Ammon News - The coronavirus pandemic will cost the global tourism sector $2 trillion in lost revenue in 2021, the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) said on Monday, describing the sector's recovery as "fragile" and "slow".

The forecast from the Madrid-based UNWTO comes as Europe is battling with a surge in cases and as a new heavily mutated Covid-19 variant, dubbed Omicron, spreads across the globe.

The Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted the UNWTO as saying that the global tourism sector already lost $2 trillion in revenues last year due to the pandemic, making it one of the sectors hardest hit by the crisis.

A statement by the UN body stated "despite the recent improvements, uneven vaccination rates around the world and new Covid-19 strains" such as the Delta variant and Omicron "could impact the already slow and fragile recovery."

UNWTO head Zurab Pololikashvili indicated "it's a historical crisis in the tourism industry but again tourism has the power to recover quite fast."