COVID-19 Impacts on the Tourism Sector
COVID-19 Impacts on the Tourism Sector. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on March 2020. Due to this virus, most countries faced travel bans while institutions and workplaces moved online. The tourism industry was greatly affected as most tourism-dependent countries faced lockdowns and banned travel. Physical distance was encouraged to prevent infection of the virus; The tourism sector involves close contact between hosts and tourists. While most countries banned international travel and announced lockdowns, most businesses closed, which led to economic crisis and unemployment cases.
The economic recession has been a major impact since the emergence of COVID-19. Tourism is known to increase revenue, but the pandemic brought drawbacks to the economy. According to United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), most festivals ceased, while markets and 90% of museums closed. Pak et al. (2020) state that the pandemic caused deaths, workplace absenteeism, and low productivity. The tourism sector was mainly affected as most employees were in close contact with the visitors. Although closing public areas and keeping social distance prevented the virus contraction, closing businesses caused economic fallout.
How the economy has been affected by Covid-19?
The emergence of coronavirus led to the suspension of businesses and staff layoffs; the pandemic affected destinations that mostly relied on tourism for revenue leading to stress and frustration. According to Nghiem and Wilson (2021), economic hardship causes stress and loneliness, which may later lead to a high risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. Wang et al. (2016) claim that CVD is still the leading cause of death worldwide, estimated at 17.8 million deaths. Thus, most tourism-dependent businesses closed, and people lost their jobs, which led to stress and higher risks like CVD mortality.
The tourism sector faced a great fallout due to the rise of the economic crisis and unemployment cases. Tourism-dependent countries suffered as the economy plummeted, whereby most businesses closed and never reopened. In employment sectors, most people suffered frustration and stress as they had no sources of income. Today, the tourism industry has started to rise, however slowly. International tourism has resumed as people take prevention measures. Also, the WHO advises people to take vaccines to reduce virus infections.
References
Nghiem, N., & Wilson, N. (2021). The potential impact of COVID-19 related unemployment on increased cardiovascular disease in a high-income country: Modeling health loss, cost, and equity. PLOS ONE, 16(5), e0246053. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246053
Pak, A., Adegboye, O., Adekunle, A., Rahman, K., McBryde, E., & Eisen, D. (2020). Economic consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak: The Need for Epidemic Preparedness. Frontiers in Public Health, 8. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00241/full
United Nations World Tourism Organization. (2020). Tourism and covid-19 – unprecedented economic impacts. https://www.unwto.org/tourism-and-covid-19-unprecedented-economic-impacts
Wang, H., Naghavi, M., Allen, C., Barber, R. M., Bhutta, Z. A., Carter, A., & Bell, M. L. (2016). Global, regional, and national life expectancy, all-cause mortality, and cause-specific mortality for 249 causes of death, 1980–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. The lancet, 388(10053), 1459-1544.