Iran Press/ Europe: The latest report from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) estimates the damage to the tourism industry during the first five months of 2020 at about $320 billion.
The tourism situation has become so critical that the UN Secretary-General has recently expressed concern about its decline.
The outbreak of the coronavirus since last winter has put the lives and livelihoods of 120 million people in the tourism sector at risk.
In many countries, some tourism and airline companies have either filed for bankruptcy, forced to lay off their specialist staff, or have sent the employees on long leave.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the situation as "painful" and said that the tourism sector needed to be revitalized.
The Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization has said that rapid and rigorous testing at ports, airports, and tracking software can set the tourism wheel back on track.
The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), a private organization, has called on all travelers to wear masks to protect themselves as many countries move to reopen borders.
The council believes that using a mask and following other WHO protocols will help safe travel. At the same time, it will protect passengers and those around them.
This is while the number of global Covid-19 cases has surpassed over 24million, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
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