by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 12:45 AM ET, Tue November 5, 2019
The increasingly complex global landscape is giving rise to new potential risks and intensifying stakes for the travel and tourism industry.
A new report from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) says the economic impact of natural disasters has increased at a cost of $335 billion in 2017. At the same time, the reach of epidemics has risen, draining about $570 billion from the global economy.
"Natural disasters have dramatically increased in both frequency and magnitude, with the number of disasters quadrupling between 1970 and 2016," states the report, which goes on to note that epidemics and outbreaks have become the new normal; with outbreaks such as H1N1 estimated to have had a global economic impact between $45-$55 billion.
The good news is that according to the new research from WTTC, is that travel and tourism are bouncing back from catastrophic events in less than half the time it did in 2001.
As part of its new research, WTTC analyzed the impact at the national and city level of 90 crises between 2001 and 2018; specifically studying the time to recovery, the lost arrivals as well as the lost visitor spending.
While the organization found measurable impact occurred in 92 percent of case studies, the new data also suggests that recovery duration has fallen significantly between 2001 and 2018 - from a typical 26 months to 10 months.
Given that the industry contributes 10.4 percent of global GDP, supports one in ten jobs on the planet and has experienced a 5,500 percent growth in international arrivals between 1950 and 2018, the travel and tourism sector has a vested interest in securing travel and minimizing the impact of such events.
The report also notes that the perceived level of safety and security is a key decision-making factor for travelers when they are selecting destinations.
"With low-probability-high impact events causing travelers the most apprehension. Still, the vast majority of incidents involving travelers are high- probability low impact, such as petty theft and minor illnesses," states the report. "Emerging risks such as digital security and resource scarcity will likely become increasingly important for the sector in the coming years."
The WTTC report also points out that terrorism could be an issue many international travelers consider regardless of their destination, despite the fact that the odds of becoming victim are minuscule.
Also, noteworthy, travelers are also seemingly becoming more resilient, states the report, with terrorist attacks having the shortest recovery time at 11.5 months on average, with a range of two to 42 months.
Our data shows that political instability or civil unrest is far more damaging to a country's travel and tourism sector than one-off terror attacks, says the report.
Political instability and civil unrest cases had the longest recovery time on average at 22.2 months, with recovery ranging from 10 months to 44.9 months.
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