Vaccination and certificates have helped tourism recover

Covid vaccination and the introduction of certificates have helped tourism recover from the new coronavirus pandemic. This was shown this week by a report from the World Tourism Organization based in Madrid. According to the UN barometer, the number of foreign tourists worldwide increased by 58% between July and September 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. On the other hand, it was still 64% lower than in the same period of 2019, which was the last year before the outbreak of the pandemic. In the observed period, 53% fewer tourists visited Europe than in the summer of 2019. Advances in vaccination this year and the introduction of certificates, so-called covid passports, have allowed the European Union to loosen restrictions on entry to many destinations in the third quarter of 2021, the report said. "In the EU, the Digital Covid certificate has helped to facilitate free movement within the bloc and, after many months of limited travel, has unleashed high containment demand." The report also states that in the nine months to the end of September 2021, the total number of tourists in the world was 76% lower than before the pandemic, with different results in different regions. In the EU, the number of arrivals in the first nine months of 2021 decreased by 8% year-on-year and decreased by 69% compared to 2019. North and South America recorded the strongest results in the nine months to the end of September, as the number of arrivals increased by 1% compared to 2020, although it was still 65% below the 2019 level. Within the sub-regions, the Caribbean achieved the best results, where the number of arrivals in the period January-September 2021 increased by 55% year-on-year and compared to 2019 decreased "only" by 38%. The reasons for the uneven recovery of the regions were the varying degrees of restrictions on mobility, vaccinations and travelers' confidence, the report added.