Photo: ©rfranca/123rf

According to United Nation’s World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) International tourism continued its recovery this January with a much better performance compared to the weak start to 2021.

However, the Ukrainian war is adding pressure to existing economic uncertainties, coupled with Covid travel curbs still in place, the organization informed.

Based on the latest available UNWTO data, global international tourist arrivals more than doubled (+130%) in January compared to 2021 – the 18 million more visitors recorded worldwide in the first month of this year equals the total increase for the whole of 2021.

While these figures confirm the positive trend already underway last year, the pace of recovery in January was impacted by the emergences of the Omicron variant and the re-introduction of travel restrictions in several destinations, it stated.

Following the 71% decline of 2021, international arrivals in January 2022 remained 67% below pre-pandemic levels.

All regions enjoyed a significant rebound in January 2022, though from low levels recorded at the start of 2021. Europe (+199%) and the Americas (+97%) continued to post the strongest results, with international arrivals still around half pre-pandemic levels (-53% and -52%, respectively), stated the UNWTO report.

the Caribbean (-38%) and Southern and Mediterranean Europe (-41%) have shown the fastest rates of recovery towards 2019 levels.

TradeArabia News Service