A COVID-19 Technical Assistance Package by UNWTO

Sunday 17th of May 2020

A COVID-19 Technical Assistance Package by UNWTO

UNWTO has designed “COVID-19 Tourism Recovery Technical Assistance Package” in order to assist Member States in developing this gradual approach to recovery.

The package offers guidance to both public and private tourism sector stakeholders in their crisis response by, firstly, outlining UNWTO’s range of technical assistance, and, secondly, detailing potential areas of intervention, including impact assessment, roles and responsibilities. The UNWTO COVID-19 Tourism Recovery Technical Assistance Package is structured around three main pillars: Economic recovery, marketing and promotion and institutional strengthening and resilience building.

UNWTO Secretary-General, Zurab Pololikashvili : We must support the tourism sector now with real actions while we prepare for it to come back and be stronger and more sustainable. Recovery plans and programmes for tourism will translate into jobs and economic growth, not just within tourism itself but across the whole of societies.

According to UNWTO, depending on when restrictions on travel are lifted, international tourist arrivals could decline by 60-80% in 2020. This could translate into a decline in export revenues from tourism of between US$910 billion to US$1.2 trillion and place 100-120 million jobs directly at risk. The social ripple effect is also feared to be at least equally challenging for many societies.