The world is hearing only one word daily, Virus! From November 2019, when the term coronavirus got coined for the first time, the entire planet is under its peril today for about seven months now. Since the same month, when the pandemic hit the world, there have been a lot of cancellations and delays, making no friendly sign for the travel industry.
The international and domestic airlines across the globe are facing a faithful crisis, hotel rooms have empty spaces like never before, and the people have caged within their homes for ages. Welcome to the biggest downfall of the Travel Industry in history!
Not only the Coronavirus has hit hotels and airlines but also have impacted travel agents, family holiday destinations, summer holiday spots, restaurants, tour packages, entertainment venues, land, and sea transportation as well! Evidently, it sounds like no adventure for this year. This article will give you information about how hard the Coronavirus will hit the travel industry, its damage so far, and its ongoing struggle to recover the travel business soon.
- Risk of Job Loss
Let’s consider the torture of COVID-19 on the global travel industry jobs at first rank. The CEO of World Travel and Tourism Council Gloria Guevara says, possibly in this year, 50 million jobs could be at risk worldwide in the travel and tourism industry. The CEO adds that Asia would be the one to get adversely affected with a single-handed loss of 30 million jobs out of the total 50. When the pandemic gets peaceful for the world, the travel industry that contributes 10% of world GDP is likely to recover in the following ten months.
Statista, to add to the discomfort, has whole big numbers of job loss worldwide because of the coronavirus pandemic. The organization has confirmed a sum of 100.8 million jobs worldwide predicted to be at risk because of the coronavirus outbreak out of which Asia, predictably could lose its 63.4 travel industry employees alone. Such a giant job loss worldwide is capable of bringing a condition to worry about feeding millions of families across the globe.
- Pandemic’s Torture on Air Transport Industry
While the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries are suffering from the coronavirus damages, even the airlines’ industry has decimated to a great extent. It looks like if you have travel plans for 2020, it won’t get executed for far-lands till the outbreak ceases. Almost all the overseas flights have been abandoned, and there are significant restrictions on domestic flights of most countries worldwide. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) calculates a possible fall of $252 billion in the air transport industry, equivalent to a 44% downfall compared to the numbers of 2019.
The associations also said that air business behemoths like Delta and United Airlines have cash sufficient to reimburse expenses for only two months before the pandemic hit. Precisely, sector-wise, airlines and cruise ships industries have been harmed more than any other like hotels or resorts. Alone in the USA, the pandemic has affected six times more than the attacks of 9/11, admitted Roger Dow, the president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association.
- Coronavirus is Hard on the Hotel Industry Too
Stacking your bags on the car’s roof racks and going to a summer holiday is possible in the upcoming 2021. The 2020s summer is scorching outside and screwed-up inside. After we have discussed the pandemic problems of employment in the travel industry and ill-effects on the air transport industry, we are moving towards knowing the situation of the hotel and restaurant industry in relation to tourism and travel. For the first time in this era, the percentage of people dining out in seated restaurants staggered to 100% negative. Because of social distancing and no public gatherings, people have become habituated with going out less and less for dining.
Also, the hotels and resorts of travel destinations faced a situation of “no bookings at all” because of the coronavirus pandemic. The luxury and larger upscale hotels have hit hard. The hotels and resorts in some popular cities globally saw a drop in tourist visits and travel stays. Hotel industry giant Marriott Group is out as much as 75 percent from its standard revenue every year. Overall, the global hotel industry is losing $1.4 billion every week because of the hardships of coronavirus.
- Travel Destinations are Under Corona Threat
The current coronavirus pandemic is marking its territory everywhere. So are the traveling destinations getting affected too! The report of the UN World Tourism Department says the trillion-dollar global tourism industry is performing the worst since 1950. Seeing to 2019 reports, world trips could cut-off by 58% to 78%. It can incur a loss in the income of one trillion dollars. The statistics are getting worse since March when the global trips went down by 57%, making the tourism industry blow $80 billion income.
Certain countries have revised their travel policies to know what is the expected loss they will incur because of the pandemic. These countries will allow foreign investment in different sectors to balance the loss from the tourism industry. Saint Lucia is the first country of its kind to announce an alternative plan for reopening the country. (The country’s more than half of GDP contribution came from the travel industry.) European Union countries will welcome tourists after June 15, seeing the updated coordinates of coronavirus pandemic.
The End Notes
No matter how hard has the coronavirus pandemic hit the world nations soon they will stand up stunningly. Although the world may not get rid of entirely from the coronavirus, once the outbreak is over, it will demand a lot of extra effort. Traveling overseas, too, won’t be the same (frequency wise, people will avoid unnecessary trips) as it used to be. The public destinations implementing social distancing all the time, utmost hygienic hotel rooms and flights, cleaning protocols every time you onboard a flight, conducting health tests after entering a new country, and maximum contactless transactions would be the ‘New Normal’ for all the globetrotters.
