Franceschini: OECD data on tourism makes your wrists shake. Let no country be left alone

TheOECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) forecasts on tourism for 2020 are very bleak: in fact, the organization predicts a 45 percent decrease in international tourism for this year, but with a range that, depending on the developments the coronavirus crisis takes, could widen to 70 percent.

These forecasts are also shared by other important international stakeholders: for example, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), one of the most important international industry forums, today issued a note where it estimates a loss of one hundred million jobs worldwide, 75 of them in G20 countries (and 13 in Europe). As for economic losses, the WTTC estimates a loss of $2.7 billion (-708 million for Europe) of global GDP. These, moreover, are strongly worsening forecasts: a month ago, the estimate was 75 million fewer jobs and -2.1 billion on global GDP. WTTC has therefore alerted the G20 tourism ministers because, points out Gloria Guevara, WTTC president, “the pandemic is wiping out the entire tourism cycle.” The extent of the crisis is such that “support and protection for the sector” is needed immediately, Guevara said.

In Italy, it is Minister Dario Franceschini who has expressed concern. “In Italy,” the minister of cultural heritage and tourism said today, “tourism is a strategic sector of the economy that contributes 13 percent of GDP and accounts for about 15 percent of employment. Our businesses are largely medium- and small-sized so it is essential that any choice that will be made, including at the international level, will see the involvement of all categories of the sector. The OECD data on the effects of the pandemic make the veins in the wrists shake no country must be left alone, we need extraordinary interventions to support national policies.” An appeal to other G20 ministers to put in place policies to support the sector has therefore also gone out from Franceschini.

Franceschini: OECD data on tourism makes your wrists shake. Let no country be left alone

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