Tourism in context of pandemic

Ignored for a long time by touristic stakeholders, it is not a secret now that tourism can have bad effects on people’s health conditions. It is known now that tourists bring and leave with many diseases during their journey. That’s why drastic measures have been taken on tourism to limit the effect of the recent pandemic. Here is how tourism reacts from this situation.

A complete fall of tourism

With the outbreak of the current pandemic and the understanding of its ways of spreading, tourism has been hit very hard. The measures prescribed by the WHO are to close all businesses in order to avoid all contacts since the virus spread through it. A general lock down has also been advised, leading to the closure of borders and the canceling of international and regional flights. Countries have also imposed entry bans, restrictions for citizens coming from the most affected areas.
With people enabled to move, and with the awareness of the dangerousness of the virus, tourism has drastically fallen. In the first semester of 2020, UNWTO reported a drop of 65% in international tourist arrivals. The global economy has also felt the effect of such necessary measures, with a loss estimated to more than a trillion dollars last year.

Some countries try to adapt

With the devastating impact of the pandemic in their tourism-dependent economies, some countries try to adapt to the situation. If we could assume that the repercussion of the pandemic in the global economy is bad, it has definitely been worse in those countries. To avoid a permanent shock, politics have taken measures to admit tourists with lower-risk. At their arrival, they’ll undergo a quarantine with special requirements and should undergo the same at their returning home. If all these measures have some good effects on the local economies, it’s not enough for tourism to recover. For that, more measures and strategies, such as shifting toward ecotourism should be taken.