As the year begins, we would therefore like to show you what the outlook is for the sector heading into 2023. Although the coronavirus pandemic that broke out in early 2020 had a significant impact on the global economy, the fact remains that tourism continues to be one of the fastest-growing sectors internationally, despite the decline in visitor numbers caused by the restrictions put in place to maintain biosecurity measures.
As was the case last year and this year, tourism recovery rates are expected to continue rising exponentially in almost every country in the world throughout 2023, as in less than six months the number of travellers has risen by nearly 180 per cent, reaching a total of approximately 177 million people.
The tourism boom is driven by a variety of factors
It is important to note that most experts from the World Tourism Organisation assert that the number of tourists globally could match or even exceed the figures recorded in the years prior to the pandemic, due to growing public demand.
Furthermore, there are numerous factors – including the emergence of a wide range of accommodation services and the recovery of the transport sector at all levels – which have rapidly accelerated the pace of tourism recovery across almost the entire globe since the beginning of 2021.
It is worth noting that both Europe and the Americas have been the two continents that have seen the greatest increase in the recovery of tourism services, as well as in the number of tourists, reaching 54 per cent and 56 per cent of the levels recorded in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
For their part, Asia, Oceania and Africa have recorded figures of around 40 per cent of pre-pandemic visitor numbers in 2022 at the most popular destinations; as a result, the main organisations have turned their attention to developing new tourism infrastructure to meet the demand.