The COVID-19 pandemic has hit hard investments in the tourism sector. Announced foreign investment in the tourism sector fell from $48.5bn in 2019 to $12.6bn in 2020 according to fDi intelligence from the Financial Times. This represents foreign direct investment (FDI) into tourism plummeted by 73.2% in the first half of 2020 compared with the same period of 2019. The drop in the tourism sector is among the highest, especially when comparing with the Global FDI that collapsed by 42% in 2020 according to UNCTAD. As a result, the sector has lost around $910bn to $1.2trn in export revenues in 2020 compared with 2019 which suggests around 100–120 million direct tourism jobs at risk as the global FDI remains weak in 2021, experiencing a further decline of 5–10%.
In this context, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has prioritized Investments as one of our key areas as we move forward towards the economic recovery. We believe that sustainable investments and its cross-sectorial impact has a multiplier power to strengthen strategic large regional projects, but also the promotion of investments that stimulates entrepreneurship and innovation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which along with tech startups are an important driver of innovation and jobs creation.
For this purpose, we joined forces with the fDi Intelligence from the Financial Times one of our key collaborators to provide you practical digital tools to improve your competitiveness in regards the attraction and promotion of foreign direct investment (FDI) to your region and country as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Purpose Webinar
This webinar series will focus on “Tourism Investments Trends and Challenges post COVID-19” with the purpose to provide a relevant data insights and practical strategies concerned with the use of digital platforms to attract and promote investments for a faster recovery of the tourism sector.
Audience
The UNWTO webinars will invite government officials related with attraction and promotion of investments, IPA managers, traditional, non-traditional investors with a forward-looking vision to attract more FDI for tourism development.
