This photo taken on Feb 6, 2020 shows a waitress cleaning an area at a nearly empty restaurant at Ao Nang beach in Krabi province, Thailand. (NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP)

BERLIN - International tourism is set to fall by 70 percent this year, marking the sector’s biggest slump since records began in the 1950s, United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili told newspaper Handelsblatt.

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The prediction was based on the assumption that countries around the world would gradually open their borders from August

He said this prediction for the coronavirus-hit sector was based on the assumption that countries around the world would gradually open their borders from August.

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