WTO Says Iran’s tourist arrivals have witnessed a decline of 72% in eight months of 2020.
Following restrictions on travel as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic dropped the number that was reaching so high in the first months of 2020. From 90 and 94 per cent, suddenly Iran’s tourism and tourist arrivals had a free fall of 84 per cent.
Now if Iran’s tourist arrivals were a person, would it survive a free fall that high with no strings attached?
Indeed, these drops are internationally mutual. When 2021 started, the vaccination seemed closer than ever, so despite such large declines, some destinations started to reopen to international tourism, mostly in the European Union.
Asia and the Pacific were the first regions to suffer directly from the pandemic and saw a 79% decrease in incoming tourism and tourist arrivals in January-August 2020, while Europe saw a 68% decline.
Iran’s Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts asserted that the outbreak of coronavirus has caused 120 trillion Rials ($445 million) in losses to the tourism industry in Iran due to the decline in tourist arrivals.
Just imagine this: only 74 foreign tourists visited Iran during the first quarter of the current Iranian new year (March 20-June 20). Let’s compare it with last year which Iran saw 2.3 million foreign visitors.
The representative of the Iranian Hoteliers Association, Jamshid Hamzezadeh, mentioned that 240,000 people are directly and 550,000 are indirectly employed in the Iranian tourism industry and last year was a bumpy ride for the tourism industry and the tourists as well. Catastrophes like the spring flooding, November protests, and Ukraine International Airlines’ heartbreaking plane crash. The outbreak of the coronavirus may be the last straw for the industry not only in Iran but in the whole world.
If the pandemic continues, the World Travel and Tourism Council says that the trade group representing major global travel companies and projects globally shall lose of 75 million jobs and $2.1 trillion in revenue.