section_path: Sectors/Service industries/Tourism/Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
section_name: Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
paragraph_text: Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
  
  The travel restrictions and lockdowns necessitated by the pandemic negatively affected the entire hospitality/tourism section in 2020 with a 76% reduction in "inbound tourism" to the UK that year according to VisitBritain. The January 2021 forecast for the year indicated an estimate that visits from other nations would be up "21% on 2020 but only 29% of the 2019 level". Some increase was expected during 2021, slowly at first; the tourism authority concluded that the number of visits was not expected to come "even close to normal levels".
  
  The same VisitBritain report also discussed the effects of the pandemic on domestic travel within the UK in 2020, citing a significant reduction in spending, for an estimated decline of 62% over the previous year. As of January 2021, the forecast for the year suggested that spending would increase by 79% over the previous year and that "the value of spending will be back to 84% of 2019 levels" by the end of 2021.
  
  Some of the "COVID-19 restrictions" on domestic travel were to be loosened on 12 April 2021 and the UK planned to begin relaxing some restrictions on travel from other nations in mid May. The latter plan became less certain as of 8 April 2021 when sources in the European Union stated on that a "third wave of the pandemic the continent"; the B117 variant was of particular concern. Two days earlier, PM Boris Johnson had made it clear that "We don't want to see the virus being reimported into this country from abroad". All travel restrictions ended on 18 March 2022.
  
  The travel restrictions and lockdowns necessitated by the pandemic negatively affected the entire hospitality/tourism section in 2020 with a 76% reduction in "inbound tourism" to the UK that year according to VisitBritain. The January 2021 forecast for the year indicated an estimate that visits from other nations would be up "21% on 2020 but only 29% of the 2019 level". Some increase was expected during 2021, slowly at first; the tourism authority concluded that the number of visits was not expected to come "even close to normal levels".
  
  The same VisitBritain report also discussed the effects of the pandemic on domestic travel within the UK in 2020, citing a significant reduction in spending, for an estimated decline of 62% over the previous year. As of January 2021, the forecast for the year suggested that spending would increase by 79% over the previous year and that "the value of spending will be back to 84% of 2019 levels" by the end of 2021.
  
  Some of the "COVID-19 restrictions" on domestic travel were to be loosened on 12 April 2021 and the UK planned to begin relaxing some restrictions on travel from other nations in mid May. The latter plan became less certain as of 8 April 2021 when sources in the European Union stated on that a "third wave of the pandemic the continent"; the B117 variant was of particular concern. Two days earlier, PM Boris Johnson had made it clear that "We don't want to see the virus being reimported into this country from abroad". All travel restrictions ended on 18 March 2022.
  
  The travel restrictions and lockdowns necessitated by the pandemic negatively affected the entire hospitality/tourism section in 2020 with a 76% reduction in "inbound tourism" to the UK that year according to VisitBritain. The January 2021 forecast for the year indicated an estimate that visits from other nations would be up "21% on 2020 but only 29% of the 2019 level". Some increase was expected during 2021, slowly at first; the tourism authority concluded that the number of visits was not expected to come "even close to normal levels".
  
  The same VisitBritain report also discussed the effects of the pandemic on domestic travel within the UK in 2020, citing a significant reduction in spending, for an estimated decline of 62% over the previous year. As of January 2021, the forecast for the year suggested that spending would increase by 79% over the previous year and that "the value of spending will be back to 84% of 2019 levels" by the end of 2021.
  
  Some of the "COVID-19 restrictions" on domestic travel were to be loosened on 12 April 2021 and the UK planned to begin relaxing some restrictions on travel from other nations in mid May. The latter plan became less certain as of 8 April 2021 when sources in the European Union stated on that a "third wave of the pandemic the continent"; the B117 variant was of particular concern. Two days earlier, PM Boris Johnson had made it clear that "We don't want to see the virus being reimported into this country from abroad". All travel restrictions ended on 18 March 2022.