Global business directory of travel related businesses Globally, travel and tourism's direct contribution to GDP was approximately 2.9 trillion U.S. dollars in 2019. When looking at countries that directly contributed the most to global GDP the North American’ travel and tourism industry contributed the largest sum at 580.7 billion U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, in a ranking of the countries with the highest share of GDP from travel and tourism the city and special administrative region of Macau generated the highest share of GDP through direct travel and tourism of any economy worldwide. This industry was severely impacted by the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. that began in early 2020.