The world health organization declared a global pandemic in march this year (2020). Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives. But besides the death of people, the economies of almost every country have been affected since people have not been working due to the measures put in place to curb the spread of this disease.
Many industries of the world economy have been hit, but one of the industries that have been hit hard is the travel/tourism industry #impactontravel, #effectontourism.
One of the measures that many countries around the world used was partially/totally restricting the movement of passenger planes at various airports. With limited plane movement, the tourism industry cannot survive because most of the countries depend much on international tourists more than domestic tourists.
What is likely to happen in the coming months?
4 likely changes to occur in the following months are stated below:
1. International tourists’ arrivals to drop by a big margin in 2020
According to the World Tourism Organization, international tourists' arrivals are likely to drop by almost 30%. This drop will lead to a loss of about $450 Billion in international tourist revenue.
This is a huge shortfall that is going to lead to several other side effects like unemployment and the collapse of very many companies that directly or indirectly depend on the tourism industry.
2. Loss of Jobs
A study by the World Travel and Tourism Council shows that over 75 million jobs in the tourism industry are at risk due to the stagnation of this industry for the last couple of months.
There are even other jobs and businesses that indirectly depend on tourism that will also be affected by the decline in the travel and tourism industry.
3. Touchless travel will become the New Normal
This is already ongoing at several airports around the world. With touchless travel #touchlesstravel, a passenger will be able to move from the check-in point to the plane without having to touch anything.
All the document verification will be done through touchless biometric methods like face scanning that don't involve any form of exchanging hands between the airport officials and the passengers.
4. Introduction of digital health passports
The idea of digital health passports #digitalhealthpassport involves the compilation of data about passengers that will be used to assess their risk level.
The data collected will include one's travel history, health history, age, etc. When a vaccine is made, the vaccination status of all travelers may also be added to this digital health passport.
Final Thoughts
The tours and travel industry has been one of the most affected industries during these times of the global pandemic. This industry is expected to fully function again after the vaccine has been discovered.
This is when many people will be comfortable with traveling again. The way to go for companies within this industry is to find a means of attracting domestic tourists. This is the only way tours and travel companies will survive in these times when international travel has greatly reduced.
I look forward to when travel will return to the way it used to be.
Check out this article on the pandemics effect on the way we live.
