Global Travel, Tourism Sector Loses $4.5tn To Pandemic

The Economic Impact Report (EIR) of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) for 2020, released recently, shows Global travel and tourism sector has recorded an excess of $4.5 trillion revenue loss for Year 2020, which translates to about 50 per cent decline of its yearly turnover.

links the loss to the devastating impact of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State government has granted N1 billion worth of loans to tourism and hospitality practitioners in the state. The loans were meant to be seed capital to help drive new growth in the sector in the state.

Operators nationwide have estimated billions of naira loss to pandemic lockdown and slow restart of businesses in the COVID-19 era.

EIR showed that the sector’s contribution to global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) dropped a staggering 49.1 per cent, compared to the overall global economy that dropped by just 3.7 per cent last year.

Vast losses run-up during 2020 paint the first full picture of a sector struggling to survive in the face of crippling travel restrictions and unnecessary quarantines, which continue to threaten the urgent recovery of the world economy.

Altogether, the sector’s contribution to global GDP plummeted to $4.7 trillion in 2020 (5.5 per cent of the global economy), from nearly $9.2 trillion the previous year (10.4 per cent).