VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

ENGLISH FOR TOURISM

CASE STUDY REPORT

Name: Mạc Quốc Khánh

Student’s ID: 20040583

Lecturer: Trần Thu Hà

Topic: The impacts of COVID-19 on aviation travel

worldwide
 CASE STUDY REPORT
THE IMPACTS OF COVID-19 ON AVIATION TRAVEL WORLDWIDE

The raging Covid-19 has caused a substantial negative impact on the global

economy, which was referred to as the Second Great Depression. The tourism industry

is not an exception. From spring break to vacation in the summer, the Covid-19

pandemic has caused a series of disruptions to travel plans, holidays, and travel

activities because of issued regulations on restricting domestic and foreign flights to

lock doors and borders, and social distancing by governments in order to limit the

spread of the disease in a period of time peak tourism. This made airlines and hotels,

resorts, amusement parks entertainment, and tourist destinations lose billions of dollars

and millions of people in the travel service industry lost their jobs.

According to statistics from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) as of

April 2020, there were 97 tourist destinations had taken full or partial closure measures

on border sections, and about 65 countries and territories had introduced measures to

limit or prohibit domestic or foreign air flights. Furthermore, about 39 countries had

officially closed their borders with some groups of tourists coming from places where

the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened. In addition, other regions had implemented a

number of other prevention measures such as requiring a 14-day quarantine for

travelers or people moving from other countries. As these drastic measures proved to

be effective, in some Asian countries such as Vietnam or China, many bans have been

removed, however, this has not been able to help the global tourism industry recover

quickly in the first half of 2020.

 Global regulations on movement and travel restrictions (UNWTO, 2020)

The number of commercial flights dropped suddenly in a bad direction.

According to Flightradar24, the average number of commercial flights per day in

January and February 2020 decreased by 20,500 flights. Thailand's national airline, Thai

Airways, filed for bankruptcy in May is one of the practical examples reflecting the

world aviation crisis in general and Thailand in particular. Revenue from the aviation

industry was estimated to reach only about $314 billion in 2020, leading to a 55% drop

compared to previous annual reports. It might take years to recover as the epidemic

situation was still quite complicated in Europe and America. At the time, the recovery

of the aviation industry was likely to be gradual, but international routes were expected

to serve only designated flights with limited numbers.

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 Aviation industry revenue in 2020 (IATA, 2020)

In the face of such a serious decline, the Government and tourism associations of

other countries had inevitably taken measures to promote the return of tourism

activities, especially in attracting tourists and keeping a high proportion of revenue

from tourism in the annual GDP structure. For example, the US Treasury Department

has reached an agreement with a number of airlines on government subsidies for the

passenger transport industry. The French and Dutch governments had officially

provided a funding package of up to $12 billion USD for Air France and KLM. The

Singapore government also had negotiations with the private business sector to provide

a funding package of up to approximately $13.4 billion to support the national carrier

Singapore Airlines. 

However, when it comes to Vietnam, similar budgets for a flag carrier like

Vietnam Airlines were almost impossible since all the funding must be well allocated to

the main priority at the time - national healthcare. As a result, officials from Vietnam's

tourism industry launched the campaign "Vietnamese people travel to Vietnam". In my

opinion, this was a perfect key in the context of such difficulties and limitations. During

the campaign, domestic flights and other transportation services have been resumed,

coupled with the reopening of recreation activities nationwide to serve domestic

tourism. With the international tourism market being almost frozen at the time,

domestic flights were the lifeline of the whole tourism industry in Vietnam. This has

been of much help in maintaining the operation of existing domestic routes, restaurants,

hotels, operating systems, and personnel. Consequently, these joint efforts have assured

the survival of tourism to a certain extent. 

Given the aforementioned figures and description, it is undeniable that

transportation acts as the cornerstone for tourism in any situation. As a consequence,

when it comes to recommendations, governments worldwide are highly encouraged to

promote the restructuring of the tourism and transportation industry, hence the early

preparation to respond to any other similar event that can be of absolute catastrophe.

From my point of view, a lesson well learned in the COVID-19 pandemic for tourism

means a better readiness for any other economic sector in the near future.

References

Haryanto, T. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic and international tourism demand. JDE

(Journal of Developing Economies), 5(1), 1-4.

International Air Transport Association. (2020). Economic performance of the airline

industry. International Air Transport Association.

Kumar, S., & Nafi, S. M. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on tourism: Recovery

proposal for future tourism. GeoJournal of Tourism and Geosites, Year XIIII Vol,

33.
Petchenik, I. (2020). How Airlines have Managed Their Fleet Mix during the COVID-19

Pandemic| Flightradar24 Blog. FlightRadar24, 26.

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) (2020). Impact Assessment of the COVID-

19 Outbreak on International Tourism.