The Impact of COVID-19 on Tourism Industry in the UK

This essay discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry in the UK, including job losses, reduction in business operations, and declining sales. It also provides examples of heritage sites that have been greatly affected by the pandemic.

The impact of Covid-19
on Tourism UK

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Tourism industry is considered as a significant economic activity that facilitates in
enhancing the number of visitors towards a particular destination. It consists all those businesses
that offers products or services directly to assist the business in providing pleasure as well as
leisure activities which are away from the environment of home. In this existing project, an essay
is going to be present that explains the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry of United
Kingdom (Chen and Hang, 2021). The essay will cover all good and bad impacts that are
associated with tourism industry and their impact on it.
MAIN BODY
Tourism industry is still facing the influence of the pandemic situation of COVID-19.
The risks that are concerned with travel and the management perceptions of the tourists are
considered as the significant matter in their decision in order to travel to the destinations during
this pandemic situation. Travel risk as well as management perceptions of tourists can impact
their psychological behaviours for the travel to the destinations. Visitors can view their risks
which are associated with travel and the issues of management separately because of the
spreading of the infectious disease. Because of the pandemic situation of COVID-19, tourists
have avoided visiting the destinations and the economic lockdown within the country UK has
greatly impacted the performance of tourism industry. This pandemic situation has not only
originated a shortage of tourists who permit the tourism industry to thrive but has also brought
specifically typical changes in relation to social distancing and hygiene which became a
challenge in order to execute in the long-term (Kazmi, Shah and Khan, 2020). It has been evident
in the government actions that the picture portrayed through publicising the respective country
as having the worst COVID as there was death rate per million of the people has stuck fearness
into the growth as well as success of the tourism markets. It has also been argued that the impact
of such data could outlast itself pandemic and leave the country being unsafe as well as
undesirable as a destination for tourist.
The impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry further influenced the heritage
conservation and on the social and cultural communities specifically for the ethnic groups and
indigenous people. For instance most of the intangible practices of the cultural heritage like
traditional gatherings as well as festivals have been postponed or halted and along with it, there

was closure of markets of the handicrafts products. Because of that, the revenues of the
indigenous women have been specifically influenced. The country has to closed its heritage sites
such as museums and many more. Such heritage sites which were opened to public have to close
their doors including the outdoor spaces. This closure have unfortunately came at the peak
season which begins from Easter until September. At that time, the government of UK had to
closed its heritage sites (Khalid, Okafor and Burzynska, 2021). Before the pandemic situation of
COVID-19, the organisations within the country could make up to 70% of their annual turnover.
But because of economic lockdown, it was not possible to generate such revenue. Without this
income, the heritage sites within the country have made tough decisions for paying the staff,
preserving the reserves as well as maintaining collections and the sites. At the begin of this
pandemic crisis, some of the heritage organisation like Tower of London, Jurassic coast,
Blenheim palace and many more greatly impacted as thee were the most popular heritage sites of
the country. And because of closure of the economy and guidelines of the government in relation
to COVID-19 like social distancing, proper sanitising, etc., these sites had to be closed.
However, with the passage of time, situations of the market got improved in comparison
to before and economy reopened again. But, most of the heritage sites of the United Kingdom as
well as the museums were requiring a level of maintenance to their building, collections and
gardens. Without the income as well as the cash flow, many businesses are unable to remunerate
its staff to do such work. There was a risk that the sites were falling into disrepair or losing
crucial objects for incorrecting the practices of conservation. As per the survey of more than
1200 organisations which are concerned with heritage across the United Kingdom which was
carried out in the starting week of April by National Lottery Heritage Fund, 82% reported that
there was high or moderate level of risk to the long term profitability of the organisations. While
46% estimated that they could not sustain for another half year. Now in present situation, sites
are also facing risk in losing its public engagement (Lim and To, 2021). With the closure of the
museums as well as sites, they lost their presence in the eyes of the public. Heritage sites have
worked effectively in order to provide options digitally but it cannot replaced the experience for
attending such sites in person.
Because of the pandemic situation of COVID-19, the tourism industry within UK has
lacked behind and there was loss of employment also. The impact of this infectious disease not
only influence the economy of the United Kingdom but also affect the the political system as

well as its social markets. As there was continuously increment in the number of cases of
infected patients from the respective disease across the nation. Along with the execution of
campaigns and the specific measures such as economic lockdown, stay at home, social
distancing, curbs or crowding, work from home, self-or mandatory-quarantine and many more,
more pressure is generated for crippling the business of the tourism industry within the country
(Liu and et.al, 2021). This sudden change in the existing system has resulted in the introducing
of the recession as well as depression that has seek transformational change within the society.
The tourism sector is that dynamic sector which provides benefits to many other sectors such as
catering, entertainment, transportation, lodging, retail and many others that has contributed to the
growth of the economy and recovery at the global level. It has been stated that the growth of the
tourism industry within the UK has outperformed the world GDP growth record from last years.
Moreover, it has also been depicted that there is downfall in the international tourists that has
caused a loss in the export revenue as well as showing the greatest drop in the tourism job-cuts
within the respective nation. In addition to this, the downfall in the demand of the tourism sector
has also resulted in various kinds of financial issues.
Tourism industry within United Kingdom has highly impacted due to the infectious
disease of COVID-19 and it may remain influenced in the long-term also. There has been also
downfall in the arrival rate of the foreign tourists and therefore, the earnings associated with
foreign exchange also got declined that has a crucial influence on the economy of the country.
The tourism industry within the respective nation offers a great volume of employment for high
as well as low skilled manpower and hires many part-time, seasonal and temporary human
resources. The economic lockdown within the country have weakened the demand for the
tourism along with the travel activities suddenly and has caused high losses in terms of revenue
as well as a terrible shock of liquidity for many organisations. Accordingly, an International
Labour Organisation has depicted a very great chance of sudden losses regarding employment
within the tourism sector because of the pandemic situation of infectious disease (Qiu and et.al,
2021). Contact-intensive services are considered as the key services within the tourism industry
and are disproportionately got influenced by the pandemic situation of the COVID-19. The GDP
of those countries which are depended on the tourism industry also got shrunken. Because of
varying vaccination rates, degree of mobility restrictions and the traveller confidence, the pace of
recover remains slow.

Therefore, as per the scenario, it is essential for the businesses in tourism industry to
identify as well as analyse the measures to get recovered from the losses (Raj and Griffin, 2020).
This can be done by redesigning the policies in order to manage the activities which are
concerned with tourism industry.
CONCLUSION
From above explanation, it has been concluded that the impact of pandemic situation of
COVID-19 has greatly influenced the tourism industry. It has caused job losses, reduction in
business operations, declining in sales within the industry. In this essay, the influence of this
pandemic situation on the tourism industry of the United Kingdom has been discussed. Along
with it, some examples of heritage sites have also been included in this essay that has been
greatly affected by the COVID-19. It has been also concluded that in order to overcome from
such influences, the tourism industry within the country has to be developed with effective
business strategies so that it could operate business activities in an effective as well as efficient
way.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chen, Z. and Hang, H., 2021. Corporate social responsibility in times of need: Community
support during the COVID-19 pandemics. Tourism Management. 87. p.104364.
Kazmi, M., Shah, S. A. H. and Khan, F. Q., 2020. Impact of COVID-19 on tourism and
hospitality of Pakistan. Artech J. Tourism Res. Hospitality. 1(1). pp.25-31.
Khalid, U., Okafor, L. E. and Burzynska, K., 2021. Does the size of the tourism sector influence
the economic policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic?. Current Issues in Tourism.
24(19). pp.2801-2820.
Lim, W. M. and To, W. M., 2021. The economic impact of a global pandemic on the tourism
economy: The case of COVID-19 and Macao’s destination-and gambling-dependent
economy. Current Issues in Tourism. pp.1-12.
Liu and et.al, 2021. Visitor arrivals forecasts amid COVID-19: A perspective from the Europe
team. Annals of Tourism Research. 88. p.103182.
Qiu and et.al, 2021. Visitor arrivals forecasts amid COVID-19: A perspective from the Asia and
Pacific team. Annals of Tourism Research. 88. p.103155.
Raj, R. and Griffin, K. A., 2020. Reflecting on the impact of COVID-19 on religious tourism
and pilgrimage.(Special Issue: The impact of COVID-19 on religious tourism and
pilgrimage.). International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage. pp.1-8.