In its latest report, the World Tourism Organization revealed that global tourism will recover 4% in 2021, compared to 2020, when the number of tourists around the world reached 415 million, compared to 400 million a year ago. However, the number of international tourists remained 72 percent lower in 2021, compared to 2019, i.e. before the pandemic. While the year 2020 was the worst year ever for tourism, with a 73 percent decline in the number of international tourists.
Regarding the performance of the Middle East region, the Regional Director for the Middle East at the World Tourism Organization, Basma bint Abdulaziz Al-Maiman, pointed to a decline that the tourism sector has not witnessed before at the regional and global levels since the beginning of the epidemic. Noting that the sector's decline in the Middle East in 2021 occurred by 24 percent compared to 2020, and 79 percent compared to 2019. She explained that the region lost about 19 million tourists, and hotel occupancy rates in December recorded the lowest record levels by 39%, due to the decline in international air traffic in the region by 86%.
Source (Al-Arabiya.net Website, Edited)
