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Rebuilding tourism industry a U.N. priority

The pandemic could eliminate 40% of global tourism's 300 million jobs — one of every 10 — and trillions of dollars essential to developing economies.

Hot air ballooning in Turkey's Cappadocia region
Hot air ballooning in Turkey's Cappadocia region (AN/Feridun F. Alkaya)

The coronavirus pandemic could eliminate 40% of global tourism's 300 million jobs — one of every 10 worldwide — and trillions of dollars essential to developing economies, the U.N. chief said on Tuesday.

In the first five months of this year, international tourism dropped by more than half with US$320 billion in lost spending in the first five months of the year, according to United Nations figures. Measured as an export, tourism is third behind fuels and chemicals, and is 7% of all world trade.

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