COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges in Hospitality, Leisure & Travel

This essay examines the multifaceted impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the hospitality, leisure, and travel industries. It highlights the initial negative consequences such as border closures, grounded flights, and shuttered establishments, leading to significant financial losses for businesses. The essay also explores the positive adaptations and responses of organizations, including capitalizing on increased demand for travel during initial lockdowns and shifting towards delivery services. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of technology adoption and heightened health and hygiene standards. Ultimately, the essay concludes that while COVID-19 presented substantial challenges, the resilience and adaptability of businesses within the travel industry have been crucial for survival and potential future revival, with support from organizations like the World Travel Organisation.

Challenges of
hospitality Leisure and
Travel industry during
Covid19 Pandemic

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERNCES:..................................................................................................................................6
Books and Journals:....................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
COVID 19 stands for Corona Virus Disease widely spread from 2019. It is a contiguous
disease related to respiration which has its spread all over the world and became an ongoing
pandemic for the world (Naseri, 2021). With the high spread of the disease the government of
various countries has decided to seal the borders so that no infected person can be able to
communicate with other person in the country which has a very bad impact on the businesses of
several industries. Travel industry includes various organisations which are involved in the
business of to and fro of both things and people all over the world. Organisations in travel
industry helps a person to allow their movement from one place to another. One of these
industries which are impacted with the COVID 19 is the travel industry as seal of borders almost
stop the travelling of people from one place to another. This became a major issue for an
economy as travel industry provides a large share to the GDP of any company. There are both
kind of impact on travel industry due to this pandemic that is positive as well as negative. This
essay is going to explain the positive as well as negative impact on the business of organisation
in travel industry and the way they respond to it. Every business have different kinds of impact
due to the COVID 19.
MAIN BODY
With the government rule of social distancing, quarantine, isolation and sealing of
borders to prevent the spread of COVID 19, The most popular industry which has a major impact
is the travel industry. As it affects the business of organisations operating in this industry in very
negative manner (Amankwah-Amoah, 2020). Travel industry is the most profitable industry all
over the world which is well known for its contribution to the economy of all the countries. But
with the impact of pandemic the organisations in travel industry faces a severe loss. The flights
are grounded, train and public transports are also stopped to travel from here and there. Not only
this, the pandemic has also decline the local travel as due to lock down cafe, pubs, restaurants,
hotels all are required to be shuttered down. The policy to maintain social distancing and mask in
marketplace has changes everything as people are not able to have a great time with their local
travelling in these places. This has a great effect on the business of all the organisation which are
considered to be covered in travel industry. It has also been observed that companies also has a
negative reaction towards this pandemic as they are not able to have any idea regarding their

continuation of business like other business are doing (Choudhari, 2020). Their negative reaction
to this pandemic also include the major hike in the prices of the fares in the organisation in air
industry. There are many flights which are allowed by government with a proper safety
measures and social distancing protocol during the time of lock down so that the people who
stuck in the country can be able to reach at their home places but the due to high demand there
are many companies who allowed people more than the capacity after application of social
distancing protocol. This is considered as a negative reaction from the companies towards this
situation of pandemic. This reaction from various organisations in the industry is not in flights
but also with other modes of transportation all over the world. After this there is a major negative
impact on the business of Travel industry as they are not able to attract customers due to travel
restrictions but they are required to pay their labours and other fixed expenses which has create a
great loss to many organisations which results in permanent shut of their business. There are so
many organisations who are in complete mess due to this situation.
In spite of having all the negative impacts, the companies which are operating in travel
industry also have some of the positive impacts on their business. One of the impact is that with
the declaration of lock down in the market the demand of travelling of people leaving outside to
go at their places increases (De Guzman, and Malik, 2020). This has provide customers to
organizations on high prices due to market forces. This results in high profits to the organisation
operating in travel industry which shows a positive impact of lock down due to COVID 19 on
travel industry. After few days of this the business of organisations decline on a rapid pace that
they were not even able to get one or two customers. But there are many organisations who react
to this situation in positive manner and fine some business from them. With the lock down
situation when people are unable to go out to purchase essential the trend of online shopping has
increased on rapid pace. This has give a rise to the delivery services to the home of the customers
(Yezli, and Khan, 2020). This home delivery to the customers from various places has increased
the business of organisations which are operating in travel industry. The organisations react
positively in this mode of business and start something that is effective for their business and its
survival in the market. Another positive impact of COVID 19 on the business is that the
organisations learn to cope with difficult situation and identify the role of technology in their
business in order to reduce their cost. Travel industry is a high growth industry which provides
highest share to the GDP of any country. The COVID 19 creates a worst situation for the

organisation which they learn to cope with this situation (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2020). The most
positive impact of COVID 19 is that it makes the organisation realize about the importance of
health and hygiene of both their employees as well as customers. With the guidelines of the
government it has been observed that there is a high need for the organisation to keep themselves
focused on the health and hygiene of people which includes proper cleaning of places, proper
sanitization and health care. The spread of deadly people make people realize the importance of
health and hygiene and organisations find it necessary to adopt the healthy habits in their
working. The organisation react positively towards the situation and find many ways to increase
their business. They positivity is seen in the efforts of the company that they make their
employees motivated to work in this tough situation and provide services to their customers in
effective manner (Kumar, and Nafi, 2020).
CONCLUSION
This essay helps to conclude that the COVID 19 has both type of effects on the business
of travel industry which completely depend upon the organisation how they respond to the
situation in the organisation. Although it has major negative effect on the business of travel
industry but the efforts of organisations towards their success helps the industry to get some
positivity from this negative situation. It is essential for the company to identify the potential
opportunities in the market. When COVID19 has reduced the travelling business across countries
and states to maintain social distance the organisation finds a way to follow all the safety
measures in their transportation make themselves available for their customers in the initial
times. Further, when the demand has decreased rapidly after implication of strict rules from the
government it has been observed that the companies in the industry finds business to provide
deliveries to the places of people and transportation of things became their main business. This
essay helps to understand that the organisations in the business have a good reaction towards the
situation to sustain in the market. Understanding the importance of travel industry for every
economy, World travel organisation has decided to provide various implications and rules to
initiate and encourage travel across the borders. They has provided several policies to the people
so that the industry can be able to revive themselves and travelling can again be restarted all over
the world. In the future when travel industry will start their operations they are required to follow
several essential policies such as COVID test report of the traveller, isolation, Proper cleaning
and sanitisation on regular basis in timely manner and many more. This will help the business to

fulfil the demands of the market and find way to achieve success as well as revive business in
effective manner.
REFERNCES:
Books and Journals:
Naseri, R.N.N., 2021. Issues And Challenges Of Online Shoppingactivities On The Impact Of
Corona Pandemic: A Study On Malaysia Retail Industry. Turkish Journal of Computer
and Mathematics Education (TURCOMAT), 12(10), pp.7682-7686.
Amankwah-Amoah, J., 2020. Stepping up and stepping out of COVID-19: New challenges for
environmental sustainability policies in the global airline industry. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 271, p.123000.
Choudhari, R., 2020. COVID 19 pandemic: mental health challenges of internal migrant workers
of India. Asian journal of psychiatry, 54, p.102254.
De Guzman, R. and Malik, M., 2020. Dual challenge of cancer and COVID-19: impact on health
care and socioeconomic systems in Asia Pacific. JCO Global Oncology, 6, pp.906-912.
Higgins-Desbiolles, F., 2020. The “war over tourism”: challenges to sustainable tourism in the
tourism academy after COVID-19. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 29(4), pp.551-569.
Kumar, S. and 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.
Yezli, S. and Khan, A., 2020. COVID-19 social distancing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Bold
measures in the face of political, economic, social and religious challenges. Travel
Medicine and Infectious Disease, 37, p.101692.