Analyzing the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on UK Tourism Sector

This essay evaluates the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the UK's tourism industry, a crucial sector contributing significantly to the nation's GDP and employment. It details the origins and context of the pandemic, highlighting how its rapid spread led to global travel restrictions and a dramatic decline in tourism revenue. The essay discusses the importance of tourism to the UK economy, the specific challenges faced during the pandemic, and the government's response, including financial relief and safety measures. Concluding with recommendations for the industry's recovery, such as tax relief and enhanced safety protocols, the essay underscores the need for sustained efforts to rebuild confidence and revitalize the UK tourism sector.

The impact of the Covid-19
pandemic on the UK tourism
Industry

This essay will be aiming at the evaluation and the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the
tourism industry of UK. In Britain tourism industry is one of the most revenue generating sector
for the country's economy (Bambra, and et.al. 2020). The essay will be elaborating about the real
issue of Covid-19 its background and context. Further more will be discussed that how this virus
triggered a global crisis and how it affected the tourism industry especially in Britain. There will
be discussed that how important the tourism industry is for the economy of the Britain. In this
essay there will be further more explanation about the place that the tourism industry holds in the
economy of UK. That has been affected by this pandemic. In addition to this, the essay will
provide a brief summary of all the information. And recommendations on what steps the tourism
industry can take to recover from the crisis.
Covid-19 pandemic issue its definition, background and its context
The real issue of the Covid-19 pandemic is that it is a respiratory disease which spreads
through air. This nature of this virus made an impact on every sector of this world. The pandemic
can be defined as the crowd pandemic. This disease spreads through the droplets and the virus
particles released in air. It spreads from person to person just by touching or talking to anyone.
Public places where the crowd is heavy has the highest chances of spreading this disease. This is
a respiratory disease which was identified for the first time after the break out in Wuhan, China.
This disease has a real quick spreading behaviour which created a pandemic all over the world in
just a few months (Ahn and Norwood, 2021). The virus mainly attacks on the lungs of humans
and makes it hard for them to breath. It also effects on many parts of a human's body and causes
muscle pain. The context of this pandemic explains that this pandemic is the case of one of the
most infectious disease. It impacted most of the countries of this world and made them to create
restrictions for their people and for the world. The spread of the Covid-19 made countries to
bound their businesses to only themselves by banning international travelling, trade and exports.
Some countries imposed lock downs to prevent the spread of this virus and increasing the spread
of this disease. This pandemic caused crisis in almost every sector of every country by stopping
their work. Covid-19 pandemic has caused big crisis in the tourism industry of the world. This
industry saw the highest downfall because during the pandemic the international travelling was

banned in many countries. In the whole world tourism industry saw a downfall of almost around
60 to 80% of revenue generation (Importance of tourism, 2022). The economy of many countries
is dependent on tourism industry and the pandemic hit their economy directly. This pandemic
made an impact on tourism industry of UK by reducing the monthly air passenger arrivals.
Britain saw a downfall of almost 98% of passengers between February to April 2020. This made
the hotels and travel agency business of UK to see a downfall of 9% in their businesses in 2020.
Many people whose employment was associated with tourism saw a downfall because of the
pandemic and left many people unemployed. This made an impact on the economy of UK.
Importance of tourism sector in UK
The tourism industry in UK plays an important role as it is one of the main revenue
generating source of UK. This sector contributes around 106 billion British pounds to the gross
domestic production (GDP) of British economy. It also provides almost more than 2 million jobs
to the country. The pandemic made an impact on the tourism industry and on the economy of
UK. Tourism industry gave business and employment to many people and made them earn
income through the tourists. Now the government is planning to boost industry again as it is one
of the main revenue generating source for the country. The ultimate aim is to boost economy by
investing more in this sector (Statistics of UK, 2022). Historical and cultural places of UK is one
of the most important places that can give a rise to tourism sector in UK. The country is famous
for its forts and castles and many beautiful landscapes. There are so many beautiful and
important places that attracts the attention of many tourists all over the world. The government of
UK is trying their best to make their tourist points more attractive by protecting and preserving
their historical and cultural places. The economy of UK is made almost 80% of English tourism
as it is very beneficial for the people of the country as well as for the income generating source
of the country. Tourism holds a very important place in the economy of UK by being a huge
source of revenue generation. This sector is said to grow at a rate of 3% annually until 2025. The
tourists love to spend their holidays at a place where the nature and natural heritage is beautiful.
UK is known to be one of the most beautiful country in the world when it comes to natural and
historic beauty. The government of UK sees a lot of potentials in generating revenue from
tourism sector by protecting their natural heritage and culture (Banks and Xu, X. 2020). Natural
beauty of Britain attracts most of the tourists across the globe. This sector is very important to

the government of UK as it contributes a huge part in gross domestic production (GDP) of the
economy of UK. Tourist visits the country and spends a lot of money which creates a lot of
revenue generation for the country. During 2016 tourists spent more than 22 billion British
pounds.
Impact on UK tourism industry and how it responded
The pandemic made a huge impact on tourism industry of UK by preventing travellers
from arriving. For the fear of spread of the disease many countries restricted their borders only to
themselves. Countries banned international travelling so that the disease will not spread. The
economy of UK felt the impact when the tourism industry of UK was impacted. A huge number
of international air passengers decreased from more than 6 million to only a few thousand
passengers in 2020. Hotel businesses of UK also saw a downfall in their room occupancy only
20% from 90% in 2020. People who were getting employment from the tourism sector also had
to face problems as there was no business when there were no tourists (Ali, 2020). The world
when opened up after the first wave there was a minor rise in tourism but as the second and third
wave hit the world industry again felt down. This created a lot of problems for the economy of
UK. Tourism was the most affected industry of UK as no visitors were interested in leaving their
country during the pandemic. In response to the pandemic UK tourism industry took many
actions to improve and provide better and safe services to the tourists. Government of UK
invested in health and safety of the people of the country as well as for the visitors. They made it
compulsory for every one to follow the guidelines that is imposed on the people of the country.
In the response of the pandemic the Government of UK invested more in the tourism sector of
their country. Many reliefs were given to the tourism sector of UK for rising again such as tax
reduction for the time when industry was falling down. Tourism packs were offered from the
side of UK government to the communities dependent on tourism (Omer, Malani and Del Rio,
2020). Government of UK has provided relief of at least 25 billion British pounds. The industrial
sector of UK also made a lot of efforts to boost the growth again of this industry. They
implemented a lot of new security and safety guidelines that can ensure the tourists that
travelling to UK is safe. The industry created a discipline in security check ups of the visitors so
that the country can ensure that both visitors and the locals of the country is safe. The industry
made it compulsory for hotels to provide safety kits to the tourists.

Thus, It can be concluded that along with the main issue of the pandemic and its
background and context can be kept in consideration. The virus triggered a global crisis by
obligating the countries to restrict international trade and travel. The tourism sector in UK is one
of the main sources of revenue generation for Britain. In UK industry of tourism has been
impacted the most as the fear of disease was the main reason. People were not considering to
travel to any other countries during the pandemic. Industry took the precautions and full
measures of safety of travellers. In the end it can be recommended that the industry can take
several steps to recover from the crisis. The industry should provide tax relief to the businesses
associated with tourism. Industry should impose the safety guidelines on the hotel lines for
creating a safe and secure environment for the tourists.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Ahn, S. and Norwood, F.B., 2021. Measuring food insecurity during the COVID‐19 pandemic of
spring 2020. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. 43(1). pp.162-168.
Ali, I., 2020. The covid-19 pandemic: Making sense of rumor and fear: Op-ed. Medical
anthropology. 39(5). pp.376-379.
Bambra, C. and et.al., 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic and health inequalities. J Epidemiol
Community Health. 74(11). pp.964-968.
Banks, J. and Xu, X., 2020. The mental health effects of the first two months of lockdown during
the COVID‐19 pandemic in the UK. Fiscal Studies. 41(3). pp.685-708.
Omer, S.B., Malani, P. and Del Rio, C., 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic in the US: a clinical
update. Jama. 323(18). pp.1767-1768.
Online
Importance of tourism. 2022. [Online]. Available through <https://www.visitbritain.org/value-
tourism-england#:~:text=Taking%20into%20account%20direct%20and,billion%2C
%20supporting%201.4%20million%20jobs.>
Statistics of UK. 2022. [Online]. Available through <https://www.condorferries.co.uk/uk-
tourism-statistics>
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