Travel

• [New] The global economy could strongly rebound in the second half of 2021 but sectors such as travel, tourism, leisure, and hospitality could take years to reach pre-virus levels.
• [New] Despite the COVID-19 vaccines and testing procedures rolling out worldwide, the recovery of demand for air travel would take several years and would not reach the pre-crisis levels before 2024.
• [New] Trade group the International Air Transport Association only forecasts a 2021 recovery in air travel to about half of 2019 levels.
• [New] Asian refining margins for jet fuel inched higher on Monday, but reimposed travel restrictions in several countries to slow the spread of a highly-infectious coronavirus variant is expected to dent passenger demand recovery.
• [New] Vaccines should prevail and by mid-2021 there will be fewer travel restrictions, rising global demand for maritime transportation and need for ship handling services.
• [New] In the United States, there has been a similarly lukewarm return to air travel, with the industry now not expecting a return to pre-COVID levels before around 2024.
• [New] The Tourism and Transport Forum estimates the overall economic impact of cancelled travel to and from NSW due to the latest border closures will amount to a loss of $2.97 billion.
• [New] Hanoi is expected to welcome 13.16-19.04 million tourists in 2021, up 45-65.5 percent as compared with the previous year.
• [New] The International Air Transport Association, the lobby group of the world's airlines, said it would launch a digital health travel pass early 2021 that will include passengers' COVID-19 vaccination data.
• [New] China appears likely to run a larger external surplus in 2021 relative to the previous year, even though global demand remains weak.
• [New] The economic output of the world's service sector will dive a record 15.4% in 2020 to a level not seen in more than 20 years, UNCTAD said, due in large part to the loss of tourism, travel, and restaurant dining.
• [New] In what will be seen as the most economical idea, Victoria Falls' city status could explain the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO)' s Tourism Towards 2030.
• Dubai expects to cut its budget to $15.5bn in 2021 after its economy was affected by a plunge in tourism and other sectors amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
• Given the inherent danger of rocket powered space travel, the Starship system will complete many, possibly hundreds of flights before flying passengers, with the first Earth to Earth test flights beginning as early as 2022.
• The precautionary and preventive measures adopted to contain the Covid-19 pandemic in Dubai, along with travel restrictions around the world, had a severe impact on hotels and restaurants, which are expected to see a contraction of -20% in 2020.
• Alibaba expects imported goods to be a big hit with Chinese shopping in 2020 because travel restrictions mean fewer trips abroad.
• In Sri Lanka, which depends on its economy of tourism and garment industries, growth decelerated by about 2.2% in 2020 but is expected to achieve a 3.5% growth in 2021.
• Moody's Investors Service sees a negative outlook for global airlines in 2021, with operating losses expected to continue rising throughout the next two years due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on air travel demand.
• New Zealand agreed on Monday to allow quarantine-free travel with Australia in 2021.
• Although most Latin American and Caribbean countries are expected to begin to recover economically in 2021, the expected regional growth rate of 3.6% lags behind the expected world economic growth forecast of 5.2%.
• Travel during the 2020 year - end holiday period will see a sharp decline with only as many as 84.5 million Americans expected to travel.

Last updated: 09 January 2021