WTTC: 280 billion euros lost between the US and 4 European countries due to the pandemic

These days the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) is publishing a series of researches that quantify the damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in the main European countries and in the United States. In the Old Continent, the worst tally among the nations examined belongs to France, with 48 billion dollars in losses caused by the fewest number of tourists and foreign visitors. Germany and Italy follow at a distance, respectively at 38 and 36 billion euros, while Great Britain remains below the 25 billion mark. The price paid by the United States is also high, valued at around 155 million dollars, or more than 131 billion euros.

The French figure is also explained by the inclusion of the French country in the list of those for which the British government provides for quarantine upon return, which has considerably reduced the number of people from abroad. In 2019, international visitors brought 58.6 billion to the French economy, making up 34% of total tourism spending. Between 2016 and 2018 Germany and the UK accounted for 14% of international arrivals, followed by Belgium (12%) and Italy and Switzerland (8% each). In the worst-case scenario depicted by the WTTC, 2.1 million jobs in the Travel & Tourism sector would be at risk in France, out of the total 2.7 (9.4 per cent of the total French workforce). The sector annually generates 205 billion euros of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), equivalent to 8.5% of the local economy.

The situation in Germany is slightly better, even if the WTTC estimates speak of losses of 38 billion euros. Last year, the travel and tourism sector led to a turnover of 310.9 billion euros of GDP, 9% of the German economy. The total jobs are 5.7 million (12.5% of German workers), of which 4.6 would be at risk if things were to degenerate. In 2019, foreign tourism accounted for 14 percent, generating a turnover of 3.9 billion. Between 2016 and 2018, the Netherlands and Switzerland were the two countries that contributed most in terms of foreign visitors, with 12% and 9% of arrivals respectively, followed by the United States and Great Britain, both with 7%.

In Italy, WTTC estimates see an impact of 36.7 billion euros, with 2.8 million jobs (out of 3.5, or 14.9 percent of total workers) at risk in the worst-case scenario. On the peninsula, the Travel & Tourism sector generates a share of GDP equal to 232.9 billion, or 13% of the total. In 2019, international tourism accounted for 24 percent of the total, for a value of 45 billion euros. Between 2016 and 2018, Italy was chosen 20% by Germans, 8% by the Americans and French and 6% by the British. The data concerning Rome is interesting, where foreign tourists represent 66% of the total and where their decline weighs even more significantly.

Great Britain appears to have managed to contain the damage a little more, with estimated losses of around 22 billion pounds (just under 25 billion euros). The total value of the sector in 2019, in terms of Gross Domestic Product, was approximately 200 billion pounds (over 225 billion euros). Foreign tourism accounted for 17 percent, worth £ 28.2 billion. The sector employs four million workers (11% of the total), of which three million at risk in the worst-case scenario. In the UK, tourists come mainly from the United States and France (10% each), Germany (9%) and Ireland and Spain (7% each).

Finally, WTTC looked at the United States, where it estimates losses of 155 billion dollars (over 131 billion euros). Of the 16.8 million jobs (10.7 percent of the total), 12.1 would be at risk in the worst-case scenario. The Travel & Tourism sector is worth 9 per cent of GDP in the United States, for a total of 1,8 trillion dollars. Here foreign tourism accounted for 195.1 billion in 2019, 16% of the total. In the USA, tourists come mainly from Canada (26%), Mexico (24%), the United Kingdom (6%) and Japan (5%).

“International coordination to re-establish transatlantic travel would provide a vital boost to the Travel & Tourism sector,” said Gloria Guevara, WTTC President & CEO (photo). “It would benefit airlines and hotels, travel agents and tour operators and revitalise the millions of jobs in the supply chain which are dependent upon international travel. We urgently need to replace the ever-changing quarantine measures with rapid, comprehensive and cost-effective test and trace programmes at departure points. This investment will be significantly less than the impact of blunt quarantines which have devastating and far-reaching socio-economic consequences. Targeted test and tracing will also rebuild consumer confidence to travel”.