Analysis of the COVID-19 Pandemic's Detrimental Impact on UK Tourism

This report analyzes the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the UK tourism industry. The tourism sector, once a rapidly growing part of the UK economy, faced unprecedented challenges due to travel restrictions, lockdowns, and reduced mobility. The report details the economic losses, including a sharp decline in air passenger numbers and significant drops in revenue for travel agencies and accommodation businesses. It also explores the social and political effects, such as increased unemployment and the implementation of measures like quarantine and social distancing. The analysis highlights the government's restrictions on travel, the role of the British Tourist Authority in supporting recovery, and the need for strategic initiatives like rapid testing and green investments to revitalize the sector. The report concludes by emphasizing the long-term challenges and the ongoing efforts to restore the UK's position as a leading global destination for both leisure and business travel.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EFFECT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON TOURISM INDUSTRY.............................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

EFFECT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON TOURISM INDUSTRY
The pandemic of COVID-19 has caused global disruption to the tourism and travel industry.
The tourism industry is one of the hardest and the first hit sectors by the pandemic of COVID-19.
The pandemic was completely bad for the businesses especially the travel and tourism industry
of UK (Baum and Hai, 2020). Before the happening of the pandemic, this industry was one of
the fastest growing sectors in UK. It was also predicted before the pandemic that the industry is
going to reach £257bn till 2025. But after the pandemic, the industry is set to lose £37bn this
year. The people who were solely depended on the tourism and travel faced the economic pain
and suffering as their livelihood was completely affected by the same (Impacts on the UK
tourism industry from COVID-19 examined, 2020). The disease which was caused by the new
strain of coronavirus which was referred as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
basically known as SARS-CoV-2 impacted the travel and tourism behaviour as compared to any
other disease till now. The tourism in UK has become the public face of COVID-19 outside the
health sphere of public (Weed, 2020). This can also be said that the tourism has contributed to
the disease and the negative effects were seen by the same because tourism let the people
connect to one another and also to go from one place to other which were the main reason for the
disease of pandemic.
Due to the pandemic and because of its global reach, the disease was tend to be controlled
by the quarantine, isolation and reduced mobility which impacted the tourism and travel greatly
(Coronavirus: UK 'could lose £60m a day' as tourism slumps, 2020). Not only tourism, but these
restrictions on the mobility has also impacted the hospitality, restaurants, travel and booking
agencies, transport, events, conventions and the attractions (Karabulut and et.al., 2020). This was
observed that the in February 2020, the monthly air passengers were almost 6,804,900 in number
which fell to almost 112,300 in April 2020 which was almost a fall of 98.3% (UK flight ban due
to new Covid strain will impact tourism in Goa: CM Sawant, 2020). The travel agency and the
accommodation businesses also faced the sharpest decline during the first national lockdown
which was almost 9.3% less in May 2020 as compared to February 2020. Also, the people of the
age group 16 to 24 faced the largest fall in the employment in the travel and tourism industries in
UK (Tourism in the UK-post covid, 2020). The government has totally restricted the tourism and
travel in any part of the world due to the pandemic of COVID-19. Before the national lockdown
was announced on 23rd March, the UK has already discouraged the unnecessary travels and on
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17th March, all the non-essential overseas travel was restricted. The flights were also completely
suspended in UK (Drop in tourism could wipe £22bn from UK economy, says WTTC, 2020).
In June 2020, when the things were somewhat relaxed with the opening of non-essential
retail, the quarantine free travel corridors were implemented in July. The operations were going
on smoothly but the travel and tourism were again impacted by second and third lockdowns in
November 2020 and January 2021 and also there was a suspension of the travel corridors on 18
January 2021. The business in tours and travels also faced a greater decline as compared to other
industries. The business of accommodation and the travel agencies faced the sharpest decline
regarding the turnover (Zhang and et.al., 2021). Not only had the business, the labour market in
the tourism and travel industries also suffered a lot. The pandemic of COVID-19 also impacted
the employment in the tours and travels companies. The people whose main job was in the tours
and travels industry became unemployed which made difficult for them to earn their livelihood.
The pandemic has not impacted the tourism sector economically but also socially and politically
(Wen and et.al., 2020). With the increase in the infected cases in the country, many measures and
campaigns were implemented such as community lockdowns, social distancing, stay and work at
home, curbs on crowding, self and mandatory quarantine etc. All these measures created pressure
which halted the business of tourism. The recession and depression was created due to this
change in the system (Impact of COVID-19 on UK travel and tourism industry, 2021).
The tourism sector is considered as the industry which benefits many other industries such as
retail, entertainment, catering, lodging, transportation etc. The pandemic is not only affecting this
sector now but it is considered to be affecting the same for more than 2 years (Gössling, Scott
and Hall, 2020).
In order to come up from this issue and problems, the British Tourist Authority played a major
role in these challenging times. The objective of this authority is ensuring the rebounding of the
tourism so that it can become the successful sector in UK (Bas and Sivaprasad, 2020). The
authority is supporting the important assets which are the staff of the tourism companies.
It was observed that the country will take years to recover from the demand slump which
becomes a threat for the position of London as the premier hubs in world for leisure and business
travel. There is a need to replace the measures of stop-start quarantine with cost-effective,
comprehensive and rapid test programmes especially at the departure points in the country. The
main areas which must be focussed on to transform the tourism needs. The socio-economic
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impacts on the livelihoods must be mitigated including the economic security and women’s
employment. The digital and innovation must be advanced particularly for the workers who lost
their jobs and the job seekers (The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis on the Travel and
Tourism Sector: UK Evidence
, 2020). The sustainability must be fostered by making green investments which can help in
making competitive, resilient and carbon-neutral tourism sector (Khalid, Okafor and Burzynska,
2021). This will help in restarting and recovering the tourism sector in a very coordinated and
responsible manner. This is how, the pandemic of COVID-19 affected the tourism and travel
industry in UK and the government of the country and the people involved in the sector are
striving hard to come up with the situation by facing all the challenges to maintain the position of
the sector in UK (Coronavirus and the impact on the UK travel and tourism industry, 2020).
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baum, T. and Hai, N.T.T., 2020. Hospitality, tourism, human rights and the impact of COVID-
19. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Gössling, S., Scott, D. and Hall, C.M., 2020. Pandemics, tourism and global change: a rapid
assessment of COVID-19. Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 29(1). pp.1-20.
Karabulut, G. and et.al., 2020. How pandemics affect tourism: International evidence. Annals of
Tourism Research. 84. p.102991.
Weed, M., 2020. The role of the interface of sport and tourism in the response to the COVID-19
pandemic.
Zhang, H. and et.al., 2021. Forecasting tourism recovery amid COVID-19. Annals of Tourism
Research. 87. p.103149.
Wen, J. and et.al., 2020. COVID-19: potential effects on Chinese citizens’ lifestyle and
travel. Tourism Review.
Bas, T. and Sivaprasad, S., 2020. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis on the travel and
tourism sector: UK evidence. Available at SSRN 3623404.
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,
pp.1-20.
Online
Impacts on the UK tourism industry from COVID-19 examined, 2020. [ONLINE]. Available
through :< https://committees.parliament.uk/work/250/impact-of-covid19-on-dcms-
sectors/news/114657/impacts-on-the-uk-tourism-industry-from-covid19-coronavirus-
examined/>
Impact of COVID-19 on UK travel and tourism industry, 2021. [ONLINE]. Available through :<
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/impact-of-coronavirus-covid-19-on-the-uk-
travel-and-tourism-industry>
Coronavirus and the impact on the UK travel and tourism industry, 2020. [ONLINE]. Available
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coronavirusandtheimpactontheuktravelandtourismindustry/2021-02-15#:~:text=The
%20travel%20and%20tourism%20industries,for%20large%20periods%20of%20time.>
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Tourism in the UK-post covid, 2020. [ONLINE]. Available through :<
https://www.icaew.com/technical/business-and-management/business-and-
management-faculty/business-and-management-magazine/bam-july-august-2020/
tourism-in-the-uk-post-covid>
Coronavirus: UK 'could lose £60m a day' as tourism slumps, 2020. [ONLINE]. Available
through :< https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53921106>
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis on the Travel and Tourism Sector: UK Evidence
, 2020. [ONLINE]. Available through :< https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?
abstract_id=3623404>
Drop in tourism could wipe £22bn from UK economy, says WTTC, 2020. [ONLINE]. Available
through :< theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/26/drop-in-tourism-could-wipe-22bn-
from-uk-economy-says-wttc-covid-19>
UK flight ban due to new Covid strain will impact tourism in Goa: CM Sawant, 2020.
[ONLINE]. Available through :< https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-
affairs/uk-flight-ban-due-to-new-covid-strain-will-impact-tourism-in-goa-cm-sawant-
120122200342_1.html>
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