Introduction:
When the Corona pandemic occurred at the end of 2019, many people did not expect it to last more than two years, and some people underestimated the pandemic and did not show any interest in it, believing that it was a disease like any other disease, but people were shocked when they heard the World Health Organization’s statement that treatment would only take place. After a year to a year and a half. Therefore, tourism was greatly affected when people began to understand that the issue was serious and would not end so quickly.
Since we are going to talk about Corona and how tourism is affected by it, we must know what tourism is? and what Corona is? Tourism according to the World Tourism Organization: It is a social phenomenon that requires people to move from their country to another place for personal or commercial purposes (unwto, 2008). And Corona disease is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus (who, n.d.).
One of the biggest sectors within the tourism industry is the hotel and restaurant sector. Hotels, for example, have been heavily affected by the actions that have been taken to prevent people from leaving homes. Hotels are empty. People have sat in their homes. So did restaurants, but less than hotels, since many restaurants have opened up food delivery to home, and yet it's affected, as we'll see.
In this article,we will talk about three main causes about the impact of the tourism industry on the COVID-19.
Governments and the tourism industry:
As the number of infections began to increase, governments began to absorb more and more of the magnitude of the pandemic, and some countries delayed precautionary measures until hospitals overpowered the sick and the dead, bringing the number of cases in Italy for example, to 219,070 (Gibertoni et al., 2021). So governments quickly closed things that they considered unnecessary, such as hotels and restaurants. This has helped to alleviate and bring down situations very significantly. But was the closure caused by Corona virus, or was it a government decision? In other words, were the hotels damaged by Corona or by the government's decision?
On the surface, the governments are the ones who closed the hotels and forced them to do so, but on the other hand, the government measures speeded up the process of returning to operating the tourism industry, because the government is not in its interest to disrupt this industry, which brings in billions (atlasbig, n.d.). So it began educating people about the dangers of disease, and imposed quarantine at home until the cases eased and the cases were resolved. Controlling the disease, it is true that life did not return to the way it was, but at least work in hotels and restaurants has returned better, while adhering to precautions. But are governments alone who saved the industry? Are governments alone in trying to close businesses?
WHO and the tourism industry:
The pressure on the World Health Organization increased a lot, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, as people needed someone to turn to whom they could trust, so the organization took it upon itself to educate people about the danger of this disease, and suggested that governments close all non-essential industries, and directed people to sit in their homes (who, 2021). But is Corona Impact on the tourism industry or the World Health Organization? We know that the disease is a real and recognized, but there are some decisions that are considered hasty and ill-considered, which contributed to making the matter worse (Kirby, 2020). Not only Corona affected tourism, but even organizations, and this is not intentional, but it negatively affected the sector.
However, the World Health Organization has also directed hotels to take the necessary measures to prevent corona, such as washing hands for guests, applying sanitizer, wearing a mask, spacing, and many other precautions. These measures helped the tourism industry to return again and adapt to the disease because of listening to the opinion of experts, and many publications were published by the organization and placed everywhere in hotels and restaurants, to enhance safety among people.
People and the tourism industry:
When we talk about Corona, we cannot ignore the impact of people on the spread of the pandemic very quickly, and this is normal because the disease is transmitted through contact, but the disruption of tourism is it because of the pandemic or because of people? Some may be shocked by this question, because for them it is obvious, because Corona is the reason. But the issue is greater than this, for example, for example, diseases in the past do not spread as Corona did, because people do not move much from one country to another, due to the lack of transportation (Tatem, Rogers and Hay1, 2006). In this example, it becomes clear to us that people are the ones who have a greater impact on tourism than Corona itself.
On the other hand, when governments began closing shops and banning curfews, people responded to this decision despite its difficulty, and the number of injuries decreased a lot and approached zero in some areas (BEAUBIEN, 2020). And the cooperation of people helped support the tourism industry, where things gradually returned to normal, which helped to return to work in restaurants and hotels with the implementation of the necessary precautions, and the descent of numbers is another evidence that the impact of people on tourism is very large.
Conclusion:
Corona is a disease that has tired people, lost their loved ones, and made us separate from communication between us, and we should not underestimate it, as it has not ended to this day, and we must expand research more on the extent of Corona’s impact on our lives in general and on the tourism industry in particular.
In my personal opinion, Corona affected all industries, and it clearly affected the tourism sector, but as we explained previously, it is not Corona alone that has affected the industry, as governments have affected, the World Health Organization, as well as people. And we must do more research to discover the exact influence on the industry so that we know what we are fighting for.
Are we fighting the disease in order to open the tourism sector? Or should we turn to another matter that affects the tourism industry without our realizing it, for we cannot solve the problem from its roots. The issue is not only with Corona, but with some decisions and some measures that may be unnecessary to confront Corona, but it does more harm than good.
References:
atlasbig (n.d.). List of Countries by Tourism Income. [online] atlasbig. Available at: https://www.atlasbig.com/en-us/countries-tourism-income [Accessed 24 Nov. 2021].
BEAUBIEN, J. (2020). Some Countries Have Brought New Cases Down To Nearly Zero. How Did They Do It? [online] npr. Available at: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/05/23/861577367/messaging-from-leaders-who-have-tamed-their-countrys-coronavirus-outbreaks?t=1637793199683 [Accessed 24 Nov. 2021].
Gibertoni, D., Adja, K.Y.C., Golinelli, D., Reno, C., Regazzi, L., Lenzi, J., Sanmarchi, F. and Fantini, M.P. (2021). Patterns of COVID-19 related excess mortality in the municipalities of Northern Italy during the first wave of the pandemic. [online] ncbi. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7834600/#bib17 [Accessed 24 Nov. 2021].
Kirby, J. (2020). How to fix the WHO, according to an expert. [online] vox. Available at: htps://www.vox.com/2020/4/19/21224305/world-health-organization-trump-reform-q-a [Accessed 24 Nov. 2021].
Tatem, A.J.T., Rogers, D.J. and Hay1, S.I. (2006). Global Transport Networks and Infectious Disease Spread. [online] ncbi. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3145127/ [Accessed 24 Nov. 2021].
unwto (2008). GLOSSARY OF TOURISM TERMS. [online] unwto. Available at: https://www.unwto.org/glossary-tourism-terms [Accessed 24 Nov. 2021].
who (2021). Advice for the public: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). [online] who. Available at: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public [Accessed 24 Nov. 2021].
who (n.d.). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). [online] who. Available at: https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1 [Accessed 24 Nov. 2021].
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