Vaccines may soon allow international travel to take off again. But will it ever return to normal?

-COVID-19 has had a major impact on tourism, causing a 70% drop in international tourist arrivals from January – August in 2020.

-Several countries have closed their borders completely.

-The pandemic has ignited debated about the future of the industry.

 
The COVID-19 pandemic brought the global tourism industry to a screeching halt in 2020. With vaccines starting to be rolled out, there is hope international travel can resume soon, but exactly when — and how — is the million-dollar question.

Before COVID-19, there was much concern about whether tourism had grown too big for our planet. There were calls to scale back tourism, make it more environmentally sustainable and help over-touristed locations become more resilient to crises.

However, with almost no international travel in 2020, we now have the opposite problem. The pandemic caused a 70% drop in international tourist arrivals globally from January to August, compared to the same period last year.

Destinations reliant on international tourists have been the hardest hit. Many are in developing countries, where tourism is a major export earner. For example, according to the World Bank, tourism makes up nearly 15% of Thailand’s GDP, which is why it recently started allowing select foreign tourists to return for extended stays.

We believe in experts. We believe knowledge must inform decisions.

But attempts to reboot international travel on a wider scale have so far failed due to successive waves of COVID-19.

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Πηγή: weforum.org