US travel spending down $500B in 2020 due to pandemic

ANKARA

Travel spending in the US decreased almost $500 billion in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Corporate Travel Community on Thursday.

Total spending is estimated to have declined 42% to $680 billion last year, from $1.17 trillion the previous year, the network of corporate travel buyers said in a statement.

The half-a-trillion dollars in losses, in addition, caused an estimated $64 billion in missed federal, state and local tax revenues because the pandemic hit the world at the beginning of March 2020.

While direct travel jobs saw a 35% employment loss, travel-supported jobs had a massive 65% decline.

US Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow noted that leisure and hospitality employment is still at just a "staggering" 80% of levels compared with February 2020, according to the statement.

The association's poll also shows that only one in eight Americans are planning a spring break trip this year.

"The data suggests that Americans remain wary about traveling amid the COVID pandemic—and that they may prefer to defer their travel plans until the process of vaccinating the populace is more complete," said the statement.

"Other surveys seem to also suggest that vaccination and the subsequent introduction of COVID travel passports and vaccine requirements across the travel and hospitality sectors will ultimately form what is regarded as a safe platform for recovery," it added.