The World Travel & Tourism Council says the global travel and tourism sector won’t fully recover this year — but it will get close.

The sector is forecast to reach $9.5 trillion in 2023, just 5% shy of its gross domestic product contribution in 2019, according to the WTTC’s 2023 Economic Impact Research.

After a sharp drop in 2020, the global travel sector grew nearly 25% year on year in 2021, followed by a further 22% increase in 2022, according to WTTC’s annual report, produced in partnership with Oxford Economics.

Global recovery will occur in 2024, fueled by the slow but steady return of Chinese tourists, according to the report. From there, the sector will continue to grow.

“We expect 2024 to exceed 2019,” said Julia Simpson, WTTC’s president and CEO.