Covid 19 impact on tourism industry
The covid 19 epidemic started from Wuhan china on December, 2019 has invaded the world. The covid 19 effect is not only in one country but it has plagued the world. It is very difficult to explain the impact of covid 19 pandemic on world’s economy. Even those countries with larger economies in the world have not been spared from covid 19. Among the various pillars of the economy, the biggest impact has been on the tourism industry. Not only hotel, aviation, transportation and travel companies but also overall economic sector that directly and indirectly linked with tourism industry have been negatively affected.
As soon as Covid 19 started, the first impact on the tourism industry was seen in the aviation sector of the industry. Due to which many aviation company around the globe suffered huge economic losses. Many flights were canceled and passenger were stranded. After aviation sector next impact are followed by travel companies and hotel sector of the industry. Many travel companies of different country had to refund airline tickets and pre booking amount and are hardly able to pay to their employees. Many travel companies were shut down and some of them went bankrupt. The same case goes to the hotel sector. Many hotels were shut down and went bankrupt. Millions of employees and stakeholders related to tourism industry are badly affected with covid 19 pandemic.
Covid 19 has greatly affected on nature tourism. It has negatively influenced various programs for forest and wildlife preservation. Since nature tourism is based on forest and wildlife reserve, yearly large amount of revenue generated from nature tourism. Almost every year large amount of funds were provided by tourism industry to forest and wildlife preservation, but with a covid 19 pandemic the area has stopped receiving grants. This will adversely affect the conservation of forest and wildlife preservation in coming years.
The epidemic has affected not only on nature tourism but also the socio-cultural and archeological sites. The epidemic has badly affected the community participation in natural and socio-cultural tourism. Due to covid 19 pandemic income of ethnic communities have been cut off, which leads to demotivation to participation on socio-cultural tourism by communities. This is very serious problem both culturally and economically. Covid 19 has put more pressure on ethnic communities and indigenous tribes of all the region around the globe who are linked with tourism industry. It has also pressure on conservation and promotion of heritage sites.
The world economy needs tourism sector to rise in its original figure. Sooner or later the tourism industry need to be again flourish and contributes on world’s economy. The employment needs to regenerated, all the tourism sector need to be restarted with more health precautions and should implement new methods and tools on tourism industry.
