In light of the impact of COVID-19, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Basque Culinary Center (BCC) and the Government of Flanders have announced that the 6th UNWTO World Forum on Gastronomy Tourism, scheduled to take place 1-3 June in Bruges, Belgium, will now be held in June 2021 (date to be announced).

"By staying home today, we can travel tomorrow”.The hashtag #TravelTomorrow encapsulates this message of solidarity and hope, through whichthe World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) calls for shared responsibility among travellers and the tourism sector around the world to deal with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has released a set of recommendations calling for urgent and strong support to help the global tourism sector not only recover from the unprecedented challenge of COVID-19 but to ‘grow back better’. The Recommendations are the first output of the Global Tourism Crisis Committee, established by UNWTO with high-level representatives from across the tourism sector and from within the wider United Nations system.

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has released its updated assessment of the likely impact of the COVID-19 on international tourism. Taking into account the unparalleled introduction of travel restrictions across the world, the United Nations specialized agency for tourism expects that international tourist arrivals will be down by 20% to 30% in 2020 when compared with 2019 figures. However, UNWTO stresses that these numbers are based on the latest developments as the global community faces up to an unprecedented social and economic challenge and should be interpreted with caution in view of the extreme uncertain nature of the current crisis.