Travel restrictions imposed by the UK government to fight Omicron led to an estimated £7bn loss to the UK economy last year, according to WTTC.
Additional curbs at the end of last year until January 2022 proved ineffective at halting the variant but caused significant hardship for the sector, WTTC says.
WTTC also revealed that the global travel and tourism sector’s contribution to the global economy lost an estimated £25.7bn due to the impact of worldwide travel restrictions.
The £7bn loss in contributions from the sector to the UK economy comes as the country finally begins to recover.
Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO, said: "Imposing unnecessary travel restrictions to ‘deal’ with Omicron was not backed by science and cost the UK economy £7bn in lost revenues.
"If the UK is going to start to repair its economy, it needs to keep borders open."
According to WTTC’s 2021 Economic Impact Report, the number of people employed in the UK travel and tourism sector fell from 4.27 million in 2019, to 3.96 million in 2020.
