(Madrid) After two years disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, world tourism recovered last year, according to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), which expects further growth in 2023 thanks to the lifting of health restrictions in China.
According to the UN agency, more than 900 million international tourist arrivals were recorded last year worldwide. This figure is “double” that of 2021 (nearly 450 million), the Madrid-based organization said in a statement.
However, this level is still very far from that of the pre-pandemic period: in 2019, the year preceding the COVID-19 crisis, the number of international tourist arrivals had indeed reached 1.46 billion, a record according to the agency.
For the tourism sector, heavily penalized by the health crisis, the recovery is nevertheless notable. “All regions of the world” have been affected by this improvement, underlines the UNWTO, which however reports notable differences in the pace of recovery from one region to another.
In Asia and the Pacific, tourist arrivals have thus peaked at 23% of their pre-COVID-19 level, due according to the UN agency to the “maintenance of stricter measures” vis-à-vis COVID-19, especially in China.
The number of foreign visitors, on the other hand, reached 83% of its 2019 level in the Middle East and 80% in Europe – with a total of 585 million visitors for the latter region.
A sign of this regained good health: in Spain, the second largest destination in the world before COVID-19, tourist activity even exceeded its pre-pandemic level in 2022, according to the employers’ federation of the Exceltur sector.
According to this organization, the Spanish tourism GDP reached a total of 159 billion euros, 1.4% more than in 2019. This figure was reached thanks to a “superb summer”, especially on the front of the domestic tourism, she assured.
Reasons for optimism
According to the UNWTO, this dynamic should continue and even accelerate in 2013, in particular thanks to the lifting of health restrictions in China, which decided to lift the mandatory quarantine for travelers from abroad on January 8, ending the country’s three-year isolation.
There are “reasons for optimism for world tourism”, underlines in a press release the secretary general of the agency Zurab Pololikashvili, for whom the strong appetite for “regional trips” should allow a “generalized recovery of the sector”.
According to the UNWTO, international tourist arrivals should thus reach “between 80% and 95% of their pre-pandemic level” in 2023 – a figure which will however depend on the “rhythm of recovery in Asia” and “the evolution of the war in Ukraine “.
“In Europe and the Middle East”, it is even “possible” that they will return to their pre-COVID-19 level, specifies the agency in its press release.
China was before the pandemic the largest source market for tourists in the world: in 2019, 154 million Chinese went on vacation abroad, according to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
The Chinese were also the biggest spenders, with $255 billion spent in 2019, or 17% of total tourism spending internationally.
For the UNWTO, the return of Chinese tourists should primarily benefit Asian countries. Its extent will depend on “the availability and cost of travel”, but also on the “restrictions” imposed on Chinese travelers in several countries, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in this country.
Due to the economic context, marked by high inflation linked to the war in Ukraine, the UN agency also says it expects to see travelers monitor their budget more closely.
This could lead them to opt for “shorter journeys” or “less distant destinations”, concludes the UNWTO.