The Corona crisis has threatened up to 120 million jobs worldwide in the tourism sector alone

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has calculated that the tourism sector lost as much as $ 1.3 trillion last year due to the coronavirus pandemic worldwide. That is 11 times the loss that the sector felt during the 2009 global economic crisis. The crisis has threatened between 100 million and 120 million direct jobs in tourism, many of which are in small and medium-sized enterprises.

These data seem to be an announcement of what many oppose, and that is that without a vaccination certificate against Covid-19 it will not be possible to travel in the near future. This is exactly what UNWTO Secretary General Zurab Pololikashvili is announcing. - We are aware that the crown of the crisis is not over yet, so it is important to reduce travel risks through testing, tracing and vaccine certification to promote safe travel and recover the tourism sector - writes Pololikashvili on the organization's website.

They also conducted a survey to find out the opinion of experts on what awaits tourism in 2021. Most, namely 45 percent of respondents expect better prospects for tourism compared to last year, 25 percent think it will be like last year, and 30 percent think that results will be worse in the current year.

Croatia is the third country in the EU on the list of shares of employees in tourism. Eurostat data show that 2.3 million companies in the EU operate in this sector, in which 11.7 million people worked until the crown. Looking at all sectors, nine percent of employees are accounted for by tourism. The best tourist year in Croatia was 2019 with almost 21 million arrivals and more than 108 million overnight stays, which is 5 and 2.4 percent more than in 2018. Those numbers seemed like a dream in 2020.

Comparisons work only in the first eight In 2020, there were 36.6 million overnight stays, which is 52 percent less than in the same period in 2019.

Picture source: Unsplash