Coronavirus Impact on Travel & Tourism Industry & Steps for Revival of Tourism/Hospitality/Events/Aviation Industry in India -
The Impact of Coronavirus on Global Tourism Industry including Air Travel, Hotels, Aviation, Events & Meetings industry has been severe and has brought down the entire once flourishing trade to A grinding halt since outbreak of Covid-19 in November 2020 and subsequent lock downs the world over.
The technological developments of last decade which brought the entire world together at the click of A mouse leading to unprecedented growth and surge in tourism industry around the globe nearly came to nothing as the fear of uncontrollable rise in patients count due to Coronavirus Epidemic forced countries & their leaders to announce borders closures & the fear of contracting the invisible virus strain forced people all over the world to stay indoors and abandon their travel + holiday plans.
Financial & Employment Impact of Coronavirus on Global Tourism Industry
The World Travel & Tourism Council early data suggests losses running into 50 Billion Dollars already & if the lock downs are further extended than financial wealth erosion to the tune of 2 Trillion dollars is foreseen along with negative impact and serious implications on lives and livelihoods of 75 million people employed directly/indirectly in leisure-hotels-resort-airline-car rental-cruise-restaurants-theme park and monuments industries.
Suggested Reading- https://www.unwto.org/tourism-and-covid-19-unprecedented-economic-impacts
Impact of Coronavirus on GDP Of Tourism Dependent Economies in Europe, Asia & South America
As nations and societies crawl back to normalcy after the corona lock down jolt and pick up threads to rebuild their economies, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the recovery path will be long and hard, Costa Rica, Greece, Thailand , Morocco and Portugal some of world’s biggest tourism dependent nations could see their GDP contract by more than 3% due to complete decimation of tourist arrivals.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects resumption of tourism activity from September 2020 onward but more worryingly forecasts nearly 70% drop in tourism spend.
The below chart shows and calculates how drop in tourist arrivals and loss of income due to low tourism spends can directly impact imports, exports & current account balances (measure of A nation’s total transactions with rest of the world, which includes but not limited to trade in goods & services ) of tourism dependent nations around the world.
Reference links: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7474895/
Change in Customer Preferences Due to Impact of Coronavirus on Tourism Industry in India: Drivable- Weekend Breaks & Short Haul Destinations will Revive The Growth.
World Travel & Tourism Council on the basis of various consumer behavior studies and market research patterns predicts that the recovery in tourism is likely to move in direction of proximity and ease of getting to the destination where short haul and weekend destinations on top priority followed by inter state travel, moving to inter regional and lastly to cross border & long haul destinations.
For Countries like India this could result in significant large numbers of domestic travelers and huge variety of cultural , beaches and historical sites are likely to witness a sharp and sudden surge in domestic tourism activity leading to fast rebound .
Another visible gain for Domestic segment of India Tourism for next 12-24 months is seen in the form of reverse migration of large chunk of high spending travelers shifting their vacation plans back from international destinations (2019- 4.5 million travelers/29 billion USD spent) to domestic travel with leisure travel to weekend destinations & weekend resorts near Delhi, weekend resort near gurgaon with private pool, best weekend resort near mahabalipuram, covidsafe resorts near Mumbai, virus safe resorts near bangalore, luxury & covidsafe villas in Goa, covidsafe destination wedding resorts in rajasthan, jaipur, udaipur, jodhpur, bikaner, Agra, luxury wedding resorts in ranthambhore & pushkar, leading the pack followed by travel to meet relatives & friends close second reason to travel.
Also worth reading is the Global Tourism Demand & Recovery Index Created for Asia pacific region by WTTC in collaboration with Mckinsey & Co https://wttc.org/Research/Recovery-Dashboard and another interesting bit of info graphic created by Global Tourism Consulting company SKIFT on how consumer confidence is measuring up after the 6 month lock down which on A baseline score of 100 stood at 42 during the week ending 16th Aug 2020 (up from worse ever score of 16 during April 2020 month).
As A part of global tourism industry recovery and to install confidence back in the minds of travelers, The world tourism & travel council has launched A mega confidence building initiative, where stake holders in tourism boards, destination marketing companies, hotels, airlines, car rental companies, yacht & cruise owners, monuments, gaming parks, casino’s, restaurant, adventure sports companies etc can apply #safetravel stamp from WTTC after confirming that all required health and safety protocols have been established at their premises and are completely aligned with global safe travel protocols & guidelines laid out by WTTC.
Countries which are already using the safe travels stamp includes Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Maldives, Kenya, Jordan, Spain, Turkey, Trinidad & Tobago, Tanzania, Srilanka & Ukraine to name A few .
What can stake holders of India Tourism do to bring back tourists from around the world and revive the battered & bruised hospitality, hotels, airlines, tourism, events, wedding industry ??
And there’s A lesson for all countries & national tourism boards of the world that can be learnt from #visitportugal tourism ministry, where it’s in collaboration with RNA Assistance Insurance launched A covid19 safety travel insurance package https://www.visitportugal.com/en/content/portugal-travel-insurance covering surgical, pharmaceutical and hospitalization expenses at a nominal premium to address the pandemic fears & try to win the confidence of the traveler community from Europe and around the world.