Philippines, Thailand, Mexico Win Most When Tourism Resumes

The Philippines, Thailand, Mexico, Spain and Italy faced the biggest net losses in the world when airports and hotels closed because of the coronavirus, according to calculations by Bloomberg Economics of the world’s largest 40 economies. That means those countries can look forward to the biggest recouped gains when the Covid crisis finally ends. Still, it could take time before international travel fully recovers from the pandemic and it’s likely that domestic travel will be the first to bounce back, including the displacement of spending by outbound tourists to the home market. Under this scenario, countries with a large share of domestic and outbound tourism will fare better.