{"id":68853,"date":"2022-11-24T17:37:32","date_gmt":"2022-11-24T17:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africannewspaper.net\/2022\/11\/24\/unwto-executive-council-meets-in-marrakech-post-covid-19-challenges-soaring-energy-prices-top-agenda-the-north-africa-post\/"},"modified":"2022-11-24T17:37:40","modified_gmt":"2022-11-24T17:37:40","slug":"unwto-executive-council-meets-in-marrakech-post-covid-19-challenges-soaring-energy-prices-top-agenda-the-north-africa-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africannewspaper.net\/2022\/11\/24\/unwto-executive-council-meets-in-marrakech-post-covid-19-challenges-soaring-energy-prices-top-agenda-the-north-africa-post\/","title":{"rendered":"UNWTO Executive Council meets in Marrakech, post Covid-19 challenges & soaring energy prices top agenda \u2013 The North Africa Post"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The Executive Council of the World Tourism Organization opened Wednesday in Marrakesh to discuss the post-covid19 challenges facing tourism amid high inflation, soaring energy costs, and an aggravated Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has triggered a global crisis in energy.<\/p>\n
Over 250 representatives of UNWTO member countries, including tourism ministers, public or private investors, travel agents, hotel & travel industry professional\u2026 are gathering in Marrakesh to exchange ideas and coordinate strategies to support the resilience of tourism sector around the world.<\/p>\n
The agenda includes the election of the Chair and two vice-chairs of the Executive council, the organization\u2019s budget & future action plan as well as the proposal of increasing the financial contribution of member countries.<\/p>\n
Participants will also look into the proposal to set up a task force on \u201cRedesigning Tourism for the Future\u201d and the establishment of UNWTO Regional and Thematic Offices.<\/p>\n
Moroccan tourism minister Fatim-Zahra Ammor said the event is an opportunity to showcase Morocco\u2019s huge tourism potentials, promote inbound tourism through a diverse competitive package offering the best of the country to the world as there is pent-up demand for travel.<\/p>\n
The latest World Tourism Barometer shows that international tourism is on track for reaching 65% of pre-pandemic levels before 2022, as the sector continues to rebound from the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Between January and September 2018, an estimated 700 million tourists traveled abroad, which is more than double (+133%) what was recorded in the same time frame in 2021. This is 63% of 2019 levels. It puts the sector on track to reach 65% of pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to UNWTO scenarios. The strong pent up demand, higher confidence levels and lifting of restrictions in increasing number of destinations boosted the sector’s results.<\/p>\n
Europe continues to lead international tourism’s recovery. In January-September 2022, the region hosted 477 million international visitors (68% of the total world), and reached 81% of pre-pandemic levels. This was more that twice the number of 2021 (+126%). The strong intra-regional demand as well as travel from the United States boosted these numbers. Europe had a particularly strong performance in Q3, with arrivals exceeding 90% of 2019 levels.<\/p>\n
The Middle East also saw an increase in international arrivals of more than three times (+225%) from January to September 2022. This equated to 77% of pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n
Some destinations also saw significant increases in international tourist receipts in the first seven- to nine months of 2022.<\/p>\n
However, the Russia\/Ukraine war and the increase in energy prices could hinder recovery in the fourth quarter of 2022 and beyond. Despite increasing challenges, tourism export revenues could reach $1.2 trillion to 1.3 trillion by 2022. This is a 60-70% increase over 2021 or 70-80% of 2019’s $1.8 trillion.<\/p>\n
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