The travel and tourism industry is the world’s largest industry and has during the Covid-19 pandemic. So we have to get people moving again.

The World economy overall probably back to previous peak performance. We don’t have any numbers yet, but several forecasters, including Deloitte, think that the US will be there by the end of the second quarter, so this week. China, as we know, is way up on last year, and while Europe, the UK and Japan are still in the red, the recovery in the US should mean the world as a whole is square. But some parts aren’t, and the travel and tourism industries are the biggest loser. This is an economic catastrophe, but also a social one.

Before the pandemic hit travel and tourism billed for 10.4 percent of world GDP (for the United Kingdom it was slightly higher at 10.9 percent and slightly higher for the USA smaller at 7.8 percent). But last year the industry halved to 5.5 percent of GDP, roughly equivalent to the overall decline in the global economy.