Going bust: Insolvencies spike after July riots and lockdowns knock finance and tourism.
As expected, the lockdowns and July unrest have been very bad for the economy, with liquidations spiking 157% in July 2021. The Bureau of Economic Research says tourism is without a doubt one of the hardest-hit industries by the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on spending in 2020, the tourism sector’s contribution to GDP shrank from 7.2% in 2018 to 2.9% in 2020. Jobs declined from 1.6 million to 640,000, hence its outsized impact on bankruptcies in 2021 as internal and external travel plummeted.