COVID-19: More than $6 bln in potential losses for Southeast Asia tourism, direct impact on UAE ‘high' - analyst
Apart from the human toll, the December 2019 COVID-19 outbreak in China has led to a significant decline in the travel and tourism sector, with the first impact felt as a result of the plunge in outbound Chinese travelers.
China accounted for about 12% (159 million) of global outbound travelers in 2019, consulting firm GlobalData said in a report last week. As of February 9, outbound flights from China for March and April were only 55.9% of what they were at the same time in 2019, according to travel analytics firm ForwardKeys.
Reflecting on the financial impact of a sharp drop in Chinese arrivals, Animesh Kumar, GlobalData’s Director of Travel & Tourism Consulting, pointed out to Salaam Gateway that the Southeast Asian countries will suffer the most.
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