The travel and tourism sector’s continued sluggish recovery will see its year-on-year contribution to global GDP rise by less than one-third in 2021, according to new research from the WTTC.
The sector’s recovery has been hampered by the lack of international coordination, severe travel restrictions and vaccine inequity, WTTC said in a media release.
In 2019, the travel and tourism sector generated nearly US$9.2 trillion to the global economy, noted WTTC. However in 2020, the pandemic brought travel and tourism to an almost complete standstill which resulted in a 49.1 per cent drop, representing a loss of nearly US$4.5 trillion, it added.
While the global economy is set to receive a modest 30.7 per cent year-on-year increase from travel and tourism in 2021, this will only represent US$1.4 trillion and is mainly driven by domestic spending.
The economic modelling was…