MADRID, 4 April 2022: After the unprecedented drop in 2020\nand 2021, international tourism is beginning to show signs of a gradual\nrecovery in 2022 but the Ukraine crisis could hamper progress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the positive side, UNWTO reports that as of 24 March, 12 destinations\nhad no Covid-19 related restrictions in place, and more destinations are easing\nor lifting travel restrictions, which contributes to unleashing pent-up demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, UNWTO warns that the war in Ukraine poses new\nchallenges to the global economic environment and risks hampering the return of\nconfidence in global travel. The US and the Asian source markets, which have\nstarted to open up, could be particularly impacted, especially regarding travel\nto Europe, as these markets are historically more risk-averse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shutdown of Ukrainian and Russian airspace, as well as\nthe ban on Russian carriers by many European countries, is affecting\nintra-European travel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is also causing detours in long-haul flights between\nEurope and East Asia, which translates into longer flights and higher costs.\nRussia and Ukraine accounted for a combined 3% of global spending on\ninternational tourism in 2020, and at least USD14 billion in global tourism\nreceipts could be lost if the conflict is prolonged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The importance of both markets is significant for\nneighbouring countries, but also for European sun and sea destinations. The\nRussian market also gained significant weight during the pandemic for long haul\ndestinations such as Maldives, Seychelles or Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As destinations, Russia and Ukraine accounted for 4% of all\ninternational arrivals in Europe but only 1% of Europe\u2019s international tourism\nreceipts in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Economic uncertainty and pressures<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Even though it is too early to assess the impact, air travel\nsearches and bookings across various channels showed a slowdown the week after\nthe invasion but started to rebound in early March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is certain that the offensive will add further pressure\nto already challenging economic conditions, undermining consumer confidence and\nraising investment uncertainty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development\n(OECD) estimates that global economic growth could be more than 1% lower this\nyear than projected. In contrast, inflation, already high at the start of the\nyear, could be at least 2.5% higher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The recent spike in oil prices (Brent reached its highest\nlevels in 10 years), and rising inflation are making accommodation and\ntransport services more expensive, adding extra pressure on businesses,\nconsumer purchasing power and savings, UNWTO notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This forecast is in line with the analysis of the potential\nconsequences of the conflict on global economic recovery and growth by the\nUnited Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The agency also\ndowngraded its projection for world economic growth in 2022 from 3.6% to 2.6%\nand warned that developing countries would be most vulnerable to the slowdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Based on the latest available data from the UNWTO, global\ninternational tourist arrivals more than doubled (+130%) in January 2022\ncompared to 2021 – the 18 million more visitors recorded worldwide in the first\nmonth of this year equals the total increase for the whole of 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While these figures confirmed the positive trend already\nunderway last year, the pace of recovery in January was impacted by the\nemergence of the Omicron variant and the re-introduction of travel restrictions\nin several destinations. Following the 71% decline of 2021, international\narrivals in January 2022 remained 67% below pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Europe and the Americas perform strongest<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n All regions enjoyed a significant rebound in January 2022,\nthough from low levels recorded at the start of 2021. Europe (+199%) and the\nAmericas (+97%) continued to post the most robust results, with international\narrivals still around half pre-pandemic levels (-53% and -52%, respectively).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Middle East (+89%) and Africa (+51%) also saw growth in\nJanuary 2022 over 2021, but these regions saw a drop of 63% and 69%,\nrespectively, compared to 2019. While Asia and the Pacific recorded a 44%\nyear-on-year increase, several destinations remained closed to non-essential\ntravel resulting in the largest decrease in international arrivals over 2019\n(-93%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n By subregions, Western Europe registered four times more\narrivals in January 2022 than in 2021, the highest of all regions, but 58% less\nthan in 2019. Additionally, the Caribbean (-38%) and Southern and Mediterranean\nEurope (-41%) have shown the fastest rates of recovery towards 2019 levels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, several islands in the Caribbean and Asia and the\nPacific, together with some small European and Central American destinations,\nrecorded the best results compared to 2019: Seychelles (-27%), Bulgaria and\nCura\u00e7ao (both -20%), El Salvador (-19%), Serbia and Maldives (both -13%),\nDominican Republic (-11%), Albania (-7%) and Andorra (-3%). Bosnia and\nHerzegovina (+2%) even exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Among major destinations,\nTurkey and Mexico saw declines of 16% and 24%, respectively, as compared to\n2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MADRID, 4 April 2022: After the unprecedented drop in 2020 and 2021, international tourism is beginning to show signs of a gradual recovery in 2022 but the Ukraine crisis could hamper progress. On the positive side, UNWTO reports that as of 24 March, 12 destinations had no Covid-19 related restrictions in place, and more destinations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[267,1581],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-203295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-europe","7":"category-trends"},"yoast_head":"\n