Only five countries out of 217 destinations worldwide are fully open to foreigners, as they lifted all coronavirus-related travel restrictions, the latest report by the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) said on Monday.
The countries are Albania, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, North Macedonia, and Tanzania.
“All COVID-19 travel restrictions lifted … (in) 5 destinations (this amount to 2 per cent of all destinations worldwide), the report said.
It added that 32 per cent of all destinations, or 69 in total, remain closed for international tourism due to the coronavirus, with around just over half of them, 38 destinations, being shut for at least 40 weeks.
Meanwhile, partial closure of borders is being applied by 73 countries, or 34 per cent of all destinations.
“At present, the persistent serious epidemiological situation and in particular the emergence of different SARSCoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) have reversed the trend.
“And this had resulted in the tightening of travel restrictions, mostly directed at destinations in which these VOCs have been verified,” the report added.
Last year, the number of international tourist trips decreased by 74 per cent — some 1 billion trips — over the onset of the coronavirus pandemic compared to the previous year.
The crisis has threatened between 100 million and 120 million jobs in the industry