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, UNWTO’s indicated that it could take two-and-a-half to four years for international tourism to return to 2019 levels.
Recent Related News:
i.Scientists have discovered the oldest known human-made nano-materials in the “unique black coatings” of ancient pottery shards dated to 600 BC that were unearthed from an archeological site in Keeladi, Tamil Nadu. The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports and the findings have been documented in a paper published in “Nature”.
ii.In accordance with the report titled “The Production Gap, 2020” produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) the world is planning to produce more than double the amount of Coal, Oil and gas by 2030.
About United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN-WTO):
Secretary-General– Zurab Pololikashvili
Member States – 159
Headquarter– Madrid, Spain
