What lies ahead for travel and tourism industry?

One of the biggest and important industry in terms of jobs and livelihood is facing immense challenges in the wake of coronavirus crisis. Will it be able to survive the pandemic and evolve?

Coronavirus has disrupted many industries with its social distancing and no travel rule. This no travel rule is directly impacting the travel and tourism industry since mobility is an important aspect of tourism. The concept of virtual tourism isn't very common yet. While the world economy is set to witness its challenger to the great depression, almost every industry is looking at a prolonged period of pain, they are faced with two options, either evolve or perish. Travel and tourism are no different, the sector has been one of the worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic and its aftereffects, many of the airlines are already shutting down and economies relying heavily on tourism are finding alternate ways to generate revenue. The UN World Tourism Organisation has estimated that earnings from international tourism might be down 80% this year against last year's figure of $1.7 trillion and 120 million jobs could be lost. Destinations that were buzzing with tourists until last year are deserted and scrambling for survival.

The effects were evident even when coronavirus spread was in its initial stages. Cruise ships became one of the carriers and spreaders of the deadly virus in its initial days. It made sure to carry, infect and spread the virus from one shore to another while acting as a perfect contagion at sea. The cruise ship to suffer a major outbreak was the Diamond Princess which had 355 confirmed cases and was quarantined at the port of Yokohama. It was the start of things to come and slowly almost every country put a travel ban on their airlines, cruise ships and other modes of transport to and from other countries. Cruise as a sector that until January was worth $150 billion is shredding jobs, issuing debt and discounting furiously to survive.

Tourism as an industry has never been sustainable, as major tourist destinations have been trying to achieve economies of scale rather than preserving what's unique to the destination. The race to accommodate more has led to depletion of natural buoyancy and have converted these destinations into a garbage dump. Often, tourism companies have no financial or sustainable obligations towards the destinations they try to sell. Their only motive is to sell the experience as cheap as possible so more and more people can buy them. Before the pandemic, industry experts were forecasting that international arrivals would rise between 3% and 4% in 2020. Chinese travellers, the largest and fastest growing cohort in world tourism, were expected to make 160 million trips abroad, a 27% increase on the 2019 figure.

Since the pandemic has gripped the world, we have seen nature and more importantly these tourism destinations come to life. The natural ecology has blossomed again, wildlife and aquatic life has found breathing space. All this because hordes of tourists are not littering on these places, ships aren't docking here anymore, nature seems to be reclaiming its lost space. In other words, when humanity is trapped indoors, nature seems to be on vacation, enjoying itself. If not a substantial change, this brief break should be able to give a message to the industry to start taking sustainability more seriously.

Tourism industry has been a sunshine industry for many emerging economies. It has been a sure shot way of taking money from rich and affluent and passing it on to the poor and working class. That is on reason it has been able to touch so many lives directly and indirectly. Almost one in ten jobs in the world depend on it. That's why it becomes even more important to make sure that this crisis doesn't result into a short patch cure approach. In May, the UN World Tourism Organisation suggested that the coronavirus crisis would squeeze the industry so hard that progress towards making tourism sustainable by reducing overcrowding and addressing climate change would not just be halted but reversed. Nothing could be worse than this analogy proving correct.

Sustainability is the need of the hour for this industry. Sustainability not only in the prevention and ecological development of the tourist destinations but the way in which we see travel and tourism integrated with our self-preservation. The plan must encourage higher localization of tourism, eco-tourism needs to be promoted and the corporations profiteering out of tourism needs to be made a stakeholder in the overall development of this sustainability drive. Also, this transition towards a sustainable future cannot be realized without the active participation of people. Until now price used to be the determining factor for most of the tourist, sustainability is going to add a few dollars more to that price which tourists have to bear, they should be mentally and financially prepared for it.

Conclusion:

Travel and tourism industry have been the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The industry has literally halted to a grind. Airlines are going bankrupt and are asking for state bailouts and economies that used to heavily rely on tourism have been trying to desperately find other sources of revenue and in most cases have gone to IMF to borrow their way out of this crisis. While the pandemic doesn't seem to be subsiding anytime soon, the pain will stay for long term. The only silver lining is the sustainable tourism initiatives like eco-tourism and localized tourism are showing better than expected results. Also, tourists staying away has given the nature its much needed breathing space, the wildlife and aquatic life has been revitalized and nature seems to be coming on its own after having been abused for much of the century. The future of this industry needs to be sustainable if the industry has to survive and prosper for a long-term future. The people and corporations need to be made stakeholders into this change initiative. Corporation need to make a sea change in which they put price as the centre of their initiative and put the well-being and sustainability of the tourism destinations and experiences on top of their agenda. Same goes for tourists, they need to stop worry about the price and start adding a few dollars more for the sustainability.