UNWTO briefing note : Tourism and COVID-19. Issue 2, Tourism in SIDS: the challenge of sustaining livelihoods in times of COVID-19.
Tourism is a socio-economic pillar of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and the COVID-19 crisis risks devastating their economies. Tourism accounts for over 30% of total exports in the majority of SIDS, reaching as much as 80% in some. International tourist arrivals declined by 47% in SIDS durin...
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| Format: | Ebook |
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Madrid :
World Tourism Organization,
2020.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | UNWTO eLibrary |
| Summary: | Tourism is a socio-economic pillar of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and the COVID-19 crisis risks devastating their economies. Tourism accounts for over 30% of total exports in the majority of SIDS, reaching as much as 80% in some. International tourist arrivals declined by 47% in SIDS during January–April 2020 and the road to recovery is set to be long. Such a major shock translates into a massive loss of jobs, a sharp decline in foreign exchange and tax revenues which curbs public spending capacity and ability to deploy the measures necessary to support livelihoods through the crisis. Women, who account for half of the workforce in almost all SIDS, and informal workers are particularly at risk.Many SIDS have deployed measures to sustain businesses and jobs, often supported by international and regional institutions yet more support is urgent. The external debt of the SIDS accounts for 72.4% of GDP on average and foreign reserves are generally low, with many SIDS possessing only the reserves sufficient for a few months of imports, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs estimates that SIDS economies could shrink by 4.7% in 2020 as compared to 3% for the world economy. SIDS require thus an extraordinary international programme to counter the devastating impact of COVID-19 on tourism, their economies and livelihoods. |
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| Item Description: | "June 2020"-Cover. "UNTWO World Tourism Organization COVID-19 response"-Cover. |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (28 pages) : illustrations |