The coronavirus crisis has had a devastating effect on the travel sector with almost a quarter of jobs disappearing in 2020, employment figures from travel industry institute Reiswerk show.

Some 90% of travel organisations with more than 10 staff polled by the organisation said they had had to let people go, particularly staff under the age of 25 and people on temporary contracts. Almost half of young staff lost their jobs and the number of new recruits went down by 55%.

The figures do not include the 1,150 jobs lost due to the recent collapse of D-Reizen, which would have pushed up the total loss to a third of all travel sector jobs.

Half of the travel organisations said they will would be firing more people this year. A third said they will face closure or bankruptcy.

However, organisations also expected to hire staff once the crisis is over, particularly in the hardest hit segments of advice and sales, and in the long term, data analysis, business intelligence and IT.