International tourism continues to show signs of recovery and is gaining momentum, recovering from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. In some regions, the return of tourists exceeds 350% compared to last year, but the previous level has not yet been reached anywhere. This is stated in the report of the World Tourism Organization under the United Nations (UNWTO).
“For the first five months of this year, there was a strong surge in tourism. Almost 250 million international arrivals were recorded, compared to 77 million arrivals from January to May 2021. At the moment, the tourism sector has recovered by 46% of the pre-pandemic level. The recovery of tourism is gaining momentum in many parts of the world, overcoming the challenges that stand in its way,” UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said.
However, being overly optimistic, experts at the same time advise “to exercise caution in connection with economic headwinds and geopolitical issues that may affect the sector in the rest of 2022 and beyond.”
As for the regions, Europe showed the greatest result here — the growth of international profits amounted to 350% in the first five months of 2021. This was facilitated by high intra-regional demand and the lifting of all travel restrictions to several countries. In April, by the way, the increase was even higher — 458%, which experts attribute to the first Easter vacation, free from restrictions.
In the Americas, revenue was up 112%, but down 40% from 2019. Strong growth in the Middle East (+157 percent) and Africa (+156 percent) also remains on average 50% below 2019 levels. The Asia-Pacific region almost doubled the number of arrivals (+94%), but these figures are also almost 90% lower than in 2019, and the high growth is because in 2021 many countries maintained strict covid restrictions and did not allow tourists.