World tourism is expected to have a $2 trillion hole this year. The survey is by the World Tourism Organization (WTO). In addition to the impacts that the population has been suffering from the Covid-19 pandemic since the beginning of 2020, the research highlights that the main difficulties for the resumption of the sector are the inequality of vaccination rates between countries and the emergence of new variants, as Ômicron, identified in South Africa that November.
The survey by the OMT points to a scenario of slow recovery. The number of arrivals of tourists, for example, is still 75% lower than in the pre-pandemic period in 2019. However, the Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization, Zarub Pololikashvili, sees an improvement in the third quarter of 2021, with more “encouraging” numbers.
“With an increase in cases and the emergence of one more variant, it is not yet time to let our guard down, but to continue the effort to ensure equal access to vaccines, coordinate travel procedures, use digital vaccination certificates to facilitate movement people and support the sector,” said Pololikashvili.
Southern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, North America and Central America were the regions that received the most tourists in 2021.
Landings in Asia and the Pacific were 95% below 2019 figures as many countries continued to close borders for non-essential travel. In the Middle East, the drop was 81% and in Africa, 74%.
Between July and September of this year, the countries that had the strongest recovery in tourism were Croatia, Mexico and Turkey, in addition to the Caribbean, according to the survey by the WTO.
Now, the industry turns to the possible effects of the Ômicron variant. Last Monday (29), the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared that the emergence of the strain shows how the situation is still “dangerous and precarious”.
*under the supervision of Pauline Almeida
Reference: CNN Brasil
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