Davos was the first—and the last—big, in-person, international event to take place in 2020. Many of the 3,000 delegates who gathered at the end of January in the town nestled in the Swiss Alps were unaware that a global pandemic was looming.
Neither could they have imagined that a year later there would be two Davos editions—an online one taking place this week, and an IRL special edition in May in Singapore—if the threat of infection from the coronavirus is subdued enough to allow for it.
Meanwhile, what should have been the biggest event of 2020—the Olympics—ended up being postponed. As a result, Japan received under 5 million tourist arrivals last year, instead of the 40 million it had targeted. Now with many parts of Japan again under a state of emergency due to rising case numbers, doubts are already setting in about whether the postponed event can actually begin as planned on July 23.