ITB Berlin NOW and Statista Look Back on 2020, a Turbulent Year in Travel: Despite a Massive Decline

Statista projects a 55% loss of turnover in the tourism industry for 2020. According to UNWTO figures, between 1950 and 2019 annual international arrivals increased from 25 million to almost 1.5 billion, by a total of 5,744%. By contrast, in October 2020, year-on-year international tourism arrivals fell by 72%. This also impacted the German travel industry, which according to Norbert Fiebig, president of the German Travel Association (DRV), registered a 28 billion euro decline (80%) in turnover in 2020. According to a November 2020 survey by the DIHK, 94% of companies in the German travel sector expected a turnover decline in 2020. No other industry has registered such high losses, and as a result the tourism industry has been particularly hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic.