UNWTO: International Tourism Losses $2 trillion by End of 2021 due to Corona

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) stated that the pandemic of the emerging Coronavirus “COVID-19” may cost the tourism sector around the world about two trillion US dollars in losses by the end of this year, an amount similar to last year, describing the sector’s recovery as “slow and fragile.”

And the Madrid-based organization explained, in a report published on its official website in English on Twitter, that these expectations came at a time when Europe is struggling to contain the increase in the number of infections with the Coronavirus (known also as COVID-19) while facing the new mutated world “Omicron”, which raises widespread fears that it will be the most contagious.

The organization pointed out that despite recent improvements, varying vaccination rates around the world, and new strains of COVID-19 "such as the Delta mutant and Omicron" could negatively affect the already slow and fragile recovery.

For his part, the Secretary-General of the Organization, Zurab Pololikashvili, stressed that global tourism is likely not to return to levels before the new epidemic of Corona before 2023.

Pololikashvili added that a group of World Tourism Organization experts expects a very positive rise dependent on the rise in the delayed demand for travel in the second and third quarters of 2022.

He added   that at the moment,  the tourism sector  is witnessing a slight recovery in the regions of southern Europe, Central America, and the Caribbean."

He pointed out that "almost half of the experts (45%) believe that international tourism will return to the level of 2019 in 2024 or later, while 43% of experts refer to a recovery in 2023."

He explained that rates, equal distribution of vaccines, and effective cooperation on travel and healthcare protocols will be of key importance to coordinating the interrelated actions needed by the tourism field.

The Coronavirus has caused the deaths of at least 5 million and 193 thousand people in the world since the World Health Organization (WHO) reported the outbreak of the disease around the world.