Recent data issued by the World Tourism Organization showed that the number of international tourists decreased by 22% during the first quarter of 2020 due to the outbreak of the new Corona pandemic "Covid-19".
According to the agency, the crisis is expected to lead to an annual decline of between 60 and 80% compared to last year's numbers (2019), which will endanger the livelihoods of millions and threaten to diminish the progress made in achieving the sustainable development goals.
In this context, the Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization, Zurab Pololikashvili pointed out that "the world is facing an unprecedented health and economic crisis, and tourism has been severely affected, as millions of jobs have been threatened in one of the most labor-intensive sectors of the economy."
According to the data, the number of arrivals decreased by 22% in the first three months of this year, according to the most recent measure of global tourism issued by the World Tourism Organization. The organization reported a sharp decline in the number of arrivals in March by 57% after the start of the closure in many countries, in addition to imposing restrictions on travel, and closure of airports national borders on a large scale and all these factors led to the loss of 67 million international arrivals and about 80 billion dollars in tourism revenues.
Source (Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Edited)
