Travel and tourism industry presently accounts for 10% of the world GDP. Coronavirus epidemic has 50 million jobs in the global travel and tourism business at risk, with travel likely to slump down by a quarter the next year, Asia being the most affected continent.
The Airlines and Cruise Ships are currently more affected than hotels. The World Travel and Tourism Council has come up with a warning that the COVID-19 pandemic can cut 50 million jobs all over the world in the travel as well as tourism industry.
Asian part in the world is expected to be the worst affected. When the outbreak gets over, it can take up to 10 months for the industry to recover.
The impact could depend on how long the epidemic lasts and still by recent restrictive measures, like those taken by the U.S. administration on travel to Europe.
Airlines have seen a sharp descend in passengers. Over 8.5 lakh people travel every month from Europe to the US, equal to a $3.4 billion per month contribution to the U.S. economy.
Of the 55 million jobs that could be lost, around 35 million could be in Asia, seven million in Europe, 5 million in the Americas and other continents. The equivalent loss of 3 months of global travel in 2020 woud lead to reduction in jobs of between 12% and 14%, also calling on governments to remove or simplify visas, decreases travel taxes and introductiopn of incentives once the epidemic comes under control.
In this sector, travelers can postpone and not cancel their plans. It can take around 10 months for tourism industry to recover from the shock of coronavirus. By the sector, airlines and cruise ships were currently being more impacted than hotels. The tourism industry gives 10% of the world GDP and related jobs.
The Covid-19 pandemic placed the tourism industry under immense financial strain. A catastropic stiuation has unfolded around the world in the couple of months is unprecedented. In uncertainty period, all industries are reeling but it is the hospitality and tourism sector that has been hit the most due to border close downs, travel restrictions and lockdowns. Airlines, hotels and cruise operators are having effects of this pandemic.
Within the travel industry, sharing of information, mutual collaboration, and linking up efforts towards goals, have perhaps never been as vital as they are today.
The only thing we could currently do is to remain safe, stay united, and stand strong as we are all in this together. We require to channel our energy towards innovative ideas, enhance our knowledge and skills and attend webinars.
The problems, like the current situation, are not stop signs. They are guidelines that will prepare us, teach us, and make us stronger. Therefore, we need to stay positive and be ready with new ideas to bounce back. The priority has to be safeguarding everybody against Covid-19 and to care for each other.
It is too early to spot signs of what consumers will do and in what kind of time frame. We should adept at putting out domestic as well as international short-haul programmes. Because it is quite likely that people would want to do this kind of travel first, once the lockdown is over. We should keep attending webinars, active, collaborating with travel industry peers and making sure that we care employees with whatever bare minimum we need in order to survive difficult era. It is a wait and watch scenario for the day.
The tourism sector is founded always on good communication between community. We have to keepthe interest in the destinations alive so that consumers have a desire to travel there once the restrictions are lifted.
The current lockdown has given an opportunity to train a large number of travel agents about Ireland and Victoria as destinations. As people are stuck at home and digital and social media usage has gone up, this is the right time to get attention and get people to think about visiting destinations like Melbourne, Victoria, Ireland. People can be inspired to take a trip after the lockdown phase.
People must be encouraged in the lockdown and believe things will go back to normal soon. However, on the business front, we must make sure travel partners prepare for business after about 4 months from now, by attempting various specialist programmes on countries as well as by holding travel service-related webinars.
The industry will incur enormous damages globally from travel to flying and hospitality, as it has been the first industry to get affected and it might well be the last to recover from it. Once the situation settles, the prediction of travel to resume initially for weekend stays, road trips and domestic tours. It will be later followed by international travel. If the government would not step up to help in reviving the travel industry, many companies will shut down resulting in huge unemployment. Even after situations get better, travel industry do not expect an overnight recovery. In order to sustain it is essential for the government to come up with a plan to support businesses and facilitate recovery.
Travel, before pandemic, will take many months to bounce back. Even when it will, travellers are hopefully going to be more mindful about where they travel to. They will appreciate destinations more, they will look at ways to connect with those, and will also slow down the effects in each place. The demand will be more for the less crowded holiday destinations and people may thankfully avoid popular and crowded spots like Venice, Paris, and Barcelona. Hopefully travel industry will get over the problem of over-tourism.
There is a lot of uncertainty over things that when will these get back to normal. Enactment of budgets, customer confidence and Flight connectivity, are all crucial factors in deciding what the future looks like. Business travel will definitely decrease as people are getting comfortable and accustomed to doing business online and on video conferencing.
Leisure travel and VFR will pick up definitely once travel is considered safe as there will be a pent-up demand for meeting family and holidaying. MICE business is assumed to be affected in the short term, since the lockdown, performances of companies will be affected and they might not invest initially in MICE trips. Cruise ship and Coach Tours business is likely to be worst affected since people will not want to travel in large groups.
Safety is one of the most deciding factors when one plans to travel. Regarding Indian travellers, industry expects a very low movement to countries which are affected the most due to pandemic for the next six months. Post the lockdown, industry expect only VFR’s, business travellers and student travels. Travel industry might see leisure travellers in those less corona affected countries. Initially, there will be more longer waiting hours and extensive corona checks and body screenings at many international airports. This might be challenging specially for elderly people travellers who are unwell, and those travelling with small children.