The global tourism industry is slowly resuming as a growing number of destinations begin to ease Covid-19 related travel restrictions and adapt to the new reality. According to the latest analysis from the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), 40 pc of all destinations worldwide have now eased the restrictions they placed on international tourism in response to Covid-19. This latest outlook, recorded on July 19, is up from 22 pc of destinations that had eased restrictions on travel by June 15 and the 3 pc previously observed by May 15.

At the same time, however, of the 87 destinations that have now eased travel restrictions, just four have completely lifted all restrictions, while 83 have eased them while keeping some measures such as the partial closure of borders in place. The UNWTO Travel Restrictions Report say that 115 destinations (53 pc of all destinations worldwide) continue to keep their borders completely closed for tourism.

According to the report, destinations with a higher dependency on tourism are more likely to ease restrictions on travel first. Of the 87 destinations that have eased restrictions recently, 20 are Small Island Developing States (SIDS), many of which depend on tourism as the central pillar of employment, economic growth and development. The report also shows that around half (41) of all those destinations that have eased restrictions are in Europe. On the other hand, as many as 88 countries kept their borders completely closed to international tourism for over 12 weeks. The report says that the financial impact of the pandemic on tourism, both in terms of lost tourist arrivals and lost revenues, was already at USD 320 billion at the end of May, thrice as much as the impact of 2008 global financial meltdown.