Now for this next conversation, we're going to be hearing from leaders of two global companies on their road map for the next 10 years. I would love to bring them on to the stage. We have Sébastien Bazin, CEO of Accor, and Eiji Yamakita, chairperson of JTB Group. So with that, please put your hands together for our next wonderful speakers.
So, JTB was founded in 1912, long ago, as a Japan tourist bureau, but a private sector company, and started the company from inviting foreign tourists to Japan. So our business domain is the tour operator and it's destination management company, and expanded the global network in 40 countries in the world, 150 locations all over the world, and dealing with a lot of partners, business partners, trying to improve the experience at the destination. This is how it is.
Long time relation with Accor. This is really, Accor is actually a very important partner for us. Throughout the world, you have very many brands now, and it's not only in Europe, but in Japan, rapid expansion is happening, and I'm so happy to work closely with Accor. And the reason why I said the partner, Accor's partner, is it's not only about buying the hotel rooms, you know, but we have a very good relation to explore the improvement of destination together.
Thank you for, thank you so much for saying this. I am the chairman CEO of Accor, and I'm going to put it a bit provocative, which I am. If you accept two large countries being China and America, outside of those two, Accor is number one in the world. So America belongs to the Americans, Chinese belong to the Chinese, the rest belongs to me. That being said, Accor has 400,000 people. And we've been developing, we've been growing, we've been listening, we've been daring, I hope. And part of the session today with you, Eiji, is what can we do more, or probably what could we do differently from what happened over the last 50 years. And in the two minutes I know, Gloria, you've been putting eight different initiatives that I guess we need to tackle and we need to respond to, but let me tell you what keeps me asleep at night, or at least awake.
It's fascinating. This industry is so, so easy to predict. It's been blessed for 60 years in a row. It's been growing for 60 years in a row. And because of three things, and I'm making a bet, it's going to grow for the next 15 years at a minimum of the same pace, if not greater than the last 60 years.
Demography is going to go up. When I was born in 1961, the world had less than three billion people. Today, the same world in only 64 years of my life went to 7.8 billion people. We're going to go to 10 billion people, and then it may be flattening. Demography is going to go up. Emerging middle classes are going up all over different continents, certainly when it comes to Asia and notably India. Three, means of transport are more and more accessible, and you have many low-cost airliners, and all the road and train traffic has been improving. As long as you have those three cylinders going your way, you should be super happy to be in travel and tourism.
So the question is not why are we playing in travel and tourism. I just gave you the three reasons. The question is how do you play and where do you play? Do you want to be an owner of hotel? Do you want to be a franchiser? You want to be a manager? You want to be a lender? Do you need to be in China? Do you need to be in Japan? Do you need to be in India? Do you need to be in Australia? Where do you play?
So, what keeps me awake at night is the cards will be resold between the players. Today the big gorillas, we master our own destiny, but AI will shock everyone. The customer relationship will be different. Data knowledge will be kidnapped by the LLM. The intermediation will be totally changed to the benefit of whom? Who going to be the winners? Is it going to be Gemini? Is it going to be Claude? Is it going to be ChatGPT, OpenAI? Or is it going to be again Expedia, Trip.com, Booking? Or would the two operators play a better role? What would Marriott, Hilton, Accor do? That is the biggest question. How much you're going to be paying tomorrow to whom for each of you? And then I'm going to stop because I want Eiji to actually go back and forth.
What we know for a fact is half of you already in this room, and probably two-thirds of you below 35 years old, have prepared your trip this summer on a ChatGPT equivalent. You went for questioning, charging on your own aspiration, and you got an answer that will be 100% of travelers in less than a year, which means brands have greater value, brand promise needs to be met, brand experience that better be good. So we're going to hand the data and the relationship, the customer is going to be in the hands of the LLM. They own your life, whether you like it, you don't like it, you're being kidnapped. So, they're going to own your life. They're going to own your data. And thank God, they may be sharing a bit with me. What is the cost of the sharing? And how do I play? Sorry, it's a longer, it's a long sideway to what we discussed here. But what would be your priority on the W? High priority.
We became vice chair this time, and there's a clear goal set with the eight priority strategy priorities. And among them, for myself, it is extremely important to develop the human capital. You know, I wouldn't say that this is workforce. Human capital is so important, as you mentioned, the AI would change the world, and we need to be selected by AI. And at the end of the day, what will happen is the AI will control human beings if we don't develop the human capital. So I would rather go for developing human capital in order to control the AI instead. Right. So this is my priority this moment. So what do you think, Eiji? Am I more depending from you, that you're depending from me?
In terms of, I need you to exist as two operators, you need me to exist as a brand operator.
Have you gauged your dependency within the same industry? I think both we need, you know, the human capital in the hotel industry and the tour operator, both sides. You know, we also run the OTA as well, and of course, the customer interface is to be the AI in the future, very near future, and that will happen. But at the end of the day, you know, if the AI controls human beings, you decide everything, you know, all the itinerary, where to go, is it really what human beings wanted? Human beings really need to develop the idea themselves and select the destination as they like and what to do at the destination. That's totally up to human beings. And the hotel is a very, very important real point of contact with the customers, and that's why I think the hotel people need to communicate with the customer in order to make their stay very comfortable and very rich.
Are you decreasing the numbers of employees, partner, you have every year, or are you increasing the number of offices and your number of talents?
Not necessarily increasing the offices, but increasing the very capable human resources in each location. Right.
Yeah. Upskilling. Yes. Right. We do.
By the way, we haven't prepared anything together, so it's live, and it's actually better to be live like we are.
What I was sharing, which is why I was late because I was with the commissioner, is something which is so fascinating about the industry. We talk about the 11% of the workforce, but there's something we need to talk about: more than 20% of any work being created on this planet for the last five years happens to be in travel and tourism, and in some countries it's 25%, one job out of four being created is travel and tourism. So maybe even more for Gloria. So it's, and Accor, we hire every single year for the last five years 120,000 new people.
And two-thirds of that 120,000 people never had a chance to go to university, underprivileged kids, never had a job before. They happen to be in sub-Saharan Africa, they happen to be in Southeast Asia, they happen to be in South America. And there's something which Richard Branson said, which for me is so peculiar because it's so close to our Accor, and he said it 20 years ago: you hire for attitude, you train for development, for skills. Anybody we hire has a personality, has a character. He has very little skills. He's very much afraid. But taking in your arm and then train that person, he might stay with you for only two years, for only four years, but he will have a better self-esteem, and then he can go on his own. And we're doing it in 120 countries with different colors of skin, different religions, different languages, and it actually works.
So when we talk about the European Commission, UN Academy for, so Job Academy for Europe, I want to be part of it. You probably want to be part of it. There's so much duties that we have on our shoulders for all those people outside of a job. And it's not going to get better. By the way, I'm just going to share another example with you. Sorry, but it's bothering me.
In the developed countries, in nine years from today, you're going to have 1.2 billion young people looking for a job in between the age of 16 to 24 years old. 1.2 billion. Though the economies in those countries, maximum in nine years from today, because of the growth of their own GDP, could offer 400 million jobs only, which means that in nine years, in sub-Saharan Africa, in Southeast Asia, in South America, you will have 800 million young people with no job offer if we don't respond to this as travel and tourism, and we can't be alone. You know what it means? Narcotics traffic, prostitution, violence, immigration, parallel economy.
So you and I and all the people who've been in a WTTC for the last three days, we need to bring part of that response. This is why I came here. This is why, Gloria, on this workforce, let's go for this. I say 20, she said 35%.
We are part of the solution. We can't do it all, but we are part of the solution, including local community, because what's so interesting about those people out of a job, they happen to be in great places, impressive people want to visit, in which you can provide economy. Sorry, I'm going to stop there, but I can go for... What's the question? How much you now go for?
So I have a question. You said 120,000 people, this is a large number, but what is the key focus on the skill set, mindset, and what kind of skill and mindset you're developing for the human?
I tell you what I need when they come to me, me and people of Accor, of course. I want them to be full of energy. I need young people with an envy, passion. They want to be out of what they dislike. If they come in total despair and they're lacking their energy, I can't help them. But I need them to come with something where they want to come out of where they are. So besides this, and probably second thing, but that's me. Please, whenever you meet with me, look at me in my eyes. Don't look at your shoes. Just get your headset to face me. You may be super humble, you may be fragile. Look at me, and then I'm going to look at you, and I'm going to make you feel better. So what it is, is posture.
