Germany's GDP Drops By €161 Billion Due to Restrictions Imposed on Travel and Tourism Sector, Research Reveals
Germany’s travel and tourism sector has suffered a loss of €161 billion during 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has found research conducted by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and presented through the Council’s annual Economic Impact Report (EIR) held on April 8.
WTTC, which represents the global travel and tourism sector, announced that the annual EIR has shown that the contribution of the industry to the country’s GDP has dropped by 46.9 percent.
More specifically, the sector’s impact on the German GDP fell from €344 billion or 9.8 percent recorded in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic struck to €183 billion or 5.5 percent only one year after, in 2020, AtoZSerwisPlus.de reports.
Nonetheless, WTTC explained that the situation could have worsened if the government’s job-saving Kurzarbeit, a scheme that offered short-term work allowance to workers and businesses, would not have been put into action. The introduction of this scheme helped conceal the actual amount of losses and the devastating social impact that could have resulted.
“Our research shows that if mobility and international travel resumes by June this year, the sector’s contribution to the nation’s GDP, could reach the same levels of 2019 by 2022,” President and CEO of WTTC Gloria Guevara said.
Over 440,000 People Lost Their Travel & Tourism Jobs Across Germany
The job losses were felt through the entire country’s travel and tourism industry, especially by small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for eight out of ten of the businesses that were highly affected in the sector.
WTTC pointed out that with the industry being one of the most diverse sectors in the world, it had a huge impact on women, youth, as well as on minorities. The number of people employed in the travel and tourism sector dropped from 5.87 million registered in 2019 to 5.43 million in 2020. Therefore, representing a drop of around 7.5 percent.
Furthermore, the EIR research revealed that domestic visitor spending fell by 47.3 percent. Meanwhile, international spending turned out even worse, registering a fall of 57.9 percent due to the more stringent travel restrictions against international travelers.
“The loss of more than 440,000 Travel & Tourism jobs across Germany has had a devastating socio-economic impact, leaving huge numbers of people fearing for their future. However, the situation could have been far worse if it were not for the government’s prompt action, reintroducing its incredible Kurzarbeit scheme to save millions of jobs under threat and helped to halt the total collapse of the Travel & Tourism sector,” Gloria Guevara added.
Commenting on the situation prevailing in Germany, Guevara asserted that there is room for optimism as Germany is distributing vaccines at a safe pace, and the family doctors are now administering jabs to the public.
WTTC claims that the key to having safe international travel could only be reached by utilizing a clear and science-oriented framework to revitalize international travel and tourism.
As for the non-vaccinated travelers, WTTC suggests that they must undergo an extensive testing regime before departure, as well as increased health and hygiene measures, including mandatory mask-wearing.
Previously, WTTC announced that the global travel and tourism sector lost around €3,8 trillion in 2020 due to the travel restrictions imposed to halt the further spread of the Coronavirus.
