The Acting Secretary-General, UNCTAD, Isabelle Durant has showered her insights on the need to kickstart thoughtful tourism. The COVID-19 pandemic shook the industry with unexpected events. In 2020, the tourism sector, in fact all the major industries, predicted that by 2021 summer, things would get back on track. However, reality doesn’t seem to conform with the predictions.
When the world tourism industry is moving ahead with the sole goal of kickstarting tourism’s recovery, the secretary-general of UNCTAD presents a non-mainstream objective recommended for the industry to adopt in these unprecedented times.
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COVID-19 pandemic – the major hassle
Summers and spring are those seasons of the year when the tourism industry boosts the most. For most economies around the world, these months are significant in terms of tourism. Additionally, international tourism experiences most traffic during this part of the year.
After six decades of exponential growth in the tourism industry, now it is near-standstill due to the pandemic. The industry has suffered almost USD 4 trillion and directly impacted 100 million jobs in 2020. To put the loss into perspective, the impact is almost equal to France’s GDP, wrote the secretary-general of UNCTAD.
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The rationale behind slow progress
The basic presumption in 2020 was that once mass vaccination begins, everything will get back on track. However, that’s not the case. There are multiple reasons why the tourism industry is experiencing slow progress in the current scenario.
The supply side of the industry is adversely affected due to the slow vaccination progress. However, the biggest trauma is faced by the tourism workers in the developing economies or the nations that depend upon tourism for its major earning.
Things are rough on the demand side as well. The industry lacks travelers’ confidence. With ever-changing travel restrictions and unprecedented lockdowns, travelers are hesitant to make travel plans in 2021.
Because of the above differential scenarios, flights are getting cancelled or rescheduled, too many travel restrictions, new regulations time and again, travellers are unable to make any plans at least for a couple of months, until the situation is internationally stable.
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Need to rethink tourism
Tourism industry plays a significant role in achieving the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. The sector has the unique ability to contribute to the most of the 17 sustainable development goals. Thus, industry leaders must utilise this time to rethink how they can boost industry’s capacity to enhance sustainability.
The global goal ensuring shared prosperity 2030 is about to reach the doorstep, thus, the sector needs to take urgent action to kickstart tourism, ensuring millions of people who have been left struggling for more than a year now.
The foremost important thing is to ensure equitable vaccination across the globe. Along with that, countries need to ensure that tourism agencies of all sizes and kinds survive through the pandemic.
Additionally, credit lines for tourism business and social protection to tourism workers is the need of the hour. This is a new beginning for the industry; thus, the international tourism industry can become more inclusive and diverse.
The industry also needs to look at “over tourism” which had been a concern for many destinations prior to the pandemic. Now is the time to revitalise rural areas and inculcate more innovative productions within the industry.
The pandemic is far from over, thus, the industry leaders and the government need to utilise this time in redesigning tourism in a way that it becomes more diverse, inclusive, innovative and sustainable.
SOURCE: KALKINE MEDIA
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