The World Travel & Tourism Council believes that the UK government should abandon its current travel policy in order to spur economic recovery (WTTC).

The organisation claims that the sector’s recovery has been hampered by a lack of international coordination, severe travel restrictions, and slower vaccination rates in some parts of the world, all of which are still in place in many parts of the world.

The tourism sector contributed nearly $9.2 trillion to the global economy in 2019, but the pandemic brought the industry to an almost halt in 2020.

This resulted in a 49% drop, amounting to a punishing loss of nearly USD$4.5 trillion.

While tourism is expected to contribute a modest 30% year on year increase to the global economy in 2021, this will only amount to US$1.4 trillion and will be primarily driven by domestic spending.

Oxford Economics conducted the economic modelling on behalf of WTTC, calculating a baseline scenario based on current global vaccination rollout, consumer confidence, and relaxed travel restrictions in some regions around the world.

According to the research, at the current rate of recovery, tourism’s contribution to the global economy could see a similar moderate year-on-year increase of 32% in 2022.

WTTC reported a staggering 62 million tourism job losses worldwide last year, and with the current rate of recovery, jobs are expected to rise by only 0.7% this year.

Similarly, research indicates a more optimistic potential year-on-year job increase of 18% across the sector next year.

“Our research clearly shows that while the global tourism sector is beginning to recover from the ravages of Covid-19, there are still too many restrictions in place, an uneven vaccine rollout, resulting in a slower than expected recovery of just under a third this year,” said Julia Simpson, WTTC chief executive.

“The UK prime minister has an opportunity to help revive the sector faster by removing the UK red list policy and enabling stress free international travel for all of those fully-vaccinated,” she added.

– India’s new age travel digital media