The collapse of tourism due to the pandemic wiped out 1.6 million jobs in five Asian countries alone last year, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). Among the countries, Mongolia saw almost one-third of all job losses occur in the tourism sector, according to a report released by the United Nations agency on Thursday.

Tourism-related job losses were four times greater than losses in other industries, according to the report, with women especially hard hit.

In Mongolia, employment and average hours declined 17 percent and 13 percent, respectively. The Mongolian tourism sector has experienced a 97.6% decrease in revenue. From 450 tour operators, 300 have stopped operating, and 88,000 people [over 90% of the sector’s work force] have lost their jobs.

As of September, arrivals to most of Asia were down 99 percent compared with pre-pandemic levels, according to data from Capital Economics. About 291 million tourists visited the Asia-Pacific in 2019, contributing about $875bn to the economy, according to World Economic Forum data.