Travel Industry, News and Analytics

2020 was the Worst Year in the History of Tourism According to UNWTO

The latest report by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) underlines that 2020 was the worst year for global tourism on record. The international arrivals suffered an unprecedented decline of 74%. The newest issue of the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer estimated the total loss that the coronavirus pandemic caused to international tourism. The figure is truly mind-blowing – US$1.3 trillion, which is 11 times more than the loss caused by the global crisis in 2009. Tourism is one of the major job providers in many countries, and so from 100 to 120 million people around the world are at risk of losing their jobs today.

To keep the pandemic under control, most countries have to implement certain limitations and travel restrictions. Complete closure of borders, mandatory COVID-19 tests and quarantines make it even harder for tourism-related businesses to recover. Global vaccination is the only way to reopen borders and restore consumer confidence, making people willing to travel again. Today, everyone hopes that travel restrictions will be eased and life will slowly get back to normal in 2021.

Even hotels in Bangkok, Paris, London, New York, and other large gateway cities couldn’t maintain their occupancy in 2020. Although most countries have already started vaccination campaigns, it is too early to say that the crisis is over. Countries also need to add certain measures to make traveling safer such as testing, tracing of sick people, vaccination passports, and so on.

The Panel of Experts in UNWTO expressed their mixed thoughts regarding the recovery of international tourism in 2021. A bit less than half of the respondents (45%) think that 2021 will be better than last year, a quarter of the respondents say that the performance will be similar, and one-third expect even a more difficult year. Overall, experts are less optimistic about the recovery in 2021 now. In October 2020, only 20% of the respondents were expecting the recovery to start in 2022 while 79% were sure that the recovery would start in 2021. Nowadays, half of the respondents expect the recovery to start next year.

When tourism finally starts to recover, UNWTO expects domestic tourism to “wake up” first, as well as outdoor and nature-based activities. As of now, Europe is the most affected region when it comes to a drop in tourism. The decrease in arrivals reached 70% in 2020 or 500 million fewer international guests.

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