UNWTO says global tourism confidence slowly improving

Global international tourist arrivals in the first quarter of 2021 fell 83% from pre-pandemic levels. Across the world's destinations as a whole, there were 180 million fewer arrivals compared to last year. However, the UNWTO Confidence Index shows signs of a slow rebound.

Asia and the Pacific continued to show the lowest levels of activity, with a 94% drop in international arrivals during the quarter.

Europe recordedó the second largest drop (-83%), followed by Africa (-81%), Middle East (-78%) and America (-71%).

These are figures that follow on the heels of a 73% decline in international tourist arrivals worldwide in 2020, the worst year on record for the sector.

According to the UNWTO, “there is significant accumulated demand and we see confidence slowly being restored. Vaccines will be the key to recovery, but, if we want to see an upturn in the northern hemisphere summer season, we must improve coordination and communication.

The úlst survey by the UNWTO tourism think tank slightly improves expectations for the period May-August.

In addition, the pace of vaccination in some key outbound markets, as well as policies to restart tourism safely, especially through the EU's green digital certificate, have created new hope in some of these markets.

Overall, 60% of respondents believe that the upturn in international tourism will not arriveá until 2022, up from 50% in the January 2021 survey. The remaining 40% see a possible rebound in 2021, a slightly lower percentage than in January.

Almost half of the experts do not foresee a return to 2019 international tourism levels before 2024 or later, while the percentage of respondents indicating a return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023 has decreased slightly (37%), compared with the January survey.

Tourism experts point to the continued imposition of restrictions on travel and the lack of coordination in travel and health protocols as the main obstacle to the industry's recovery.

The UNWTO World Tourism Barometer also shows the economic cost of the pandemic. The revenues from international tourism in 2020 were down 64% in real terms.