IMPACT OF CORONAVIRUS ON THE TOURISM

INDUSTRY

The impact of COVID-19(coronavirus) has impacted the tourism industry in a

massive way as many travel restrictions and travel bans across the globe,
travellers unwilling to travel due the fear of coronavirus and also restricted
number of fights and travel options. “The United Nations World Tourism
Organisation estimated that global International tourist arrivals might decrease
by 58% to 78% in 2020,leading to a potential loss of US$0.9-1.2 trillion in
international tourism receipts”[1]. Within tourism industry there are several
industries such as hotel/accommodation, transport, food and drinks and locals
those who depend upon tourists and travellers. Due to these reasons many
people lost their jobs and livelihood.
Many countries are there who’s economy depend majorly upon the tourism
sectors such as Maldives(38%),Macao and many more. Due to the coronavirus
it has declined to almost zero. These countries have small population with
relatively low natural resources or agricultural lands because of various reasons
such as extreme weather events and many more, hence they depend upon
tourism for there livelihood and for their countries economy. “The United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development released a report in June 2021
stating that the global economy could lose over US$4 trillion as a result of the
pandemic”[2].
Coronavirus has not only destroyed tourism industry but also many prestigious
events one of them being the Olympics which was supposed to take place in
Tokyo in 2020 but was sifted by a year and will take place in 2021.In Tokyo
Olympics more than 11000 athletes are going to participate along with
thousands of staff members which can be a difficult task in the middle of a
pandemic. Due to these concern the audience is not allowed to attend any events
in the 2021 Olympics. To cater for such an event in a pandemic and for many
people coming from all over the world is a concern for the coronavirus situation
in Japan.
While there are countries struggling with COVID-19 with the roll out of the
vaccines in various countries it has led to open up the tourism in countries such
as USA which means a healthy recovery in tourism industry. This has led to a
steady increase in domestic tourism helping the business and tourism industry,
however the real recovery can take time to get back to normal. While
international tourism is also on a rise because of vaccine tourism.
There are some solutions to get out of this problem by restoring traveller
confidence and give them safe environment to travel and by giving them clear
information which can help remove uncertainty in their travel. But one of the
major ways to build their confidence is when the number of vaccinations will
increase and the cases will start going down, as then the travellers will feel safe
to travel. “The crisis is an opportunity to rethink tourism for the future. Tourism
is at a crossroads and the measures put in place today will shape the tourism of
tomorrow”[3].

[1]. https://en.wikipedia.org/
[2]. https://en.wikipedia.org/
[3]. https://www.oecd.org/