The U.S. Travel Association found in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic (BLS) study “Fast Forward: Travel Creates Opportunities and Launches Careers” that travel industry jobs provide workers with better opportunity to earn a high salary and education.

The report, released Dec. 4, revealed that the average maximum salary for employees who start their career in the travel industry reaches $81,900. Additionally, two out of five workers go on to earn more than $100,000 per year.

The travel industry is one of the top 10 largest employers of middle-class wage earners in the U.S with 53% of all travel industry employees earning a middle-class salary or higher, according to BLS data.

Out of the 5.6 million Americans who are employed part-time while furthering their education, one-third works in the travel industry. Also, 33% of workers who began their careers in the industry earned a bachelor’s degree or higher. 

BLS tracked more than 5,000 workers over a span of 30 years and interviewed them every year between 1979 and 1994, and every two years between 1994 and 2010.

The report (which can be found here) presents case studies and summarized BLS labor force data on how travel jobs benefit workers and how careers in the industry progress over time compared to workers who began in other industries.