The coronavirus crisis has claimed $320 billion in loss of profit from the tourism sector in the first five months of 2020, threatening the livelihoods of millions of people, the UN said tuesday.
The amount of revenue source lost between January and May this year is “more than 3 times that of the 2009 global monetary crisis,” the Madrid-based World Tourism Organization said in a statement.
International tourist arrivals were reduced to three hundred million, or 56 according to the penny, this in line with the period as the blocking restrictions to control the spread of Covid-19 took effect.
“This latest knowledge obviously shows the importance of restarting tourism as soon as necessary. The dramatic fall of foreign tourism is endangering millions of livelihoods,” said UN tourism agency secretary general Zurab Pololikashvili.
While tourism is slowly returning to some destinations, the World Tourism Organization warned that the sector still faces serious dangers, such as a resurgence of the virus that can cause additional blockages, additional restrictions and border closures.
The United States and China, two major tourism resources, are “paralyzed,” the organization added.
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The UN framework predicted in May that foreign tourist arrivals could fall by 60 to 80% by 2020 due to coronavirus.
The last time foreign tourism experienced an annual global decline in 2009, when the economic crisis caused a 4% decline.