According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the European travel ban imposed by the United States will cause a loss of an estimated 850 thousand visitors over the next month as of March 12, 2020. During this time visitors from Europe (excluding the UK and Ireland) were predicted to spend a total of 3.4 billion U.S. dollars, which will no longer be the case.
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In 2022, the travel and tourism industry in India contributed around 190 billion U.S. dollars to the country’s GDP. In 2022, the country welcomed over six million foreign tourists , generating foreign exchange earnings of over 16.93 billion U.S. dollars.

Domestic travel on the rise

With a rich culture, ancient monuments, and mesmerizing natural beauty, India is one of the leading tourist destinations in the world. This holds true not only for foreign tourists, but also for the increasingly monied middle-class of the country who are spending more time and money than ever before on domestic travel. In 2021, the domestic expenditure on tourism was around 150 billion U.S. dollars. The collective government spending on the tourism sector is expected to reach 5.65 billion dollars by 2028.

The cost of tourism

It comes as no surprise that out of the most visited monuments in India, the Taj Mahal in Agra ranks number one for both foreign as well as domestic tourists. Along with these popular tourist destinations, travellers are also exploring many other destinations in the country, like the pristine high-altitude plains of Leh and Ladakh or the lush green north-eastern forests. It now remains to be seen whether and how well the country manages to balance the influx of people with its efforts for the historical sites and natural resources conservation.

Travel and tourism contributed approximately four percent to Zimbabwe's GDP in 2021. Compared to 2020, the contribution of tourism to the economy of Zimbabwe experienced a slight increase. This was due to the closure of the travel sector for five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Looking at the domestic and international spending in the travel sector, the total expenditure decreased from nearly one billion U.S. dollars in 2019 to 880 million U.S. dollars in 2021.

Employment in the tourism industry

A total shutdown of the tourism sector for nearly half a year had a severe impact on the employment within the industry and led to the loss of many jobs. In 2020, there were approximately 147 thousand jobs in the travel and tourism sector of Zimbabwe, which is a decrease of about 18 percent compared to 2019. However, despite this significant decline, the industry held roughly 2.5 percent of the total employment in the country.

Most tourists came from Africa

 The most common origin of tourists that visited Zimbabwe in 2021 came from the African continent. 16 percent of the visitors came from Malawi , whereas Namibia and Zambia had a share of 15 percent of the total international tourists each. Mozambique and the United States completed the ranking with 12 percent and five percent, respectively.