Covid crunch for top tourism countries

LONDON, 11 January 2021: Recording the most Covid-19 cases, the USA suffered the biggest drop in tourism revenue with a loss of USD147,245 million, but the other top five losers — Spain (2) France (3) Thailand (4) and Germany (5) — also reported dramatic financial declines at the hand of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Official-esta.com, an online visa application and assistance processing firm, identified countries that suffered the biggest revenue loss, alongside the highest percentage of GDP lost to reveal the financial impact of Covid-19 on tourism in 2020.

Spain suffered the second-largest revenue loss of USD46,707 million, followed by France with a revenue loss of USD42,036 million. Thailand suffered a USD37,504 million loss and Germany USD34,641 million.

In 2019, global travel and tourism contributed USD8.9 trillion to the world’s GDP, but due to the pandemic, the financial impact of Covid-19 on world tourism resulted in a revenue loss of USD935 billion worldwide in the first 10 months of 2020.

The countries with the biggest tourism revenue loss due to COVID-19:

Official ESTA director of International Development Jayne Forrester comments: “Even as we move into 2021, travel is still hugely unpredictable, with very little certainty on when we may be able to freely travel again, whether for work or leisure purposes. Countries around the world that rely on the tourism industry for their economy and jobs are seeing huge losses in revenue and GDP, and it is devastating to see a total loss of around USD935 billion in the first ten months of 2020.

“As we move into a new phase of the pandemic, with vaccine rollouts now getting underway around the world, we can only hope that we can regain some control over the pandemic and ensure that it is safe enough for us to travel once more in order to prevent further losses to one of the largest industries in the world.”

Official ESTA is a world-leading online visa application and assistance processing firm. Founded in 2011, Official ESTA understands the confusion, frustration and time associated with the visa application process and delivers a fast, friendly, expert visa advice and assistance. Official ESTA offers a simple step by step process for people to apply for their ESTA visa waiver that is required by anyone visiting the United States, either by sea or air for tourism, business or transit travel of fewer than 90 days and are a trusted third-party provider.