The World Travel & Tourism Council says up to 50 million jobs in the travel & tourism sector are at risk due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“WTTC figures show the stark impact on the Travel & Tourism sector of the present COVID-19 outbreak with analysis now suggesting that up to 50 million jobs are at risk in the sector globally,” Gloria Guevara, WTTC President & CEO, said.
Latest figures from WTTC show that global travel could be adversely impacted by up to 25 per cent in 2020. This is the equivalent to a loss of three months of global travel. This could lead to a corresponding reduction in jobs of between 12 and 14 per cent. “The COVID-19 outbreak clearly presents a significant threat to the industry as a whole, to those employed within it, and those wishing to continue travelling,” WTTC stated.
Following extensive consultation with other Travel & Tourism organisations, WTTC is also calling for a series of measures to be taken, to enable the swift recovery of the sector once COVID-19 is under control.
WTTC will offer its support to all governments, particularly those which are implementing strong policies for a prompt recovery such as:
1. Improve travel facilitation – remove or simplify visas wherever possible, reduce the cost and improve processing times where practical, accept other visas when appropriate and introduce more efficient technologies for seamless and secure travel
2. Remove barriers – ensure that unnecessary barriers are removed or relaxed to alleviate pressure at ports and airports, including temporarily lifting of the 80-20 slot policy rule, ports assignments and implement flexible working visa for the industry in some countries with existing limitations, especially in hospitality and tour operation.
3. Ease fiscal policies – reduce and remove travellers’ taxes which increases the cost of travel, e.g. Air Passenger Duty and similar airport, port and hospitality taxes around the world
4. Introduce incentives – introduce relief and incentives to support business continuity for companies which have been most negatively impacted by the virus. SMEs in particular will take longer to recover.
5. Support destinations – increase budgets and assign resources for promotion, marketing and product development purposes in destinations when they are ready to welcome visitors again.
At this time, WTTC reinforces the importance of strong public-private partnerships and greater international cooperation in order to respond and overcome the challenges faced by the sector during the management and recovery from COVID-19.
