U.S. Travel Industry Set To Lose Over $500 Billion In 2020
The COVID-19 outbreak is having a devastating impact on the American travel and tourism sector and a new report from the U.S. Travel Association and Oxford Economics has highlighted the level of financial damage it has inflicted. With flights grounded, hundreds of millions of Americans on lockdown and borders closed, the U.S. is forecast to suffer a $519 billion decline in direct travel expenditure translating into a $1.2 trillion loss in economic output - a financial impact 9 times worse than 9/11. Travel industry revenue is expected to fall 81 percent over the next two months while it is forecast to decline 45 percent over the entire year. Employment is also suffering with the report forecasting 8 million job losses within the industry by the end of April.
