turned off after the blue screen occurred, the computer will need to be turned back on so the patch can be applied. "But generally, I would expect this type of problem should be resolved by tomorrow morning. "IT teams are going to be working late tonight because they'll need to apply the patch, then there'll be a lot of testing. "I would expect by about midday tomorrow things should be pretty well back to normal."

Full statement from CrowdStrike regarding 'defect' causing worldwide outages

Earlier we posted the Tweet from CrowdStrike 's CEO regarding the cause of the worldwide computing outages . Here is the statement from the company again in full:

"CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. "This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. "We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. "We further recommend organizations ensure they're communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. "Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."

Small businesses frustrated by eftpos down

By Liana Walker

Business owner Danielle Hempseed said Fridays are always a busy day in her Rockhampton florist and gift shop, making the outage "frustrating".

"Having point of sales down, eftpos down, and emails down, it makes it really hard for us to operate," she said.

Ms Hempseed said the business has been experiencing dodgy reception recently, so they already had alternative payment options in place for when disaster struck, such as offering direct bank account transfers or processing the payment at a later time.

"We just have to trust [our customers] a little bit more," she said.

"We have always taken cash, that has never been an issue for us."

She said this is a reminder of how dependent her business is on technology.

Reporting by Scout Wallen

Victorians urged to call 000 in case of fire due to outages impacting automatic alarm calling

Victorian fire services are aware that some residential and business buildings that have monitored fire alarms may not automatically call the fire brigade due to current computing outages.

Victorians have been asked to call 000 if their building fire alarm is activated, or if they see flames or smoke, while the issue is being investigated by alarm companies.

Hospitals, airports and ports being impacted internationally

By Alicia Perera

Michelle Rimmer from the ABC's London bureau says the outage is having widespread impacts globally on industries ranging from transport to infrastructure and even healthcare.

"Across Europe, at airports in Spain, in Germany, there have been incidents that have been reported at almost all of the airports. They've had to revert to manual operations just to try and keep things running at this stage," she told News Channel. "The German government has said that critical infrastructure and operators have been impacted. "The Paris Olympic Committee have released a statement saying that they've been affected as well, however, they have contingencies in place to make sure that they can continue with their planning and preparations ahead of the opening ceremony in just one week's time. "Poland has said that its main shipping container terminal is struggling to keep up with any incoming ship loads — it's asked to not have any more containers dropped off. "So we're really seeing broad impacts across a range of industries across Europe."

She says the outage is even leading to healthcare delays in the UK, where hospitals and GP surgeries are currently "only able to treat some of the most urgent cases".

"That's because they can't access medical records," she says. "So they're reverting back to pen and paper to make sure that the most urgent emergency cases are still being seen, but others have been delayed."

Memories of 'Y2K'

Quite a few people in our comments have mentioned the outage has shades of "Y2K".

For those of our readers too young to remember, that was when — in the year 1999 — there were widespread fears of a technological catastrophe because old computers formatted the date with just the final two digits of the year, rather than the full four-digit year.

There were worries this glitch would turn into a full-scale meltdown as the clock ticked over into the year 2000.

Companies rushed to make sure their systems were "Y2K compliant".

Thankfully the problems reported on January 1, 2000 were pretty minor.

But this was in a time when cash was still in widespread use, before "tapping" was the preferred currency.

Consumers feel ripple effect due to CrowdStrike being 'heavily entrenched' in global IT supply chains

David Cullen from CISO Lens , the body that represents cybersecurity professionals in Australia and New Zealand, says CrowdStrike's software is "heavily entrenched" in global IT supply chains, so the issue doesn't just affect its customers, but its customers' customers and so on.

"This is a classic case of what happens when one supplier catches a cold, and the rest of us end up with the flu," he says. "Resolving this issue will take some time. It won't be as simple as turn it off and turn it on again." "When the dust settles, I hope that governments take the opportunity to partner with industry to capture lessons learned from this incident, to understand how we can better prepare ourselves for future major incidents and IT outages. "While this wasn't a cyber attack, the impacts are the same."

Suspect came within inches of killing Trump, but left few clues as to why

• Medium Text

NEVER KNOWN TO BE POLITICAL

Sign up here.

Reporting by Nathan Layne and Gabriella Borter in Bethel Park, Jasper Ward and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Additional reporting by Aaron Josefczyk in Bethel Park, Brendan O'Brien in Chicago, Tyler Clifford in New York, and Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Lisa Shumaker and Lincoln Feast.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab

Thomson Reuters

Gabriella Borter is a reporter on the U.S. National Affairs team, covering cultural and political issues as well as breaking news. She has won two Front Page Awards from the Newswomen’s Club of New York - in 2020 for her beat reporting on healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in 2019 for her spot story on the firing of the police officer who killed Eric Garner. The latter was also a Deadline Club Awards finalist. She holds a B.A. in English from Yale University and joined Reuters in 2017.

Brazil rules out three potential new cases of Newcastle disease in poultry

Brazil's Agriculture Ministry said on Sunday it has ruled out three potential new cases of Newcastle disease in poultry after testing additional samples taken from animals in the area close to where a first case was confirmed last week.

Travel, Tourism & Hospitality

Industry-specific and extensively researched technical data (partially from exclusive partnerships). A paid subscription is required for full access.

• Tourism sector employment figures Philippines 2012-2023

In 2023, about 6.2 million people were working in the tourism industry in the Philippines - a slight increase from the employment figures in the previous year. The number of employees in the tourism industry reached its peak in 2019.

Total number of people employed in the tourism industry in the Philippines from 2012 to 2023 (in millions)

To access all Premium Statistics, you need a paid Statista Account

• Immediate access to all statistics
• Incl. source references
• Download as PDF, XLS, PNG and PPT

Additional Information

Show sources information Show publisher information Use Ask Statista Research Service

Philippines

2012 to 2023

Figures have been rounded.

Other statistics on the topic Tourism industry in the Philippines

• Number of international tourist arrivals worldwide 1950-2023
• Number of international tourist arrivals worldwide 2005-2023, by region

Leisure Travel

• International tourist arrivals Philippines 2012-2023
• Tourist arrivals Philippines 2023, by country of residence

To download this statistic in XLS format you need a Statista Account

To download this statistic in PNG format you need a Statista Account

To download this statistic in PDF format you need a Statista Account

To download this statistic in PPT format you need a Statista Account

As a Premium user you get access to the detailed source references and background information about this statistic.

As a Premium user you get access to background information and details about the release of this statistic.

As soon as this statistic is updated, you will immediately be notified via e-mail.

… to incorporate the statistic into your presentation at any time.

You need at least a Starter Account to use this feature.

• Immediate access to statistics, forecasts & reports
• Usage and publication rights
• Download in various formats

* For commercial use only

Basic Account

• Free Statistics

Starter Account

• Premium Statistics

The statistic on this page is a Premium Statistic and is included in this account.

Professional Account

• Free + Premium Statistics
• Market Insights

1 All prices do not include sales tax. The account requires an annual contract and will renew after one year to the regular list price.

Statistics on " Tourism industry in the Philippines "

• Total travel and tourism GDP contribution APAC 2022-2033, by country
• Value of international tourism spending APAC 2022, by country
• Travel and tourism's direct contribution to employment APAC 2022, by country
• Gross value added of the tourism industry Philippines 2023, by type
• Share of tourism direct gross value added to GDP Philippines 2012-2023
• Tourism industry growth rate Philippines 2018/19-2022/23, by sector
• Tourism receipts Philippines 2019-2023
• Tourism receipts of the Philippines 2023, by country
• Inbound traveler share Philippines 2023, by purpose of visit
• Average length of stay of international tourists Philippines 2008-2023
• Inbound tourism expenditures Philippines 2012-2023
• Expenditure value in inbound tourism Philippines 2023, by type
• Outbound travelers volume Philippines 2023, by nationality
• Outbound travelers destination Philippines 2023
• Age distribution of outbound travelers Philippines 2021-2022
• Share of outbound travelers Philippines 2022, by purpose of visit
• Leading countries visited by outbound travelers Philippines 2022
• Outbound tourism expenditures Philippines 2023, by segment
• Number of domestic travelers Philippines 2021-2022
• Gender distribution of domestic travelers Philippines 2021-2022
• Age distribution of domestic travelers Philippines 2021-2022
• Leading domestic destinations for leisure travel Philippines 2022
• Domestic travelers share Philippines 2022, by length of stay
• Domestic tourism expenditures Philippines 2012-2023
• Domestic tourism expenditures Philippines 2023, by product
• Revenue of the hotels industry in the Philippines 2019-2028
• Revenue of the vacation rentals industry in the Philippines 2019-2028
• Average hotel room rates Metro Manila Philippines 2021-2023, by star classification
• Highest overnight room rates of hotels in Metro Manila, Philippines 2023, by city

Other statistics that may interest you Tourism industry in the Philippines

• Premium Statistic Number of international tourist arrivals worldwide 1950-2023
• Basic Statistic Number of international tourist arrivals worldwide 2005-2023, by region
• Basic Statistic Total travel and tourism GDP contribution APAC 2022-2033, by country
• Basic Statistic Value of international tourism spending APAC 2022, by country
• Basic Statistic Travel and tourism's direct contribution to employment APAC 2022, by country

Economic impact

• Premium Statistic Gross value added of the tourism industry Philippines 2023, by type
• Premium Statistic Share of tourism direct gross value added to GDP Philippines 2012-2023
• Premium Statistic Tourism industry growth rate Philippines 2018/19-2022/23, by sector
• Premium Statistic Tourism receipts Philippines 2019-2023
• Premium Statistic Tourism receipts of the Philippines 2023, by country
• Premium Statistic Tourism sector employment figures Philippines 2012-2023

Inbound tourism

• Basic Statistic International tourist arrivals Philippines 2012-2023
• Premium Statistic Tourist arrivals Philippines 2023, by country of residence
• Premium Statistic Inbound traveler share Philippines 2023, by purpose of visit
• Premium Statistic Average length of stay of international tourists Philippines 2008-2023
• Premium Statistic Inbound tourism expenditures Philippines 2012-2023
• Premium Statistic Expenditure value in inbound tourism Philippines 2023, by type

Outbound tourism

• Premium Statistic Outbound travelers volume Philippines 2023, by nationality
• Premium Statistic Outbound travelers destination Philippines 2023
• Premium Statistic Age distribution of outbound travelers Philippines 2021-2022
• Premium Statistic Share of outbound travelers Philippines 2022, by purpose of visit
• Premium Statistic Leading countries visited by outbound travelers Philippines 2022
• Premium Statistic Outbound tourism expenditures Philippines 2023, by segment

Domestic tourism

• Premium Statistic Number of domestic travelers Philippines 2021-2022
• Premium Statistic Gender distribution of domestic travelers Philippines 2021-2022
• Premium Statistic Age distribution of domestic travelers Philippines 2021-2022
• Premium Statistic Leading domestic destinations for leisure travel Philippines 2022
• Premium Statistic Domestic travelers share Philippines 2022, by length of stay
• Premium Statistic Domestic tourism expenditures Philippines 2012-2023
• Premium Statistic Domestic tourism expenditures Philippines 2023, by product

Accommodation

• Premium Statistic Revenue of the hotels industry in the Philippines 2019-2028
• Premium Statistic Revenue of the vacation rentals industry in the Philippines 2019-2028
• Premium Statistic Average hotel room rates Metro Manila Philippines 2021-2023, by star classification
• Premium Statistic Highest overnight room rates of hotels in Metro Manila, Philippines 2023, by city

Further related statistics

• Premium Statistic Employment in the passenger transport business Philippines 2012-2023
• Premium Statistic Employment in accommodation, food and beverage business Philippines 2012-2023
• Premium Statistic Brazil: tourism employment share 2019, by segment
• Basic Statistic Travel & tourism employment direct impact in South Korea 2012-2028
• Basic Statistic Share of tourist services in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2012, by employment size
• Basic Statistic Employment in passenger transport industry in Amsterdam in the Netherlands 2010-2019
• Basic Statistic Travel & tourism employment impact in South Korea 2012-2028
• Premium Statistic Employed people in the tourism industry in Italy 2019, by sector
• Basic Statistic Share of tourism in total employment in the Caribbean countries 2021
• Premium Statistic Leading jobs in the tourism industry in Italy
• Basic Statistic Direct contribution of travel and tourism to employment in Iran 2012-2028
• Basic Statistic Share of employment in travel and tourism in the Caribbean 2022, by country
• Premium Statistic Employed people in the tourism industry in Italy 2013-2019
• Premium Statistic Share of tourism employment to the total employment Philippines 2014-2023
• Basic Statistic Direct contribution of travel and tourism to employment in Italy 1999-2019
• Basic Statistic Contribution of travel and tourism to employment across the Middle East 2012-2028
• Basic Statistic Direct contribution of travel and tourism to employment in the GCC 2012-2028
• Basic Statistic direct contribution of tourism to employment across the Middle East 2012-2028
• Basic Statistic Total contribution of travel and tourism to employment in Qatar 2012-2028
• Basic Statistic Total contribution of travel and tourism to employment in Saudi Arabia 2012-2027

Further Content: You might find this interesting as well

• Employment in the passenger transport business Philippines 2012-2023
• Employment in accommodation, food and beverage business Philippines 2012-2023
• Brazil: tourism employment share 2019, by segment
• Travel & tourism employment direct impact in South Korea 2012-2028
• Share of tourist services in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2012, by employment size
• Employment in passenger transport industry in Amsterdam in the Netherlands 2010-2019
• Travel & tourism employment impact in South Korea 2012-2028
• Employed people in the tourism industry in Italy 2019, by sector
• Share of tourism in total employment in the Caribbean countries 2021
• Leading jobs in the tourism industry in Italy
• Direct contribution of travel and tourism to employment in Iran 2012-2028
• Share of employment in travel and tourism in the Caribbean 2022, by country
• Employed people in the tourism industry in Italy 2013-2019
• Share of tourism employment to the total employment Philippines 2014-2023
• Direct contribution of travel and tourism to employment in Italy 1999-2019
• Contribution of travel and tourism to employment across the Middle East 2012-2028
• Direct contribution of travel and tourism to employment in the GCC 2012-2028
• direct contribution of tourism to employment across the Middle East 2012-2028
• Total contribution of travel and tourism to employment in Qatar 2012-2028
• Total contribution of travel and tourism to employment in Saudi Arabia 2012-2027

Microsoft, CrowdStrike outage disrupts travel and business worldwide

The problem was traced to an update by security company CrowdStrike, which said it had fixed the issue Friday morning.

A defective update to an obscure piece of security software knocked out computer systems around the globe Friday, causing widespread disruptions to travel, medical care and businesses of all stripes while revealing in stunning fashion the fragility of a world economy built on shared technology.

Airline passengers were stranded at airports as thousands of flights were canceled. Hospitals closed their doors to patients expecting routine appointments. Shoppers encountered self-checkout terminals showing the notorious Blue Screen of Death that pops up when Windows fails. Even the organizers of the upcoming Paris Olympics reported impacts to the delivery of uniforms.

The problem traced to an update issued for Windows computers by security firm CrowdStrike, the company said in a blog post. The company said at 6 a.m. Friday the problem had been identified and fixed, but by that point the effects had rippled around the world.

The effects of the outage were a reminder of how the global economy is dependent on computer systems that are vulnerable to everything from attacks by sophisticated hackers to bungled software updates. But while the problems were widespread, there was an element of randomness at play, too, depending on which companies in any given industry made use of the defective system.

GET CAUGHT UP Stories to keep you informed

Appeals court blocks Biden’s student loan repayment plan

The Persian Gulf is enduring life-threatening heat indexes above 140 degrees

Paul Hollywood is right: Don’t refrigerate bread

Bob Newhart, who went from standup comedy to sitcom star, dies at 94

Social anxiety can be limiting. There are ways to get relief.

CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz said he was “deeply sorry” to anyone affected by the global outage during an appearance Friday on NBC’s “Today” show and vowed to “make sure every customer is fully recovered.”

Many CrowdStrike systems are recovering and will soon be operational, Kurtz said, but “it could take some time for some systems that won’t automatically recover.”

The company’s problems follow a string of computer security incidents and service outages in recent years that have disrupted online services. Bruce Schneier, a security technologist who teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School, said the latest problem shows how brittle parts of the online world have become as companies have chased efficiency while sacrificing resiliency.

“This is one of hundreds of companies you’ve never heard of that are essential to the functioning internet,” Schneier said. He compared the situation to a house built in such a way that nailing a picture to the wall puts it at risk of collapsing.

CrowdStrike’s software is widely used around the world by businesses seeking to defend themselves from hackers. The problems Friday affected only computers running Microsoft’s Windows operating system, CrowdStrike said, leaving Apple computers and those using Linux unaffected.

While Windows is the operating system for hundreds of millions of personal PCs, it also runs on the computers behind the scenes that are vital to the operation of airlines, digital payment systems, emergency services call centers and other organizations.

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said in a post on X that his company was working with CrowdStrike and Windows users “to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online.”

CrowdStrike said in the blog post that the faulty file implicated in the more widespread outages had a timestamp equivalent to 12:09 a.m. Eastern time Friday. An unrelated Microsoft outage Thursday also caused problems.

Some of the most visible early effects of the outage were at airlines. Budget U.S. carriers Frontier and Sun Country disclosed in the early hours of Friday that they were experiencing disruptions, and the problems spread to major airlines and affected airlines overseas.

By 6:30 p.m. more than 4,400 flights had been canceled worldwide. Of that, more than 2,700 were flights operating into, within or out of the United States, according to FlightAware.com , an online flight-tracking website. More than 40,000 flights were delayed worldwide, with delays affecting more than 10,000 flights originating or ending in the United States.

United Airlines said the outage impacted several key systems: those used for checking in customers, calculating aircraft weight and operating call centers.

In the United States alone the impacts were similar to what might be expected during a major snowstorm. And even as airlines reported getting operations back up and running Friday morning, problems in the aviation system can take hours to fully resolve as crews and aircraft are left in the wrong cities.

John Cox and his wife found themselves spending more than a day at Reagan National Airport as they tried to get a flight home to North Carolina.

A technical issue Thursday evening prompted major airlines including Delta to delay service and reroute passengers. Then their 10:17 a.m. Friday flight to Charlotte was pushed to Saturday at noon. “It completely derailed our plans,” Cox said, slumped on a seat by the entrance of the airport.

“We’re going to end up spending a lot more money hanging around in D.C. than if we were back at home,” Cox said, before reclining in his seat and sighing. “There should be some compensation for the immense inconvenience that so many people are enduring.”

By Friday morning it had become clear that the effects were reaching a large number of industries and affecting government agencies.

The effects on medical providers stretched from the United States to Israel, with doctors losing access to electronic medical records and some hospitals postponing elective procedures.

Mass General Brigham, a nonprofit that operates one of the largest hospital systems in Massachusetts, said on its website that it was canceling all “non-urgent visits” at its hospitals and clinics Friday. The organization said its emergency departments remained open and were providing care for urgent appointments and procedures.

Alison Baulos said her father, Gary Baulos, was scheduled to have heart surgery Friday at Baptist Health Hospital in Paducah, Ky., but got a call at 3:30 a.m. that the procedure was canceled due to the outage.

Her father, a 73-year-old former Navy Seabee and AT&T technician, had just been diagnosed with eight blockages and an aneurysm, she said, and had spent Thursday night at a hotel close to the hospital.

“The doctor said he can’t be too active, he can’t raise his hands above his head,” Alison Baulos said. She said her father is taking it in stride. His reaction to the cancellation, she said, was, “all right, since we’re already out here I guess we can go to IHOP for breakfast.”

Danielle Carzell, a 35-year-old Atlanta resident, was scheduled to have her hip replaced Friday, a procedure she’s eagerly anticipated for months. Born with a genetic condition — her hips are “like mismatched puzzle pieces,” she said — she’s in constant pain and hoped the surgery would relieve it. But after waiting for hours at Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital, she was told the procedure would have to be rescheduled due to the outage.

“I have no idea when I’m going to be able to get my surgery now,” she said. “I have a 5-year-old that I just want to play with, and this outage is just ruining everything.”

Even in a sector that has suffered debilitating blows this year — notably the hacks of claims processor Change Healthcare and health system Ascension — experts were surprised by the scale of the impacts Friday.

“I was stunned to see this kind of ripple effect,” said Chris Cummiskey, a cybersecurity expert and former Department of Homeland Security official. While CrowdStrike is often seen as the gold standard in cyber protection, he said this event may call for reviewing their internal practices.

“You don’t want to hit one button and have this kind of worldwide meltdown occur,” Cummiskey said.

Television news stations in several countries were knocked off the air. In Australia, the outage left ABC News unable to deliver its usual evening news update. Instead it showed a special report on the disruption at Sydney airports.

Some emergency services also reported problems. The Alaska State Troopers reported that, starting at 9 p.m. Thursday local time, 911 call centers statewide were not working correctly. Service was restored around 4 a.m. Friday when dispatch centers switched to analog phone systems or partnered with dispatch centers that had not been impacted, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety.

Federal officials scrambled to assess the situation and provide assistance. Anne Neuberger, a security and technology adviser to President Biden , said her day began on a call with the White House situation room at 4 a.m. as the government sought to determine the effects on its own systems and critical parts of the economy.

“It highlights both the degree to which our economies, our national security are now digital and interconnected in a fundamental way,” said Neuberger, speaking on a panel at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.

A White House official said that Biden himself was briefed on the outage and that the administration was in touch with CrowdStrike and affected entities. The White House will get “sector by sector updates throughout the day and is standing by to provide assistance as needed,” the official added.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in an interview on CNBC Friday that he expected airlines, ports and freight companies to be largely back on their feet by Friday. But he said the episode should prompt some soul searching about the vulnerability of the country to even seemingly minor technical problems.

“We’re certainly in a new era in terms of these risks,” Buttigieg said. “I think there will be a huge amount of after action assessment, after the dust settles and things get back to normal.”

Hannah Ziegler, Jeff Stein, Aaron Gregg, Adela Suliman and Julian Mark contributed to this report.