Tourism Back to 1990 Levels as Arrivals Fall by More than 70%

• All Regions
• 17 Dec 2020

International arrivals fell by 72% over the first ten months of 2020, with restrictions on travel, low consumer confidence and a global struggle to contain the COVID-19 virus, all contributing to the worst year on record in the history of tourism.

According to the latest tourism data from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), destinations welcomed 900 million fewer international tourists between January and October when compared with the same period of 2019. This translates into a loss of US$ 935 billion in export revenues from international tourism, more than 10 times the loss in 2009 under the impact of the global economic crisis.

Since the start of this crisis, UNWTO has provided governments and businesses with trusted data showing the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global tourism

UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said: “Since the start of this crisis, UNWTO has provided governments and businesses with trusted data showing the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global tourism. Even as the news of a vaccine boosts traveller confidence, there is still a long road to recovery. We thus need to step up our efforts to safely open borders while supporting tourism jobs and businesses. It is ever clearer that tourism is one of the most affected sectors by this unprecedented crisis.”

Based on the current evidence, UNWTO expects international arrivals to decline by 70% to 75% for the whole of 2020. In this case, global tourism will have returned to levels of 30 years ago, with 1 billion fewer arrivals and a loss of some US$ 1.1 trillion in international tourism receipts. This massive drop in tourism due to the pandemic could result in an economic loss of US$ 2 trillion in world GDP.

Travel restrictions continue to weigh on the recovery

Asia and the Pacific, the first region to suffer the impact of the pandemic and the one with the highest level of travel restrictions to date, saw an 82% decrease in arrivals in the first ten months of 2020. The Middle East recorded a 73% decline, while Africa saw a 69% drop. International arrivals in both Europe and the Americas declined by 68%.

Europe recorded smaller decreases of 72% and 76% in September and October compared to other world regions, following the slight though short-lived recovery in the summer peak months of July and August. The resurgence of the virus across the region has led to the reintroduction of some forms of travel restrictions. However, Europe is the region in which more destinations (91% as of 1 November 2020) have eased such restrictions, mainly among Schengen Member States.

At the other end of the spectrum, Asia and the Pacific continued to record declines of nearly 100% in September and October, reflecting the ongoing closure of borders in China and other major destinations in the region. The Americas has seen a gradual improvement since June with comparatively lower decreases in international arrivals through October. This reflects the reopening of many destinations in the region, including small island developing states in the Caribbean.

Secretary-General Pololikashvili adds: “A coordinated approach to easing and lifting restrictions on travel whenever is it safe to do so l is essential. This will not only open destinations up to tourism again, but clear and consistent rules between countries will go a long way towards building back trust in international travel and boosting consumer confidence.”

Demand remains weak overall despite a slight improvement in some markets

Data on international tourism expenditure continues to reflect very weak demand for outbound travel.  However, some large markets such as the United States, Germany and France have shown some signs of recovery in the recent months. Furthermore, demand for domestic tourism continues to grow in some markets, including both China and Russia.

Looking ahead, the announcement of a vaccine and the start of vaccination are expected to gradually increase consumer confidence. At the same time, a growing number of destinations are easing or lifting restrictions on travel. According to the latest research from UNWTO, the proportion of closed destinations has dropped from 82% in late April 2020 to 18% in early November (expressed in percentage of international arrivals).

The extended scenarios for 2021-2024 presented by the United Nations specialized agency for tourism point to a rebound by the second half of 2021. Nonetheless, a return to 2019 levels in terms of international arrivals could take between two-and-a-half and four years.

Related links

• Download the press release in PDF
• UNWTO World Tourism Barometer · Volume 18 · Issue 7 · December 2020
• COVID-19 and Tourism · 2020: a year in Review
• UNWTO’s eighth report on travel restrictions
• UNWTO Tourism Recovery Tracker
• UNWTO Market Intelligence
• International Tourism Down 70% as Travel Restrictions Impact All Regions
• International Tourist Numbers Down 65% in First Half of 2020, UNWTO Reports

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UNWTO and CNN Partner for Global #RestartTourism Campaign

• All Regions
• 14 Dec 2020

After partnering back in May for a campaign asking the world to be patient, responsible and “travel tomorrow”, the World Tourism Organization and CNN International Commercial (CNNIC) have teamed up again to celebrate the transformative power being unleased as the restart of tourism gets underway. Centred around a 45-second film launched today and broadcast exclusively on CNN International until January 2021, this message will reach millions of households. The campaign affirms UNWTO as the unifying voice behind the global restart of tourism while harnessing the influence and prestige of the CNN brand to reach global audiences at scale.

The #RestartTourism video highlights tourism’s unique ability to adapt and innovate and generate opportunities for sustainable development. CNNlC has long committed to these same values and the partnership between UNWTO and CNN is further strengthened through this broadcast.

UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said: “The restart of tourism brings new hope and new opportunity for millions around the world. We are proud to be working again with CNN to send such a positive and inspiring message. Tourism has the power to bring us back together, giving us unforgettable experiences while also supporting jobs, helping businesses and protecting culture and our natural heritage.”

The restart of tourism brings new hope and new opportunity for millions around the world. We are proud to be working again with CNN to send such a positive and inspiring message

Rani Raad, President, CNN Worldwide Commercial, said: “As part of our long-standing partnership with the UNWTO, CNN is proud to beam this message of travelling again and restarting tourism into over 300 million households around the world. Whilst Travel & Tourism has suffered an enormous impact in 2020, we are standing with our partners, providing counsel and supporting their efforts as they now plan ahead to welcoming travellers back in 2021 with a sense of hope, growth and reconstruction for the sector.”

Launched today, #RestartTourism will be aired regularly until 10 January 2021, bringing this message to more than 337 million households across CNN’s feeds to Asia, South Asia and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa). It will also be amplified by UNWTO’s own media channels, as well as those of its Members in every global region, reinforcing a message of positivity at the end of a challenging year.

Related Links

• Download the press release in PDF
• UNWTO - #RestartTourism campaign
• UNWTO: #TravelTomorrow
• 70% of Destinations Have Lifted Travel Restrictions, But Global Gap Emerging
• Portugal Hosts UNWTO Crisis Committee on Harmonization of Cross-Border Travel

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Towards a modernized legal framework for the UNWTO Affiliate Membership

• All Regions
• 11 Dec 2020

UNWTO is moving ahead with plans to revise its strategic collaboration with the private sector. This follows up on the commitment made at 112th UNWTO Executive Council held in Tbilisi, Georgia, in September 2020.

To advance a modernized legal basis for the UNWTO Affiliate Membership, which brings together more than 500 private entities, the “Working Group for the Reform of the UNWTO Affiliate Membership Legal Framework” met for the first time on 2 December 2020. This Working Group is composed of ministerial representatives and public authorities from Member countries across the world, including Argentina, Azerbaijan, China, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Egypt, Honduras, India, Iran, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Spain. Joining them were the Chair of the Board of Affiliate Members, Ms Ana Larrañaga, along with UNWTO experts. 

Dated back from 2011, the existing legal regulation contains some outdated provisions that no longer serve today’s modern functioning of the Affiliate Member's network. The proposed reform will modernize and streamline the procedures, including those of the governing bodies such as the Affiliate Members Plenary Session, as well as the processes for the admission of new members. It will also set up a Committee of Affiliate Members with more decision-making powers to help manage the Affiliate Members community more efficiently.

Over the coming months, the Working Group will hold regular meetings to discuss and jointly develop an updated legal framework for the membership. Next to them, Affiliate Members with solid expertise in different topics will be invited to join as ‘’Observers’’ to provide their input and contribute to the discussions. It is expected that the new regulation will be finalized and presented for approval at the 24th UNWTO General Assembly, to be held in Morocco in 2021. 

• Download the press release in PDF

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Portugal Hosts UNWTO Crisis Committee on Harmonization of cross-border travel procedures

• All Regions
• 10 Dec 2020

The Global Tourism Crisis Committee has met for the last time in 2020, to continue advancing coordination and cooperation among all parts of the sector. The virtual meeting of the Committee, established by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) at the start of the pandemic, was hosted by Portugal ahead of its Presidency of the Council of the European Union, beginning in January. It was accompanied by in-person meetings of the highest political level between the UNWTO leadership, Prime Minister António Costa and the Ministers Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva.

This seventh meeting was focused on ensuring efforts to restart tourism are coordinated and harmonized in terms of cross border travel both pre and post-vaccine. UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili called for more explicit affirmation from governments and international organizations that safe travel is possible and so tourism can restart responsibly. The meeting began with a message of support from the very highest level of the European Institutions. Margaritis Schinas Vice President of the European Commission, applauded the coordinated approach to addressing the key challenges facing tourism’s restart while stressing the importance of the sector to Europe’s economies and the steps already taken to support businesses and jobs, including through unprecedented levels of financial assistance. 

Looking beyond vaccines

Making contributions to the meeting were Harry Theoharis, Minister of Tourism for Greece and Chair of the Committee’s Technical Group, created in October to advance harmonization of protocols. Alongside this, Nedret Emiroglu, Director, Country Readiness Strengthening, Emergency Preparedness, at the World Health Organization (WHO) outlined the necessary steps for harmonized health and safety protocols for international tourism.

As vaccinations for the COVID-19 virus begin to be administered, the Committee also engaged in a special session on post-vaccine cross-border travel. Committee members stressed that, while recent breakthroughs serve to boost confidence, the tourism sector cannot wait for vaccinations to become a widespread reality.

Portugal signals strong support for UNWTO

Portugal hosted the meeting of the Global Tourism Crisis Committee just weeks before it is scheduled to assume the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Secretary-General Pololikashvili received assurances of the highest level during a meeting with António Costa, Prime Minister of the Portuguese Republic. The UNWTO leadership thanked the Prime Minister for his government’s strong and ongoing support for tourism and for recognizing the important role the sector can play in the country’s social and economic development. This was followed by a meeting between the Secretary-General and Augusto Santos Silva, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Portugal.

The country’s strong support of UNWTO’s mission and its commitment to tourism as a driver of development and growth was reaffirmed by Rita Marques, Secretary of State for Tourism. Furthermore, the visit also encompassed the whole spectrum of key priorities – from driving coordination to achieving high-level political support for the sector. Innovation, recognized for its potential to advance recovery and build a more sustainable future for tourism, was also at the fore as the UNWTO delegation met with Portugal’s Secretary of State for the Digital Transformation, André de Aragão Azevedo to discuss start-ups, innovation and their vital place in the future of Portuguese tourism.  

Related Links

• Download the press release in PDF
• 70% of Destinations Have Lifted Travel Restrictions – But Global Gap Emerging
• Advancing an International Code for the Protection of Tourists
• UNWTO Tourism Data Dashboard

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70% of Destinations Have Lifted Travel Restrictions, but Global Gap Emerging

• All Regions
• 2 Dec 2020

The number of destinations closed to international tourism has continued to fall. According to the eighth edition of the UNWTO Travel Restrictions Report, 70% of all global destinations have eased restrictions on travel introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In comparison, just one in four destinations continue to keep their borders completely closed to international tourists.

Launched by the World Tourism Organization at the start of the pandemic, the Travel Restrictions Report keeps track of measures being taken in 217 destinations worldwide, helping to support the mitigation and recovery efforts of the tourism sector. For this latest edition, the methodology has been updated to offer insights into the tourism flows of destinations, as well as to explore the link between health and hygiene infrastructure, environmental performance and any potential connection to travel restrictions.

The lifting of travel restrictions is essential to drive our wider recovery from the social and economic impacts of the pandemic

Steadily opening back up

The Report shows that, as of 1 November, a total of 152 destinations have eased restrictions on international tourism, up from the 115 recorded on 1 September. At the same time, 59 destinations have kept their borders closed to tourists, a decrease of 34 over the same two-month period.

UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said: “The lifting of travel restrictions is essential to drive our wider recovery from the social and economic impacts of the pandemic. Governments have an important part to play in giving data-led and responsible travel advice and in working together to lift restrictions as soon as it is safe to do so.”

Who eased restrictions faster?

Looking further into current COVID-19-related travel restrictions, the report sheds new light on the factors connecting those destinations which have eased restrictions and those where borders remain closed. The study found that destinations with higher scores in health and hygiene indicators as well as on the environmental performance index are among those which have eased restrictions faster. Moreover, these destinations are increasingly applying differentiated, risk-based approaches to implementing travel restrictions.

In comparison, destinations choosing to keep their borders closed tend to be within emerging economies with relatively low scores in health and hygiene indicators and environmental performance index. The majority of these destinations are in Asia and the Pacific, with many belonging to the SIDS (Small Island Developing States), LDCs (Least Developed Countries) or LLDCs (Landlocked Developing Countries).

Regional differences

As in previous editions, the new UNWTO Travel Restrictions report also breaks the destination analysis down by regions. Europe continues to lead the way in lifting or easing travel restrictions followed by the Americas, Africa and then the Middle East. Meanwhile, Asia and the Pacific continues to be the region with the fewest travel restrictions eased and more complete border closures in place for international tourism.

Looking ahead, the report highlights the important role governments can play in restarting tourism. Out of the ten biggest tourism source markets, four (representing 19% of all outbound trips in 2018) have issued guidance advising against all non-essential international travel. The other six (representing 30% of all outbound trips in 2018), however, have issued more nuanced travel advisories, basing their guidance on evidence-based risk assessments. 

Related Links

• Download the press release in PDF
• UNWTO Report: 8th Report of Travel Restrictions
• UNWTO: COVID-19 Travel Related Restrictions
• One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme (2020), One Planet Vision for a Responsible Recovery of the Tourism Sector

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Advancing an International Code for Protection of Tourists

• All Regions
• 27 Nov 2020

The Committee for the Development of an International Code for the Protection of Tourists has met for a second time, bringing the establishment of the landmark legal framework a step closer to being realized.

UNWTO hosted the consultative virtual meeting which counted on the participation of 92 Member States, as well as one Associate Member. Joining them to inform the discussions were legal experts from several global regions, all of them members of the special Consultative Group as well as introducing the Observers, international organizations both governmental and non-governmental that will join forces with UNWTO in the development of the Code and guarantee that the result is a well representative and balanced set of standards

The diverse range of observers reflected the strong interest in an International Code designed to offer tourists greater protection as consumers and to spread the responsibility of assisting tourists affected by emergency situations across the whole of the sector. The European Commission's Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, which is responsible for the EU’s tourism policies highlighted its interest in following this project in view of the potential commonalities with the Commission´s work. ,

Joining them were the representative from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD, the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Additionally, and highlighting strong interest from the private sector in the work of the Committee, a number of business organizations and member groups took part as observers, among them the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Hotrec, which represents the European hospitality sector.

Participants of the Committee also elected a Chair (Brazil) and Vice-Chair (Greece).

Related Links

• Download the press release in PDF
• New International Code to Provide Greater Legal Protection for Tourists
• UNWTO Brings Tourism Sector Together to Plan for the Future
• Recommendations for the Assistance to International Tourists in Emergency Situations