COVID-19 and Tourism: Impact, Challenges, and Recovery

This article discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry, its challenges, and recovery strategies. It covers the decline in revenue, loss of jobs, and the negative impact on the environment. It also highlights the initiatives taken by governments and the UNWTO to support the industry.

Covid 19 & Tourism

TABLE OF CONTENT
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................7

COVID-19 and Tourism
COVID -19 Pandemic also termed as corona virus is a severe and highly
contagious disease. It is the most dangerous pandemic in human history. The virus was
identified in the science laboratory of Wuhan, China in December 2019. It is caused by
Severer Acute Respiratory Syndrome CorornaVirus 2(SARS-CoV-2). It is declared as a
Public Heath Emergency by the World Health Organization(WHO). It showed a
massive impact on the world in March 2020. The pandemic was so severe as compared
to the other pandemics such as Spanish Flu, Influenza, etc. Due to pandemic, approx
500 million people were affected and 5 million people died. The mortality rate in the
world touched the peak during the pandemic (Ciotti and et.al., 2020). Due to pandemic,
there was the Largest Global Recession, it caused food shortages, educational
institutions were closed, events were postponed. The government declared lock down
all over the countries and started with mass testing. In the initial stage, Europe was the
Epicenter of COVID-19 pandemic and soon it spread quickly to the other nearby
countries such as US, UK, etc.
COVID- 19 pandemic resulted in massive loss of finances and it also affected
the global health. People who are infected developed either no symptoms or mild to
moderate symptoms. The symptoms included cold, cough, fever, breathing difficulties
and sore throat. Most the people were hospitalized due to severe symptoms and sudden
shortness of breath. During Covid times, it was advised by WHO that people with
diabetes, cancer, chronic liver disease, hypertension are High risk groups as they can get
severe COVID-19 disease. As, it can spread through mere contact, coughing, sneezing,
or shaking hands with the infected person (Pfefferbaum and North, 2020). The
incubation period of Covid patients was up to 2weeks.
The WHO suggested measures to prevent the spread of Corona Virus. To wear
properly fitted masks at public and crowded places, avoid close contact with people,
maintain at least 1mtr distance from others, sanitize your hands by an alcohol based
sanitizer, while sneezing or coughing cover you mouth, if you are not feeling well, stay
indoors and isolate yourself, etc. If tested positive of Covid-19, isolate yourself for 14
days or until you recover. The pandemic has adversely affected the Businesses and
lifestyle of people. It showed a negative impact on the world economy. The pandemic

made people more hygienic and safety conscious and this stopped them from using the
public transportation.
Travel and tourism industry is a major source of income generation and
employment opportunities worldwide. This industry is a major contributor of the
Economy's GDP. Small Island Developing countries get at least 40%of export revenue
from tourism. It supports many countries having low income. Nowadays, rural tourism
has become popular as tourists like to visit natural places, farm houses, greenery, etc. It
helps in preserving and maintaining the authenticity of rural areas. It helps in
conserving the natural places such as old forests, wildlife sanctuaries, gardens, lakes for
attracting more customers. Tourism helps in protecting the nature as it will draw more
tourists towards it. Many tourists support the traditional cultures of the countries by
visiting the cultural places , buying goods from local artisans and weavers. This helps in
preserving the culture and heritage of the world. Travel and tourism industry offers a
good deal of employment opportunities such as pilots, chefs, travel guides, hotel
managers, etc. Approx. 8%of the workers around world are supported by tourism.
Government helps in development of infrastructure of the country to support and
encourage tourism. To attract tourists advanced facilities, better services and friendly
environment is necessary. Tourism also impacts the environment in a negative way. It
can lead to destruction of natural places, soil erosion, disposing waste into sea, etc.
Development to support tourism may deplete the natural resources, it also exploits
water resources leading to shortage of water in many countries. Cruise tourists are the
major contributors in exploiting water resources as they emit 80% of waste in seas,
affecting the lives of humans and animals. For the construction of resorts, hotels and
farm houses, people cleared the forests.
During pandemic, tourism and hospitality business was adversely affected.
Many industries such as catering, transportation, entertainment associated with it were
also affected. The countries such as Maldives, Seychelles where tourism is the only
source of livelihood had faced financial loss.
In the mid of 2020, tourism was totally suspended in the world. The travel industry
showed a decline of 98% in may 2020 which resulted in travel bans and restrictions on
the traveling(Jaipuria, Parida and Ray, 2021).

In European countries, it had $3 trillion revenue loss while the European
countries were sole contributor of 50% revenue from tourism in the industry
worldwide. Many hotels and destinations have to shut down because of severe loss and
in few months everything collapsed.
From January to May 2020, the travelers and tourists showed a 56% decline as
compared to 2019. According the information from experts, it was reported that
international tourism had showed 350 billion dollars Export revenue loss as compared
to the pandemic of 2019 (Bakar and Rosbi, 2020). Tourism is the largest export sector
of world economy. The pandemic encouraged the tourists towards the domestic
destinations and also it helped in improving the health and sanitation standards of the
people. It reduced the GDP in world economy by 1.5% to 2.8%. Due to Covid -19, there
was loss of around 90-110 million jobs and employment opportunities. In the month of
January and February 2020, the transportation industries showed a significant increase
because people started moving to their hometown to be safe and secure. According to
the reports of experts, it is estimated that Tourism industry will not recover until 2023
as it was in 2019 (Kaushal and Srivastava, 2021). Many regions such as Asia and
Pacific were severely affected and recorded 70% decline in arrivals during the initial
stage of pandemic. The airfares of the flights increased and many of the industries
faced bankruptcies. People in the post covid times are also afraid to ravel due to
quarantine restrictions and fear of infected abroad.
Government of all countries issued necessary COVID-19 guidelines to ensure
maximum safety and avoid the spread of virus. The Bharat Biotech Laboratory of India
developed COVAXIN in collaboration with the ICMR-NIV. The vaccination all over
the world provided a relief against the COVID -19 disease (Darbar, Agarwal and Saha,
2021).Some governments provided financial support such as loans and guarantees to the
industries. In Jamaica, training programs have been started by government to train the
tourism workers. During pandemic, it was decided to use small ships instead of large
cruise ships, etc. Travel bubble, an initiative started for visitors traveling for business
purpose. Government permitted running restaurants with 50% capacity (Assaf and
Scuderi, 2020).People should travel after first dose and with their vaccination
certificates.

To encourage the tourism industry, new business opportunities should be
offered. Travelers and visitors should be offered with new benefits, new items on
catering menu to attract them. To recover the industry, Government also announced 5
lac tourist visas at free of cost and it also provided personal and capital loans to restart
the businesses and cover their losses. As the new Delta variant, considered as the third
wave of Corona virus raises the concern again towards the financial health of tourism
and hospitality industries. The UNWTO took initiative and launched many campaigns
and programmes to support and generate opportunities for the tourism industry. It also
started a #TravelTommorow campaign through social media to highlight the values and
importance of tourism. In 2021Pfefferbaum, B. and North, C.S., 2020., International
tourism showed an increase of 4.5% and more than 16 million overnight international
tourists.
As the COVID -19 pandemic has negative impact on all the industries, small
business groups and also many people lost their jobs. But for the flora & fauna and the
environment, it created a positive impact. Post COVID-19, tourist destinations and the
industry might achieve a huge rise and boom in the economy. The airports, tourist
operators support eco friendly products to save the environment and attract customers.
The companies should offer discounts and benefits to increase the number of travellers,
thus ensuring the set back in the market.
Beyond the impact of COVID-19, the tourism companies should create new
models, strategies and offer benefits to the customers to recover the loss and kick start
their businesses. The state and central governments should also take initiatives for
promoting the tourism industries. So, it a creates many opportunities for the localists as
well as it is an opportunity for tourists ,travellers to explore and learn about new culture.
It should be promoted and encouraged as it creates demand and it will help in
generation of tax incomes , revenue and many more opportunities. Tourism can boost
the GDP growth in economy and help in creating job opportunities. It should be
encouraged as it connects the worldwide economies and improve the services to become
competitive.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Assaf, A. and Scuderi, R., 2020. COVID-19 and the recovery of the tourism
industry. Tourism Economics. 26(5). pp.731-733.
Bakar, N. A. and Rosbi, S., 2020. Effect of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to tourism
industry. International Journal of Advanced Engineerigovernmentng Research
and Science. 7(4). pp.189-193.
Ciotti, M. and et.al., 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic. Critical reviews in clinical
laboratory sciences. 57(6). pp.365-388.
Darbar, S., Agarwal, S. and Saha, S., 2021. COVID19 Vaccine: COVAXIN®-India’s
First Indigenous Effective Weapon to Fight against Coronavirus (A
Review). Parana Journal of Science and Education. 7(3). pp.1-9.
Jaipuria, S., Parida, R. and Ray, P., 2021. The impact of COVID-19 on tourism sector in
India. Tourism Recreation Research. 46(2). pp.245-260.
Kaushal, V. and Srivastava, S., 2021. Hospitality and tourism industry amid COVID-19
pandemic: Perspectives on challenges and learnings from India. International
journal of hospitality management.92. p.102707.
Pfefferbaum, B. and North, C.S., 2020. Mental health and the Covid-19 pandemic. New
England Journal of Medicine. 383(6). pp.510-512.