COVID-19 vaccination and certificates are key to restoring confidence in foreign tourism, which provides a lifeline for many countries, especially small island states that rely heavily on the sector to provide jobs, it said.
In 2020, international arrivals plunged by 73% from pre-pandemic levels in 2019, causing estimated losses of $2.4 trillion in tourism and related sectors, according to the report by UNCTAD and the UN’s World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
“The outlook for this year doesn’t look much better,” Ralf Peters of UNCTAD’s trade analysis branch, told a news conference. “The first three months were again bad, there was not much travelling happening,” he said.
“There is an expectation of a certain recovery in the second half of the year, at least for North America and Europe to a certain extent,” he told Reuters, crediting vaccinations.
