The contribution of the tourism industry to global GDP in 2019 was 10.4%, in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic it decreased to 5.5%, follows from the report of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), prepared jointly with Oxford Economics.

The report covers the impact of the pandemic on tourism in 185 countries and 25 geographic or economic regions of the world.

In 2019, the contribution of tourism to the world economy was 10.4% or $ 9.2 trillion. In 2020, the sector lost almost $ 4.5 trillion, and its contribution to global GDP declined by 49%. At the same time, the overall slowdown in the global economy amounted to 3.7%, the report says.

According to the WTTC, before the pandemic, international tourism, including its direct and indirect impact, accounted for one in four new jobs in the world and 10.6% of all jobs (334 million).

In 2020, almost 62 million or 18.5% of jobs were cut in the tourism sector. Now their number in the industry is 272 million. The threat of losing even more jobs remains, as many of them are supported by government programs to support the industry. Without the full restoration of international travel, they are unlikely to be preserved, the WTTC report noted.

In 2019, travelers spent $ 1.7 trillion on travel, accounting for almost 7% of international exports and 27.4% of service exports. In 2020, according to the WTTC, tourist spending on travel to their countries decreased by 45%, while spending on foreign travel - by almost 70%.