The UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) recently released a report on international tourism.
Tourism was one of the most impacted industries by the COVID-19 pandemic and lost $2.6 trillion in export revenues.
International tourist arrivals or overnight visitors fell from 1.5 billion in 2019 to 400 million in 2020.
This was a 72 per cent drop in just one year.
Export revenues in 2020 dropped to as low as 62 per cent of the pre-pandemic levels, meaning losses of $1.1 trillion.
This is accounted for 44 per cent of the global loss in international trade that year.
Revenues from international tourism is accounted for seven per cent of global exports in 2019.
The proportion is dropped to three per cent in 2020 and 2021.
International tourism experienced a 12 per cent increase in 2021 to reach 456 million arrivals.
Although this was 49 million more than in 2020, it was still 69 per cent less than the pre-pandemic levels of 2019 (1,465 million).
Due to the pandemic, tourism’s economic contribution, measured in tourism direct gross domestic product (TDGDP), has been dropped from 4 per cent of global GDP in 2019 to 2 per cent in 2020 and 2021.