THE EFFECTS OF CORONAVIRUS DISEASE ON GLOBAL TOURISM

A decade of sustained expansion. The tourism industry has been a relentless success story over the past ten years, with international tourist arrivals growing by an astonishing 59%. International travel have grown from 880 million in 2009 to 1.5 billion in 10 years. The boom was so robust, that the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) reported in 2018 that “global GDP growth of the travel & tourism sector, (which accounts for $8.8 trillion, 319 million jobs, or 10.4% of global GDP and up 3.9% per year) boomed”. But growth has been severely dented by the coronavirus disease. Tourist industry is one of the worst-hit sectors, the virus affecting supply and demand of travel services. Nations like China (which was the world’s top spender on tourism globally until 2017) as well as other major European destinations like Italy have been especially affected. The number of travel service in domestic and international routes dries up and become a crush with the increase in restrictions, cancellations, and reduction of flights as well as travel! Meanwhile, travel demand has dropped off cliff. This health scare places yet another level of risk on to our weak global economy which is already plagued with political instability, trade wars, and the downside risks of Brigit. It is the existence of these two factors that has made tourism recovery even more difficult. And not to mention, having obliterated tourism like nothing we’ve seen before. Not only has it cost billions of dollars and disrupted travel, the virus has changed travel habits. The predilections of travelers have changed, and more attention has shifted toward digitalization, health and safety (and sustainability, for that matter, too). These changes are sure to have long-term effects on the tourism industry, remapping it for years to come.