The World Tourism Organization stated on Tuesday that tourism arrivals are unlikely to recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2024 at the earliest.
According to the Madrid-based UN agency’s World Tourism Barometer, the highly contagious Omicron form will ‘disrupt the recovery’ in early 2022 after last year’s four percent gain over 2020.
‘Due to varied degrees of movement limitations, vaccination rates, and traveler confidence, the pace of recovery remains slow and unequal across world regions,’ the UNWTO said in a news release.
Last year, foreign tourist visits in Europe and the Americas increased by 19 percent and 17 percent, respectively, over 2020.
After difficulty in the early months due to the Omicron wave, tourism professionals “saw brighter possibilities” for this year, according to the statement.
International arrivals are expected to increase by 30 to 78 percent this year compared to 2021, although remaining well below 2019 levels.
According to the report, most experts do not expect a recovery to pre-pandemic levels before a 2024, that too at the earliest.
Many countries rely heavily on tourism and are looking forward to things returning to normal.
‘The economic contribution of tourism in 2021 (measured in tourist direct gross domestic product) is anticipated to be $1.9 trillion (1.68 trillion euros), up from $1.6 trillion in 2020 but still significantly below the $3.5 trillion pre-pandemic value, ‘according to the statement.
Arrivals in the Middle East, on the other hand, fell by 24% in 2021, while in the Asia-Pacific area, they were 65 percent lower in 2020 and 94 percent lower than pre-pandemic levels.
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