International tourism shrank 85% from January to May this year, compared to the same period of 2019 - the last period before the pandemic, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) said, Report informs, citing RIA Novosti.
According to it, the biggest crisis in the history of tourism has already continued for the second year. From January until May, international tourism flows were 85% lower than 2019 (and 65% lower than in 2020). Despite an insignificant upsurge in May, the appearance of the COVID-19 strains and continuous introduction of restrictions mean that domestic tourism is rebounding much faster than international trips.
In the first five months of this year, a drop of 147 million was recorded in global international arrivals, compared to the same period of 2020 and 460 million compared to 2019. A slight tendency to growth was marked in May, as some countries started mitigating restrictions.
The UNWTO experts believe that after the global losses due to the COVID pandemic, world tourism will rebound no earlier than 2023.
UNWTO assessed 2020 as the worst period on record, as the number of international trips was down by 1 billion compared to 2019 (1.5 billion).