COVID-19 had an unprecedented impact on tourism revenues

The impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on travel has been catastrophic. From 2019 to 2020 international tourism receipts in Europe dropped from 429 billion euros to just 159 billion. The sheer size of this drop is further emphasized by the comparatively insignificant change in receipts over the SARS epidemic in 2003 or the sector-wide slowdown triggered by the Global Financial crisis in 2008-2009 period.