Published: May 19th, 2020
International tourism faces deepest crisis in history
The world is facing an unprecedented global health, social and economic emergency due to the COVID- 19 pandemic.
Travel and tourism is among the most affected sectors. In an unprecedented shock to the tourism sector, the COVID-19 pandemic has cut international tourist arrivals in the first quarter of 2020 to a fraction of what they were a year ago.
Available data points to a double-digit decrease of 22% in Q1 2020, with arrivals in March down by 57%. This translates into a loss of 67 million international arrivals and about USD 80 billion in export revenues from international tourism.
