Two years later, COVID-19 lockdowns severely impacted the travel and tourism (T&T) industry, and the picture looked very different. It caused a decline in living standards and the well-being of communities all over the world, resulting in losses of $4.5 trillion and the loss of 62 million jobs in 2020 alone. Although the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines and the lifting of restrictions have signaled the beginning of a recovery, it has been slow and uneven due, in part, to variations in vaccine distribution and Omicron and its BA.2 subvariant. And customers are not only being more cautious when it comes to health, but also around the impact of travel on the environment and local communities.
In comparison to the previous year, international tourist arrivals increased by 18 million in January 2022. The UNWTO says that while this is the same as the increase from 2020 for the whole of 2021, the numbers in January were still 67% lower than in the same month in 2019. The conflict in Ukraine has exacerbated the sector’s instability and caused economic disruption. Against this backdrop, the World Economic Forum’s inaugural Travel and Tourism Development Index reflects the growing role of sustainability and resilience in T&T growth, as well as the sector’s role in economic and social development more broadly.The Travel and Tourism Development Index 2021
The 117 economies included in the index were responsible for approximately 96% of the global direct T&T GDP in 2020. It measures the policies and factors that will make the sector’s development sustainable and resilient. These include everything from business, safety and health conditions, to infrastructure and natural resources, environmental, socioeconomic and demand pressures.
“As the sector slowly recovers, it will be crucial that lessons are learned from recent and current crises and that steps are taken to embed long-term inclusivity, sustainability and resilience into the travel and tourism sector as it faces evolving challenges and risks,” says the publication, a collaboration between many of the sector’s stakeholders.
The index consists of five subindexes, 17 pillars and 112 individual indicators, distributed among the different pillars, as shown below.On average, scores increased by just 0.1% between 2019 and 2021, reflecting the difficult situation facing the sector. Only 39 of the 117 economies included in the index experienced growth of more than 1%, while 27 experienced declines of more than 1%. Nine of the top 10 scoring countries are high-income economies in Europe or Asia-Pacific. Japan tops the ranking, with the United States in second, followed by Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, the United Kingdom and Singapore. Italy completes the top 10, moving up from 12th in 2019.
With a score increase of 4.7 percent, Viet Nam moved up to 52nd on the overall index, the highest improvement. Indonesia achieved the greatest improvement in rank, increasing its score by 3.4% to climb from 44th to 32nd, while Saudi Arabia achieved the second greatest improvement in rank, moving up to 33rd from 43rd as its score rose by 2.3%.
