COVID-19: Story 4 -Tourism Turmoil in Novel Coronavirus Outbreak

Ahmedabad, April 1, 2020: We are very much aware that COVID-19 has silenced everything from man to machinery, only nature is very active. But, tourism that is close to nature and people always to go discover and explore nature’s beauty, travel & tourism is the only carrier through which people travel to explore. Tourism Industry is entering a great crisis due to the worldwide panic of Coronavirus. Duration and scope still unknown, which is leading to the stock market crash continued for a week to all the giants of the sector. Impact of the COVID-19 on world tourism is unquestionable, and the authorities' forecasts are based on previous experiences with similar crises such as that of SARS or H1N1.

The coronavirus outbreak that has spread to all continents barring Antarctica has brought the travel and tourism sector to a standstill. There is a global scare. It is not just about India. People are not wanting to step out anywhere. If the entire economy is getting impacted, tourism would get hit too.

According to industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), this is one of the worst crises ever to hit Indian tourism industry impacting all its geographical segments - inbound, outbound and domestic, almost all tourism verticals - leisure, adventure, heritage, MICE, cruise, corporate and niche segments. The whole tourism value chain across hotels, travel agents, tour operations, destinations, restaurants, family entertainment venues, and air, land and sea transportation has been hit.

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) says up to 50 million jobs could be lost because of the pandemic. New figures from the WTTC suggests that the travel sector could shrink by up to 25% in 2020. But the present scenario says it could worst than that.

Contributed by: Bharat Thakkar, Business Mentor and Founder of Business Growth Technique Partners Network (BGTPN) and Dr. Shashikant Bhagat, Faculty, National Institute of Mass Communication and Journalism (NIMCJ), Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.