Pandemic to cost global
tourism R32 trillion in 2021: UN
Fin24 - 30 November 2021
While international tourism
has taken a hit from the outbreak of disease in the past, the coronavirus is
unprecedented in its geographical spread.
Getty Images
- The
coronavirus pandemic will cost the global tourism sector R32.3 trillion in
lost revenue in 2021.
- International
tourist arrivals will this year remain 70-75% below the 1.5 billion
arrivals recorded in 2019 before the pandemic hit.
- A
total of 46 destinations - 21 percent of all destinations worldwide -
currently have their borders completely closed to tourists.
The coronavirus pandemic
will cost the global tourism sector $2.0 trillion (~R32.3 trillion) in lost
revenue in 2021, the UN's tourism body said Monday, calling the sector's
recovery "fragile" and "slow".
The forecast from the
Madrid-based World Tourism Organization comes as Europe is grappling with a
surge in infections and as a new heavily mutated Covid-19 variant, dubbed Omicron,
spreads across the globe.
International tourist
arrivals will this year remain 70-75 percent below the 1.5 billion arrivals
recorded in 2019 before the pandemic hit, a similar decline as in 2020,
according to the body.
The global tourism sector
already lost $2.0 trillion in revenues last year due to the pandemic, according
to the UNWTO, making it one of sectors hit hardest by the health crisis.
While t he UN body charged
with promoting tourism does not have an estimate for how the sector w ill perform
next year, its medium-term outlook is not encouraging.
"Despite the recent
improvements, uneven vaccination rates around the world and new Covid-19
strains" such as the Delta variant and Omicron "could impact the
already slow and fragile recovery," it said in a statement.
The introduction of fresh
virus restrictions and lockdowns in several nations in recent weeks shows how
"it's a very unpredictable situation," UNWTO head Zurab
Pololikashvili told AFP.
"It's a historical
crisis in the tourism industry but again tourism has the power to recover quite
fast," he added ahead of the start of the WTO's annual general assembly in
Madrid on Tuesday.
"I really hope that
2022 will be much better than 2021."
'Confused'
While international tourism
has taken a hit from the outbreak of disease in the past, the coronavirus is
unprecedented in its geographical spread.
In addition to
virus-related travel restrictions, the sector is also grappling with the
economic strain caused by the pandemic, the spike in oils prices and the
disruption of supply chains, the UNWTO said.
Pololikashvili urged
nations to harmonise their virus protocols and restrictions because tourists
"are confused and they don't know how to travel".
International tourist
arrivals "rebounded" during the summer season in the Northern
Hemisphere thanks to increased travel confidence, rapid vaccination and the
easing of entry restrictions in many nations, the UNWTO said.
"Despite the
improvement in the third quarter, the pace of recovery remains uneven across
world regions due to varying degrees of mobility restrictions, vaccination
rates and traveller confidence," it added.
Arrivals in some islands in
the Caribbean and South Asia, and well as some destinations in southern Europe,
came close to, or sometimes exceeded pre-pandemic levels in the third quarter.
Other countries however
hardly saw any tourists at all, particularly in Asia and the Pacific, where
arrivals were down 95 percent compared to 2019 as many destinations remained
closed to non-essential travel.
Closed borders
A total of 46 destinations
- 21 percent of all destinations worldwide - currently have their borders
completely closed to tourists, according to the UNWTO.
A further 55 have their
borders partially closed to foreign visitors, while just four nations have
lifted all virus-related restrictions -- Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican
Republic and Mexico.
The future of the travel
sector will be in focus at the WTO annual general assembly, which will run until
Friday.
The event - which brings
together representatives from 159 members states of the UN body - was original
scheduled to be held in Marrakesh.
But Morocco in late October
decided not to host the event due to the rise in Covid-19 cases in many countries.
Before the pandemic, the
tourism sector accounted for about 10 percent of the world's gross domestic
product and jobs.
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