A devasting year
It has been a year since the pandemic roll-out worldwide started, and many industries are starting to reflect on the past year and release information on its effects.
It is beyond doubt that tourism is the industry worst affected. In 2019 the World Tourism Organisation reported 1.5 billion international tourist arrivals globally [UNWTO 2019] and forecasted a 4% increase for 2020. Instead of these predictions, the reality was a fall of 73.9% in global travel [UWTO 2020]; 2020 has been the world year in tourism history.
This unprecedented fall in traveller numbers also exposed how connected and dependent to tourism, heritage is today. Yesterday, 31 March 2021, the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) released the 2020 visitor figures for its members. The figures make grim reading with a huge average decline of visitor numbers by 66% throughout the UK, while some attractions such as the Royal Museums Greenwich saw a 96% decline [ALVA]. These declines translate to loss of revenue, loss of employment, restrictions of access, site and museum closures. But also to people missing the chance to experience art, history, and entertainment that was previously widely and plentifully on offer.
While some might appreciate or even rejoice the luxury of empty spaces, the ease of moving around usually crowded museum galleries, what is described as “culture without crowds”, it is worth remembering Bernard Donoghue’s (ALVA Director) comments: “our annual figures for 2020 reflect what a devastatingly hard year the Attractions sector and the wider visitor economy faced. Tourism is the UK’s 5th biggest industry and, as these figures show, was hit first, hit hardest and will take the longest to recover”.
Ever since the 1972 UNESCO Convention mentioned that tourist developments are a serious and specific danger to heritage, heritage sites and their managers have treated tourism as a negative. Tourists, a term used often derogatorily, have historically been seen as a necessary evil for heritage sites and have been treated with mistrust, forgetting that tourists are “us” and that everyone has an equal access right and should be afforded the opportunity to see things outside their normal environment. Maybe this truly devasting year and all the financial implications following it will be the starting point for a reversal of such outlooks.
Sources
ALVA, https://www.alva.org.uk/details.cfm?p=453&codeid=846
UNWTO 2019, https://www.unwto.org/world-tourism-barometer-n18-january-2020
UNWTO 2020, https://www.unwto.org/covid-19-and-tourism-2020
