{"id":115205,"date":"2020-08-15T08:10:11","date_gmt":"2020-08-15T12:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=115205"},"modified":"2020-08-15T08:16:56","modified_gmt":"2020-08-15T12:16:56","slug":"how-antigua-and-the-countries-most-reliant-on-tourists-and-how-they-are-coping-post-lockdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/how-antigua-and-the-countries-most-reliant-on-tourists-and-how-they-are-coping-post-lockdown\/","title":{"rendered":"How Antigua and the countries most reliant on tourists are coping post-lockdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
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F<\/span>or the vast majority of human history, tourism didn\u2019t exist. Only in the last half a century or so, since the rise of the middle class and since aviation has joined almost every dot on the map across the planet, has leisure travel become the industry giant it is today.<\/p>

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More than 330 million jobs worldwide depend on it; contributing to about ten per cent of global GDP. In some countries, it is much more; the Carribean being the starkest example.<\/p>\n

In the island nation of Antigua & Barbuda, 91 per cent of employment was in the travel and tourism industry last year \u2013 the highest share in the world, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).<\/p>

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Beyond the Caribbean, the Chinese casino enclave of Macau is next, with 66 per cent of jobs relying on tourism; followed by the Maldives (60 per cent) and the Seychelles (40 per cent).<\/p>

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In Europe, Croatia – which has seen a huge boom in tourism over the past decade – takes the top spot, with foreign visitors contributing to more than 20 per cent of its GDP. That\u2019s followed by Iceland, Greece, Malta and Portugal.<\/p>\n

It is hard, therefore, to understate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on these economies, and why these countries have been prepared to open their borders as soon as possible to countries with far higher infection risks than their own.<\/p>

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