In this picture taken on May 13, 2020, a woman wearing a facemask walks at St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy. Venetians are rethinking their city in the quiet brought by the pandemic. For years, the unbridled success of Venice's tourism industry threatened to ruin the things that made it an attractive destination. Now the pandemic has ground to a halt Italy’s most-visited city, stopped the flow of 3 billion euros in annual tourism-related revenue and devastated the city's economy. (ANTONIO CALANNI / AP)

MADRID - The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) on Tuesday highlighted the enormous cost which the coronavirus pandemic brings to the global tourism sector, both in tourist numbers and revenue.

The dramatic fall in international tourism places many millions of livelihoods at risk, including in developing countries. 

Zurab Pololikashvili, UNWTO Secretary-General

The new edition of the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer shows that lockdown restrictions led to a 98 percent fall in international tourist numbers in May this year, compared to May 2019.

The Barometer also shows a 56 percent year-on-year reduction in tourist arrivals in the first five months of this year, with a loss of US$320 billion in international tourism receipts, which the UNWTO says is "more than three times the loss during the Global Economic Crisis of 2009."

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UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said in a press communique that the data showed "the importance of restarting tourism as soon as it is safe to do so."

"The dramatic fall in international tourism places many millions of livelihoods at risk, including in developing countries," he said, adding that "governments in every world region have a dual responsibility: to prioritize public health while also protecting jobs and businesses.”

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“They also need to maintain the spirit of cooperation and solidarity that has defined our response to this shared challenge and refrain from making unilateral decisions that may undermine the trust and confidence we have been working so hard to build," he added.

According to the UNWTO, most members of its Panel of Tourism Experts "expect international tourism to recover by the second half of 2021," while some believe there could be "a rebound in the first part of next year. "

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