INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM, TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY LAW For more than half a century, international tourism has been in a continuous and significant development, becoming one of the most important sectors of the world economy before the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019 the tourism industry contributed with more than 10% of the global GDP and was responsible for 333 million jobs. Meanwhile, international visitor spending amounted to US$ 1.8 trillion in 2019 (6.8% of total exports). If for all sectors of the national economies and the global economy, the Covid-19 pandemic meant a period of regression, for the tourism industry this regression was a dramatic one. In 2020, tourism’s contribution to global GDP saw a decline of almost 50%, dropping to a contribution of only 5.5% of the previous year’s global economy. This dramatic decrease, much more pronounced compared to other sectors of the economy, is explained by the specifics of the tourism industry, which is directly dependent on travel. If other economic sectors were able to adapt to a lesser or greater extent to the new conditions (see work from home), for tourism, the blockades, conditions and travel bans of the period 2020-2021 had the effect of a real “guillotine”. The solutions found worldwide to solve the problems caused by the Sars- -Cov2 virus have made the start of the 2022 tourist season mark an exponential increase in demand for tourism travel. However, the previous two years of restrictions, reductions in activity, layoffs, had the effect of a relative impossibility for the tourism industry to immediately/instantly return to the levels of activity prior to the pandemic period. We have in mind the layoffs of personnel who served the tourism and passenger transport sectors: airlines, airports, service providers for passenger transport, etc. Even though the outbreak of the war in Ukraine risks delaying the recovery of the tourism industry by 12-24 months due to factors such as persistent inflation, high energy prices and airport/airline labor shortages, according to preliminary data, the year 2022 meant a “renaissance’ of the tourism sector: international travel increased by 182% in the first three months of 2022 compared to the same period last year. According to the same UNWTO data, the first quarter of 2022 saw more than four times more foreign arrivals (+280%) in Europe than in the first quarter of 2021.1 1 See UNWTO Report titled “Rethinking Tourism: From Crisis to Transformation”, reflecting the relevance and importance of tourism as well as the unprecedented crisis that hit the sector in 2020. Web address: https:// webunwto.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-09/from-crisis-to-transformation-WTD2022.pdf?Versi onId=E2562wREejLJYZbb5IkplKFufBA9URdC.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==