In accordance with the latest United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN-WTO) “World Tourism Barometer”, the year 2020 was the “worst year on record” as global tourism suffered adversely due to international travel bans implemented to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.
- The world saw a global tourism decline of 74% (-74%) which resulted in 1 billion fewer international arrivals than 2019.
- The travel ban resulted in an estimated loss of USD 1.3 trillion in export revenues. It is more than 11 times the loss recorded during the 2009 global economic crisis.
- On the regional front, Asia and the Pacific aced sharpest year-on-year contraction of 84% (-84%). It was followed by the Middle East (-75%) and Europe (-70%).
Tourism Rebound:
— World Tourism will rebound by 1% in Q1(Quarter 1) of 2021, by Q2 of 2021 it will rebound by 4%, in Q3 of 2021 it will rebound by 27%, in Q4 of 2021 it will rebound by 18%.World Tourism will rebound by 50% by 2022.
— Asia and the Pacific Tourism will rebound by 3% in Q1(Quarter 1) of 2021, by Q2 of 2021 it will rebound by 3%, in Q3 of 2021 it will rebound by 8%, in Q4 of 2021 it will rebound by 22%.Asia and the Pacific Tourism will rebound by 64% by 2022.
Key Points:
–The restrictions included quarantine rules, mandatory testing and complete closure of borders in some cases.
–The COVID-19 crisis has put almost 100-120 million direct tourism jobs at risk.
–For 2021, it is projected that the tourism rebound will worsen. This projection is based on the survey in which 45% had envisaged better prospects for 2021 in comparison to 2020 and 25% expect similar performance and 30% foresee worsening of results in 2021.
— For 2021-2024, UNWTOтАЩs indicated that it could take two-and-a-half to four years for international tourism to return to 2019 levels.
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About United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN-WTO):
Secretary-General– Zurab Pololikashvili
Member States – 159
Headquarter– Madrid, Spain