The United Nations Organization claimed in its declaration that extensive travel bans and a shutdown of airports and national borders had triggered the worst global tourism crisis ever since the records started in 1950.
The World Tourism Organization announced that the number of foreign tourist arrivals would decrease by 60 % to 80% in 2020, with a significant decrease in its previous estimate.
The United Nations body claimed that to stop the virus spread; extensive travel restrictions were taken, such as the closure of airports and national borders s had plunged tourism into its worst crisis since 1950.
According to the Madrid-based organization, tourist arrivals have declined by 22% in the first three months of the year, and by 57% in March alone. Asia and Europe have undergone the most considerable decline.
Tourism has been severely impaired, and millions of jobs are at risk for one of the most labor-intensive sectors of the economy.,” said Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili. ‘The world is in a position to face an incomparable health and economic crisis.
Airlines have been hit by most since the start of the outbreak, but hotel groups, cruise operators, and tour operators are also running the ground.
The UN body said that the full degree of decline in international tourism depends on the rapid reopening of international borders.
In the best case, international tourist arrivals will decrease only by 58%, with travel restrictions starting to be lighter in early July.
When boundaries and travel restrictions are lifted at the beginning of December, the decline will be 78 percent or higher.
The United Nations organization expects a decrease, due to the global tourism crisis, of 70 percent when the sanctions are lifted in early September.
The decline in foreign travel could, according to these scenarios, lead to a loss of between $910 billion to $1.2 trillion in tourist export revenues and 100 million to 120 million jobs as direct tourism.
While in the past, the global tourism crisis was struck by an outbreak of disease, the global spread of the latest coronavirus is unparalleled.
Compared with the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which killed some 774 people worldwide, international tourist arrivals decreased only by 0.4%.
The United Nations Organization said the majority of experts believed that there would be signs that internal demand would recover quickly by the last quarter of 2020. It was also predicted that Asia and the Pacific would initially rebuild. “Following previous tourism crises, it is anticipated that leisure travel will recover faster than business travel, particularly for visiting family and friends.”
The UN projected international tourism to grow at the beginning of the year by 3-4 percent in 2020 and revised its prediction in late March with a 20-30 percent decrease.
Global travel arrivals increased by 4% to 1.5 billion in 2019, led by France, Spain, and the United States, the most visited nation in the world.
The most recent annual drop in foreign tourism came in 2009 when the global economic crisis impacted the travel industry.
Around 10% of the gross domestic product and employment worldwide is generated by the tourism industry.
