Global Tourism's Slow Recovery From the Pandemic

There was a combined loss of 2.6 billion international tourist arrivals from 2019 through 2022, according to the UN World Tourism Organization’s latest report. Analysts say this was largely due to global lockdowns, widespread travel restrictions and a slump in visitor demand.

In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, only 407 million international tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) were recorded, marking a 72 percent decline from the 1.5 billion of 2019. Two years on, and the figure had climbed to 963 million, which is just 34 percent below pre-pandemic levels. According to the report, this increase was driven by “strong pent-up demand” as well as the further easing of travel restrictions. Last year, the Middle East was the region to see the strongest rebound worldwide, hitting only -10 percent below 2019 levels, followed by Europe with only -20 percent of pre pandemic levels and the Americas with -29 percent.

Economically speaking, the amount lost through tourism direct GDP was $4.2 trillion over the four years, which equates to roughly the value of Germany’s economy in 2021. It’s a loss that has been felt unevenly, however, as the report writers explain: “The COVID-19 pandemic caused the largest loss in tourism revenues and economic output in recorded history, impacting millions of jobs, small businesses and livelihoods all over world, particularly in emerging economy destinations such as small island developing states where tourism is more labor intensive and a major part of the balance of payments.”

They add that an estimated 100 million direct tourism jobs were put at risk, if not lost, during the pandemic years, many of which were in smaller companies which employed a high share of women and young people.