International tourism could decline by 60-80 per cent in 2020 thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to the revenue loss of USD 910 billion to USD 1.2 trillion and placing many livelihoods in danger , the planet Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has said.
The global international agency said that the pandemic has caused a 22 per cent fall in international tourist arrivals during the primary quarter of 2020.
According to the United Nations specialized agency, the worldwide health crisis could lead on to an annual tourism decline between 60 per cent and 80 per cent in comparison with the 2019 figures.
This places many livelihoods in danger and threatens to roll back progress made in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it said.
The world is facing an unprecedented health and depression . Tourism has been hit hard, with many jobs in danger in one among the foremost labour-intensive sectors of the economy, UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said.
Available data reported by destinations point to a 22 per cent decline in arrivals within the first three months of the year, consistent with the newest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer.
Arrivals in March dropped sharply by 57 per cent following the beginning of a lockdown in many countries, also because the widespread introduction of travel restrictions and therefore the closure of airports and national borders. This translates into a loss of 67 million international arrivals and about USD 80 billion in receipts (exports from tourism).
Although Asia and therefore the Pacific shows the very best impact in relative and absolute terms (a decline of 33 million arrivals), the impact in Europe, though lower in percentage, is sort of high in volume (-22 million), the agency said.
Prospects for the year are downgraded several times since the outbreak and uncertainty continues to dominate.
Current scenarios point to possible declines in arrivals of 58 per cent to 78 per cent for the year. These depend upon the speed of containment and therefore the duration of travel restrictions and shutdown of borders.