China News Agency, Berlin, July 29 (Reporter Peng Dawei) The report released by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) on the 28th showed that the "closed cities" and "closed countries" epidemic prevention measures adopted by various countries made the number of cross-border tourists in May this year year-on-year. A decrease of 98%. From January to May this year, cross-border tourists fell by 56% year-on-year, reducing about 300 million trips and causing a loss of 320 billion US dollars. The scale of the loss was more than three times that of the 2009 global financial crisis.
The World Tourism Organization, headquartered in Madrid, Spain, is a specialized agency within the United Nations system responsible for promoting responsible, sustainable and accessible tourism. The latest "World Tourism Barometer" report released on the same day gave the above data.
Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization, said on the same day that the dramatic decline in the scale of cross-border tourism made the livelihoods of millions of people, including developing countries, worrying. "Governments around the world have a dual responsibility to protect employment and business while ensuring public health is a priority."
The report released by the World Tourism Organization on the same day also pointed out that cross-border tourism has shown a gradual and cautious liberalization trend, especially in the northern hemisphere, as represented by the reopening of the borders of the EU Schengen area on July 1.
It is worth noting that although the tourism industry in some regions is gradually restarting, the confidence index of the World Tourism Organization fell to a new low that day. Most members of the organization's tourism expert working group expect that global cross-border tourism will not recover until the second half of 2021, and only a few experts believe that recovery will be ushered in the first half of 2021.
Experts from the World Tourism Organization believe that the subsequent risks faced by cross-border tourism include: travel restrictions and border control measures still exist in most tourist destinations around the world, the main source countries of outbound tourism have not been liberalized, people’s concerns about travel safety, the resurgence of the epidemic and The possibility of a new round of "closing the city" and so on. In addition, the lack of reliable travel information and the deterioration of the economic environment are also considered factors that undermine consumer confidence in travel. (Finish)