Impact of Covid19 on UK Tourism Industry

This report evaluates the impact of Covid19 on the UK tourism industry, including the decline in visitors, loss of jobs, and reduction in profits. Recommendations are provided for rebuilding the industry and ensuring safety measures for visitors.

Evaluate the impact of the
Covid19 pandemic on the UK
tourism industry

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Impact on tourism industry of UK due to COVID 19..................................................................3
Recommendation..........................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The word tourism covers the overall aspects of business sector from infrastructure
development of the country to providing job opportunities and taking care of the food services
and providing leisure activities to the visitors. This industry plays a major role in increasing the
revenue rates of the economy. Since the COVID 19 pandemic has started in the world it has
resulted in unprecedented impact on the tourism industry of the UK by leaving many people
jobless, the number of visitors declined in the year 2021 and most importantly it led to large
fatality rates in the country (Zhang, Wang and Rickly, 2021). The following report will illustrate
the impact of COVID 19 on tourism industry of UK and will further provide recommendations
on overcoming the loss caused by the pandemic to the tourism industry.
MAIN BODY
Impact on tourism industry of UK due to COVID 19
The COVID 19 pandemic has caused a havoc all around the world by killing millions of
people all over the world and has destroyed various business sectors. Tourism industry is one of
the main sector which has seen deterioration in growth since the start of the pandemic in UK.
There are large number of attractive sites in UK like the British Museum, National History
Museum and Tower of London which grabs the attention of large number of different foreigners
and results in exchanging cultures between among visitors from different regions (Ali,
Rasoolimanesh and Cobanoglu, 2020). There has been a drastic decrease in the number of
visitors in UK since the start of the pandemic due to various travel related restrictions imposed in
UK and by other countries like US, France, Germany, Italy etc. the country announced
nationwide lock down in March and imposed restrictions on non-essential travel within the
country. People got scared due to the adverse effect of the virus and its highly contagious nature
which led to large fatality rates in the country and forced people to spend time in home isolation.
This has led to decrease the profit rates in the tourism industry by less demand of intermediate
goods and services by limited visitors in UK. The hotels and small guests house in UK saw
decline in the room occupancy as a result of which it became very hard for the owners to pay the
bills of electricity and other property maintenance fares like the staff payment, infrastructure
management were affected. Leisure activities like swimming are strictly prohibited by many
hotels in UK. Various art galleries and museums which mostly attracts both young and old age

foreigners are being shut down and due to this not many people are interested in travelling to
UK. Large rise in unemployment number has been seen by unskilled workers who mainly
depend on the tourists arrivals and help in loading the luggage and carrying it. Reduction in
tourist arrival has resulted in less use of labours and capital by the country which has resulted in
unemployment as many shops that are situated at airports like shops of medication, clothes,
eatable shops have seen constant decrease in product sale and low level of income by the sales
person has been seen.
Since people are more cautious when it comes to their health status because of the
COVID 19 they prefer to travel more in countries where the spread of the virus is less or to
countries where vaccination has been given to large population. In UK the rate of vaccination
is much faster and as a result of which many foreign travellers are travelling to the country.
Different UK airlines like the British Airways and the Emirates has faced major loss, and they
cut down the fares of the tickets because less foreign travellers coming to the country and also
less covering of geographical areas due to restrictions laid by different governments on
international travels (Brouder and et.al., 2020). As UK is surrounded by water bodies on all sides
so it offers more opportunities' for cruise parties and attract more tourists but COVID 19 has put
restriction on these activities and has reduced the number of tourists count (Maliszewska, Mattoo
and Van Der Mensbrugghe, 2020). Hotels and restaurants that operate in more populated areas in
UK are less preferred by outsiders due to more chances of contracting with the virus and are
facing major loss in profits. More domestic travel is seen within the country since the outbreak of
the pandemic which has affected the proper coordinated conversation with other countries and
has resulted in less cultural exchange within the country. Many tour and travel agencies in UK
have seen decline in money and fund flow due to downfall in the number of foreign visitors and
finding it very hard to rebuild from the COVID crises (Onyeaka and et.al., 2021). Economy
integrity from different countries have been declined due to less flow of different currencies from
overseas.
Large economic crises have been faced by UK due to the pandemic as tourism industry is
one of the major sectors that contributes to the GDP of the country through money flow from
other countries. Many cultural sites like art galleries, museums and historic sites which are the
major source of income in tourism industry were shuttered during the first wave of the COVID
19 (Zhang, Wang and Rickly, 2021). Many skilled employees in the travel departments of UK

who manages money flow, deals with clients problems are left unemployed due closing to
closing of some travel agencies.
Recommendation
With considering the severe impacts of COVID 19 on the travel and tourism industry of UK
here are some recommendations that will help the industry to rebuild from the crises and again
come on the track. The post COVID impact have so many significant negative effects on the
economy of the country. To re-emerge from these crises the travel industry needs to restore the
confidence of the travellers by ensuring virus free environments in the country. This can be done
by proper sanitization of the airports and resting areas along with sanitizing aeroplanes so that
the travellers feel safe while travelling to the country. Routine testing of all the foreign visitors at
the airports and making it mandatory to present RT PCR by the outsiders can help in stopping the
spread of the virus (Siriwardhana and et.al., 2020). Since many people are left unemployed in
tourism industry so in order to overcome the tourism industry can generate digitization method in
office work to manage time and engage more people in employment by speeding up the growth
of the industry. All the hotels and restaurants can ensure safe and disease free environment by
providing hygienic room services through sanitization, temperature checking of the clients and
avoiding accommodation of more than two people per room. Restaurants in UK should adopt the
policy of minimum gathering of the people so that the chances of contracting the virus decreases
and proper care of sanitizing the tables and washing hands of the staff after every service should
be made mandatory. A lot of people are exhausted and frustrated by staying indoors due to
COVID and are always planning to take short trip breaks, and they look for the countries where
major population of the region is filly vaccinated. UK has already done wonders in vaccination
role out programme. Mostly the foreigners prefer less polluted regions so that the environment is
safer and provides fresh air so UK hotels can adopt go green criteria which will minimize the use
of electricity, less use of air conditioners and will focus on using solar energy. To stop the carbon
emission the government of UK can minimize the usage of cars by switching to bicycles in local
areas and walking wherever possible (Chang, McAleer and Ramos, 2020). This will to lead to the
sustainability of the country and attract more tourists. New policies can be implemented by UK
government to support new and local restaurants by providing some relaxation on tax payments
and also the restaurants can use open spaces to ensure proper air passage. To maintain proper co-
ordination relations with other countries in terms of travel and tourism the UK government can

discuss the new rules and policies related to tourism in different regions through healthy and
regular communications.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that the tourism industry is the major sector in
the business which focuses on providing all the services like accommodation, food service to the
visitors and adds profits to the country's GDP. The tourism industry has been hit very badly by
the COVID 19 crises and needs to rebuild from this situation by focusing on attracting more
visitors by providing safety measures through sanitization and rapid testing at the airports.
Keeping in mind to slow down the spread of the virus by increasing vaccination process and
ensuring safety measures to be followed at all hotels and restaurants running in the country. To
become resilient in the process UK should focus on maintaining sustainability by reducing use of
the plastics, less use of cars to slow down carbon emissions and develop eco-friendly
environment.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ali, A., Rasoolimanesh, S.M. and Cobanoglu, C., 2020. Technology in tourism and hospitality to
achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Journal of Hospitality and Tourism
Technology. 11(2). pp.177-181.
Brouder, P and et.al., 2020. Reflections and discussions: tourism matters in the new normal post
COVID-19. Tourism Geographies. 22(3). pp.735-746.
Chang, C.L., McAleer, M. and Ramos, V., 2020. A charter for sustainable tourism after COVID-
19. Sustainability. 12(9). p.3671.
Maliszewska, M., Mattoo, A. and Van Der Mensbrugghe, D., 2020. The potential impact of
COVID-19 on GDP and trade: A preliminary assessment. World Bank Policy Research
Working Paper. (9211).
Onyeaka, H and et.al., 2021. COVID-19 pandemic: A review of the global lockdown and its far-
reaching effects. Science progress. 104(2). p.00368504211019854.
Siriwardhana, Y and et.al., 2020. The fight against the COVID-19 pandemic with 5G
technologies. IEEE Engineering Management Review. 48(3). pp.72-84.
Zhang, C.X., Wang, L. and Rickly, J.M., 2021. Non-interaction and identity change in Covid-19
tourism. Annals of Tourism Research. 89. p.103211Sharma, G.D., Thomas, A. and Paul,
J., 2021. Reviving tourism industry post-COVID-19: A resilience-based
framework. Tourism management perspectives.37. p.100786.