TOURISM RECOVERY TRACKED BY UN's NEW APP

 Cyprus Mail 25 September 2020 - by Andrew Rosenbaum

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), an agency for researching, monitoring and analysing the tourist trade around the world, has launched an app which tracks critical data about the industry, COVID-19’s effect on it, and how it is recovering.

Available for free, UNWTO Tourism Recovery Tracker compiles all the relevant data in one place, giving governments and the private businesses the ability to track the recovery of  tourism at global and regional level, alongside information on the top destinations for international tourism, according to the agency’s website.

Just click on the type of tourism data you require, select the region you’re interested in, and the tracker provides the answers to your questions in a couple of clicks.

The user can select exactly whatever data is needed. The tracker covers key tourism performance indicators by month, regions and sub-regions allowing for a real time comparison of the sector recovery across the world and industries.

The tracker includes national and regional data on:

• Covid 19 cases
• international tourist arrivals
• seat capacity in international and domestic air routes,
• air travel bookings,
• hotel searches and bookings,
• occupancy rates and
• demand for short term rentals

The tracker is a collaborative effort by a group of partners including the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), ForwardKeys, STR, Sojern and AIRDNA.

According to UNWTO latest World Tourism Barometer, the massive drop in international travel demand over the period January-June 2020 translates into a loss of 440 million international arrivals and about US$ 460 billion in export revenues from international tourism. This is around five times the loss in international tourism receipts recorded in 2009 amid the global economic and financial crisis.

The tracker was announced in the context of the 112th session of the UNWTO Executive Council to operate unitedly for the effective recovery of the global tourism sector from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.