The travel and tourism industry needs to be able to get moving again

The number of jobs the sector provides, as well as the transfer of wealth from country to country, is important, writes Hamish McRae. But there is also the environmental impact to consider

Tourism is important to nations such as Greece – including islands like Corfu (iStock)

The travel and tourist business is the world’s biggest industry and it has taken one of the hardest hits during the Covid-19 pandemic. So we need to get people moving again.

The world economy as a whole is probably back to its previous peak output. We don’t have numbers yet, but several forecasters, including Deloitte, think that the US will be there by the end of the second quarter, which means this week. China we know is well up on last year, and while Europe, the UK and Japan are still down, the US recovery should mean that world as a whole is square. But some parts are not, and the travel and tourist industry is the biggest loser. This is an economic disaster, but it is also a social one.

Before the pandemic struck travel and tourism accounted for 10.4 per cent of global GDP (for the UK it was slightly higher at 10.9 per cent, for the US a bit smaller at 7.8 per cent). But last year the industry halved to 5.5 per cent of GDP, roughly the same as the overall contraction in the world economy.