Control Risks published an article on how the health crisis is destroying the tourism industry in parts of the Middle East. The UN’s World Tourism Authority estimates that global tourist activity will decrease by up to 40% in 2020 and will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2022 at the earliest. In the MENA region, this will be felt hard in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Jordan. 2019 saw the highest revenues and visitor numbers in almost a decade: 13.6m people visited Egypt in 2019 – up from 5.3m in 2016 and close to the pre-uprising 14.7m visitors recorded in 2010. Numbers were expected to reach 15m this year. With tourism accounting for up to 12% of Egypt’s GDP and with an estimated one in nine jobs depending directly or indirectly on tourism, IFPRI estimates that the absence of tourists may be costing the country USD 1.5bn per month in lost GDP.
