Health and Healthcare Systems

This is the impact of COVID-19 on the travel sector 

A traveller's view of a sunset out on an airplane window, the wing of the plane is in the image.

A full recovery of the global tourism sector isn't expected until 2024. Image: UNSPLASH/Eva Darron

  • The tourism sector is one of the worst affected by the impacts of COVID-19.
  • International arrivals have increased by just 4% in the second year of the pandemic; with 1 billion fewer arrivals when compared to pre-pandemic levels.
  • 63% of experts from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) believe the sector won't fully recover until 2024.

While few industries have been spared by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, even fewer have been hit as hard as the tourism sector. As 2021 drew to a close with severe limitations to travel still in place, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reported that international tourist arrivals increased by just 4 percent last year, remaining 72 percent below 2019 levels. That equates to more than 1 billion fewer international arrivals compared to pre-pandemic levels, keeping the industry at levels last seen in the late 1980s.

Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the global tourism sector had seen almost uninterrupted growth for decades. Since 1980, the number of international arrivals skyrocketed from 277 million to nearly 1.5 billion in 2019. As our chart shows, the two largest crises of the past decades, the SARS epidemic of 2003 and the global financial crisis of 2009, were minor bumps in the road compared to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Looking ahead, most experts no longer expect a full recovery until until 2024 or later. While the UNWTO Panel of Experts is confident to see an uptick in travel activity this year, just 4 percent of the surveyed experts expect a full recovery in 2022. Roughly one third of respondents believe that international arrivals will return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023, while 63 percent think it will take even longer than that. UNWTO scenarios predict that international tourist arrivals could grow between 30 and 78 percent in 2022 compared to 2021. While that sounds like a significant improvement, it would still be more than 50 percent below pre-pandemic levels.

This chart shows international tourist arrivals worldwide since 1990.
International arrivals have only increased by 4% in the second year of the pandemic. Image: Statista
Loading...
Have you read?
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

COVID-19

Related topics:
Health and Healthcare SystemsIndustries in Depth
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how COVID-19 is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

Not just a number: Science is redefining how we understand ageing

Zili Huang and Kejun Albert Ying

November 1, 2024

How AI could expand and improve access to mental health treatment

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum