The UN World Tourism Organization recently confirmed the Year 2020 as the ‘worst year on record’, after global tourism suffered massively due to international travel bans implemented to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.
The international arrivals dropped by 74 percent and destinations across the world welcomed 1 billion fewer international arrivals than 2019 due to widespread travel restrictions and unprecedented fall in demand.
As per the latest report by the UN World Tourism Organization, the collapse in international travel has represented an estimated loss of USD 1.3 trillion in export revenues, which is more than 11 times the loss recorded during the 2009 global economic crisis.
UNWTO Report: Key Highlights
•The UNWTO report noted that the COVID-19 crisis has put almost 100-120 million direct tourism jobs at risk, many of them in small and medium-sized enterprises.
•The report further stated that due to the evolving nature of the pandemic, many countries are now reintroducing stricter travel restrictions.
•The restrictions include quarantine rules, mandatory testing and complete closure of borders in some cases.
•At the same time, the report noted that the gradual rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine is expected to help restore consumer confidence and contribute to the easing travel restrictions, slowly leading normalisation of travel during the year ahead.
Tourism rebound in 2021?
The UNWTO Panel of Experts survey displays a mixed outlook for 2021. Almost half of the respondents (45%) had envisaged better prospects for 2021 in comparison to last year and 25 per cent expect similar performance and 30 per cent foresee worsening of results in 2021.
Overall, the prospects of tourism rebound in 2021 look to have worsened. At least 50 percent of respondents expect a rebound only in 2022 as compared to 21 per cent in October 2020. The remaining still see a potential rebound in 2021.
According to UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, while much has been done to make safe international travel a possibility, we are aware that the crisis is far from over. He stated that the coordination, and digitalization of COVID-19 travel-related risk reduction measures, including testing, tracing and vaccination certificates, are essential foundations to promote safe travel and prepare for the recovery of tourism once conditions allow.”
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