International tourism back to 1990 levels , arrivals down by 72 % in 2020
Travel Biz News —
World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) expects international arrivals to decline by 70 per cent to 75 per cent for the whole of 2020.
In this case, global tourism will have returned to levels of 30 years ago, with 1 billion fewer arrivals and a loss of some US$ 1.1 trillion in international tourism receipts.
This massive drop in tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic could result in an economic loss of US$ 2 trillion in world GDP.
International arrivals fell by 72 per cent over the first ten months of 2020, with restrictions on travel, low consumer confidence and a global struggle to contain the COVID-19 virus, all contributing to the worst year on record in the history of tourism.
Destinations welcomed 900 million fewer international tourists between January and October when compared with the same period of 2019, according to the latest tourism data of UNWTO. This translates into a loss of US$ 935 billion in export revenues from international tourism, more than 10 times the loss in 2009 under the impact of the global economic crisis.
Asia and the Pacific, the first region to suffer the impact of the pandemic and the one with the highest level of travel restrictions to date, saw an 82 per cent decrease in arrivals in the first ten months of 2020.
The Middle East recorded a 73 per cent decline, while Africa saw a 69 per cent drop. International arrivals in both Europe and the Americas declined by 68 percent.
“Looking ahead, the announcement of a vaccine and the start of vaccination are expected to gradually increase consumer confidence. At the same time, a growing number of destinations are easing or lifting restrictions on travel. A return to 2019 levels in terms of international arrivals could take between two-and-a-half and four years,” UNWTO said.
December 17 , 2020
