NEWS/ INTERNATIONAL
OVER 100 MN GLOBAL JOBS COULD BE RECOVERED IN 2021 Global body World Travel & Tourism Council predicts a strong summer of travel ahead and New research gives hope for sector left struggling for survival by COVID-19
M
ore than 100 million jobs could return to the global Travel & Tourism sector during 2021, as the world recovers from the crippling COVID-19 pandemic, says the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). A strong summer of travel is expected as the sector begins its road to recovery from late March onwards, with many major travel companies reporting a significant rise in forwarding bookings. The sector’s revival is backed by WTTC’s latest economic 12
FEBRUARY 2021 TOURISM INDIA
forecast, which gives further hope for the year ahead to businesses and millions of people employed in the sector worldwide. WTTC’s most optimistic scenario predicts as many as 111 million jobs could be revived with travel recovery starting from late March, factors in widespread vaccination programmes, and swift adoption of comprehensive test-and-trace regimes, together with continual, strong international coordination from the private and public sectors. However, the forecast’s more conservative outcome would
still see a return of 84 million jobs, but this would be 25% below 2019 levels, with 82 million fewer jobs. Under this scenario, the recovery of international travel is pushed to the second half of 2021. Vaccines would be rolled out more gradually, slowing down the removal of worldwide travel barriers and restrictions currently in place, while depressing demand to travel and reducing consumer confidence. Gloria Guevara, WTTC President & CEO, said: “We are looking forward to a strong summer of travel, thanks to a combina-
