The Covid-19 pandemic has caused travel and many service industries around the world to almost "freeze", causing great damage to jobs and revenue for the entire economy in general and the tourism industry in particular.
As of early April, the tourism industry in general and the aviation industry in particular are facing a risky future due to the Covid-19 pandemic. On April 2, National Geographic published a detailed analysis of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global tourism industry by journalist and travel author Elizabeth Becker.
A big shock to the global economy
The economy has faced many difficult times or great crises, but the achievements and the remarkable development of the 4.0 era with technological advances have helped bring people closer together in a flat world. Therefore, tourism has become easier and more popular than ever with very affordable prices and convenient means of transportation. According to experts' estimates, the technological revolution has contributed to promoting about 1 billion travel trips each year.
But this strong growth momentum is being stopped by the Covid-19 pandemic without any warning signs, and it has caused people around the world to "stand still".
Calculating the exact cost of tourism is difficult because data is constantly changing as the virus spreads. However, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) warns that if the pandemic continues for several more months, the global tourism industry will lose up to 75 million jobs and about $2.1 trillion in revenue.
Tourism in Europe and around the world is facing a major crisis.
WTTC CEO Gloria Guevara is lobbying governments to take measures to support the tourism industry, stressing that the losses are truly worrying because they seriously affect millions of families around the world.
Looking back over time, most of the global tourism industry seems to have built its financial strategy with a vision of a “no-hassle” future because of open borders, high demand for tourism and always standing in the position of an 8,000 billion USD industry that always develops regardless of the ups and downs of the market, but there is absolutely no scenario for a “freeze” as big as the current one.
America is facing mounting difficulties.
The US travel industry is said to be among the hardest hit, with an estimated 4.6 million jobs lost as of May and more expected if the crisis continues. The number of US unemployment claims has also increased week by week, reaching 6.6 million - doubling in just one week and by far the biggest spike in 50 years.
“The impact of Covid-19 on tourism is six or seven times greater than the impact after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the US Travel Association. The association is planning to promote the trend of tourism from abroad to the US as well as domestic tourism. Statistics show that this smokeless industry generates about $2.6 trillion in economic output and supports 15.8 million jobs in the US annually.
Faced with such a budget deficit, the US Congress has passed a $2 trillion stimulus package to hopefully save the market. The focus of this stimulus package is to help the unemployed, while also supporting businesses large and small. But the question remains: Is it enough in the current general recession and what does it mean for travelers?
The first recoveries
However, there are signs of an early recovery in the tourism industry in China after the epidemic was completely under control and travel restrictions were lifted.
The Chinese market is beginning to recover.
In the first week of March, hotel bookings in China increased by 40%, and daily peak flights increased by 230% compared to the previous month, despite some travel restrictions still in place. According to some surveys, the Chinese tourism industry said it planned to recover by up to 70% in the next 6 months, but mainly based on domestic tourism as China still strictly limits foreign tourists to ensure there is no resurgence of the disease.
Previously, on March 30, Wolf Street newspaper cited the updated assessment of the World Tourism Organization - UNWTO on the impact of Covid-19, based on the optimistic view that: Global tourism will recover quickly in the next 3-4 months, despite suffering a huge "shock" of damage due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
