Original title: United Nations: International tourists may drop by 80% this year

The World Tourism Organization of the United Nations said on the 7th that the global tourism industry will be hit hard by the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, and the number of international tourists will drop by 60% to 80% compared with last year.

The World Tourism Organization, headquartered in Madrid, Spain, said that since this year, many countries have imposed various travel restrictions to combat the epidemic, including closing airports and borders. The global tourism industry is suffering from the worst crisis since at least 1950.

A research report released by the World Tourism Organization on the 7th showed that the total number of inbound tourists from all countries in the first quarter of this year dropped by 22% compared with the same period last year, and in March alone, 57% less than the same period last year, with Europe and Asia receiving the largest number of international tourists.

The World Tourism Organization expects that the situation of the tourism industry will not improve by the end of this year, and the recovery time depends on when countries lift travel restrictions. If countries gradually lift travel restrictions from the beginning of July, the total number of inbound tourists in the world in 2020 may decline by 58% compared with last year, which is the best situation; If countries lift travel restrictions at the beginning of December, the total number of inbound tourists in the world may be 78% less than last year.

Experts predict that the tourism industry will show signs of recovery in the fourth quarter of this year. Domestic tourism will recover faster than outbound tourism, and the Asia Pacific region will recover first.

Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization, said in a statement: "Tourism, a labor-intensive industry, has been severely damaged, which will endanger millions of jobs."

According to the data, in 2019, the global total number of international tourists reached 1.5 billion, an increase of 4% over the previous year, of which France, Spain and the United States received the most international tourists in turn.

Source Xinhua News Agency client

Responsible editor Ruan Dan