The COVID-19 pandemic hit the global economy to its core as it destroyed several businesses and industries. But the most affected industry that had shut down first and reopened at the end was the tourism industry.
As the world copes with the after-effects of the pandemic, the outlook for the tourism industry seems somewhat uncertain. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) statistics, the pandemic caused the tourism industry a whopping loss of $4.7 trillion in 2020 as there was an 80% decline in tourism.
Domestic tourism has been restored to a large extent, but the real power of the travel industry is its international tourism, which is still lagging in many countries. The prime reason for this constant downfall is the restrictive travel policies and Covid-related regulations.
The figures for the tourism industry were expected to get better after the pandemic. But unfortunately, the numbers didn’t meet the mark and fell short by a considerable margin. Thus, as a revival of the travel industry, several countries are offering leniency in their travel policies to boost their tourism sector.
Countries like India, Greece, Portugal, and the UK are in the line to restore their tourism as they have eased their traveling policies to fully vaccinated applicants. Moreover, as a policy to attract foreign capital, cities like Dubai and Miami have also reduced expenses for their tourism program. Not only are visas being provided at cost-effective rates, but the rent for hotels and traveling is also lower than in the pre-pandemic era.
A crucial aspect that the travel industry needs to combat is the re-hiring of staff. The global pandemic caused billions of people to lose jobs, and many of them belonged to the tourism and hospitality industry. Thus, a new challenge of re-skilling the staff waits ahead of the tourism industry revival.
But the factor that tourism analysts worry about the most is the lack of confidence and cooperation between travelers and countries. During the pandemic, a lot happened. The world has just witnessed a historical disease outbreak, and its after-effects have made people less confident about traveling. Therefore, it will be a challenge to re-boost the trust among tourists to resume their traveling activities.
To ensure safe traveling and accelerate traveling confidence among people, countries observe the WHO and WTTC regulations, which are expected to improve and expedite the tourism rates. On the other hand, many countries like Italy and France have maintained their restrictive traveling policies and have a low visa acceptance rate. Such a selective attitude by a few European countries is also why tourism is not growing at its full pace.
However, the tourism sectors, say, Caribbean and Mediterranean regions have taken precautionary steps and have revitalized their tourism industry. These countries offer ease in travel restrictions and cost-effective tourism packages, which is undoubtedly beneficial in attracting the tourism crowd.
The economic strain pandemic has left on the tourism industry will take time to heal. Unlike other industries, it is not spurting with its finest momentum. Still, with new travel reforms and lenient policies, it is expected that the tourism industry will be fully restored by the mid by the mid-2023.