Visitors to South Korea will receive a wreath at Phu Quoc International Airport on November 20, 2021, when the island welcomes its first international visitors after the vaccine passport program. coronavirus Covid-19 kicked off this month in Vietnam.
NHAC NGUYEN / AFP via Getty Images
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NHAC NGUYEN / AFP via Getty Images
Visitors to South Korea will receive a wreath at Phu Quoc International Airport on November 20, 2021, when the island welcomes its first international visitors after the vaccine passport program. coronavirus Covid-19 kicked off this month in Vietnam.
NHAC NGUYEN / AFP via Getty Images
A new report paints a bleak picture of the continued recovery of the global travel industry after the COVID-19 pandemic, predicting that revenue in 2021 will only improve slightly from historical losses. history of last year.
United Nations World Tourism Organization estimate that tourism’s contribution to the world economy this year will be $1.9 trillion – a slight improvement from last year’s $1.6 trillion but still far below 3.5 trillion billion USD that this industry earned in 2019.
Among the reasons for the slow recovery are the continuing pandemic and the recent emergence of the highly infectious omicron variant which presents another potential roadblock as the industry prepares for the pandemic. upcoming winter vacation.
“[W]We cannot let our guard down and continue to work to ensure equal access to vaccinations, coordinate travel procedures, use digital immunization certificates to facilitate travel and continue to support the industry”, said Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization, said in a statement.
Global shutdowns and severe travel restrictions have resulted in a 73% drop in international travel in 2020, with about a billion people traveling abroad less than the year before.
But even as the vaccine became more widely available this year, the deployment was uneven, and the global travel industry has struggled to recover amid the spread of variants and high infection rates in some parts of the world.
As of September this year, international tourist arrivals are still 76% less than in 2019, and the United Nations forecasts that the global tourism economy will be about 70% to 75% lower than in 2019.
The tourism recovery is regional, and some regions are doing better than others. Southern and Mediterranean Europe and North and Central America both saw increases in international tourist arrivals in September compared with last year, and the Caribbean saw a 55% jump in arrivals. But Asia and the Pacific have 95% less international tourist arrivals than in 2019.
There are some bright spots in the report. Domestic tourism is on the rise, as travelers are making shorter trips closer to home. Additionally, both international and domestic travelers are spending more money per trip due to greater savings and pent-up demand, although that could also be attributed to longer stays and higher prices. than.
