The coronavirus crisis cost the global tourism sector $1.3 trillion in lost revenue in 2020 as the number of people travelling plunged, the UN said, calling it “the worst year in tourism history”, according to an AFP report.
Revenue lost last year amounted to “more than 11 times the loss recorded during the 2009 global economic crisis,” the Madrid-based World Tourism Organisation said in a statement, warning that between 100 and 120 million direct tourism jobs were at risk.
International tourist arrivals fell by one billion, or 74 per cent, in 2020 with Asia, the first region to feel the impact of Covid-19, seeing the steepest decline, it added.
