Data from the first quarter of this year show that the number of tourist arrivals decreased by 67 million, or by 22 percent.
The United Nations agency (UNWTO) announced that in March alone, the number of tourist arrivals decreased by 57 percent, at a time when many countries had already introduced travel restrictions and other measures in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
UNWTO estimated that the financial loss of global tourism in the first three months of this year was about 80 billion dollars.
The UN agency also stated that how much the loss of global tourism will be this year also depends on the moment when the travel restrictions will be lifted and when the tourism economy could start to recover.
UNWTO estimates range from a global drop of 58 percent if travel bans were lifted in early July, a drop of around 70 percent if restrictions were lifted in September, and 78 percent if travel restrictions were to last until the end of the year.
It is estimated that global tourism could lose between 850 million and 1,1 billion tourist visits this year, the financial loss would be between 910 million and 1,2 billion dollars, while between 100 and 120 million jobs in tourism would be directly endangered.
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