"The restart of tourism cannot wait. Vaccines must be part of a wider, coordinated approach…we also need to restore confidence in tourism…providing a clear and strong message that safe tourism is now possible,” said Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), at the 113th session of the UNWTO Executive Council on Jan. 18, 2021.
Destinations welcomed 900 million fewer international tourists between January and October 2020, compared with the same period in 2019, the latest UNWTO data show. The drop in international tourism sent revenue plummeting by US$935 billion, 10 times greater than the losses sustained in 2009, during the global economic crisis.
To ensure a healthy and safe tourism recovery, the Global Tourism Crisis Committee recommended strengthening coordination within the framework of the International Health Regulations, establishing a system of vaccination certificates for monitoring purposes and defining common and harmonized digital travel principles, protocols and documents.
The Crisis Committee would like to work with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to develop and coordinate a harmonized system in all countries to open borders safely.
UNWTO data predict that global tourism will return to levels of 30 years ago. "This massive drop in tourism due to the pandemic could result in an economic loss of US$2 trillion in world GDP,” the organization estimates.
1 billion
The drop in the number of international arrivals at airports worldwide in 2020 compared with 2019, the WTO reports. This freeze on international travel represents an estimated US$1.3 trillion in lost export revenues, more than 11 times the loss recorded during the global economic crisis of 2009, when arrivals fell by 4% compared with 2008.
This article is a Magazine Supplement for the February issue of the Insurance Journal.
