The impact of COVID-19 on tourism sector in India

Abstract

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which is one of its kind of humanitarian disasters, has affected people and businesses worldwide, triggering a global economic crisis. In this aspect, the tourism sector is not being left behind. The pandemic has not only affected the foreign exchange earnings (FEE) but also affected various regional developments, job opportunities, thereby disrupting the local communities as a whole. As there has been a substantial decline in the arrivals of overseas tourists in India in 2020, the paper aims to predict foreign tourists' arrival in India and FEE using artificial neural networks (ANN). Furthermore, we analyse the impact of COVID-19 based on four scenarios considering with and without lockdown in terms of loss and gain in FEE. Lastly, the results obtained will help policymakers make necessary strategic and operational decisions, along with maximizing the FEE.

COVID-19 lockdown and the forestry sector: Insight from Gandaki province of Nepal

“…The NTFPs and homestay entrepreneurs respectively lost 1.73 and 1.26 million USD while the CFUG and owners of smallholder forestry respectively lost 0.548 million and 0.235 million USD because of the shut down of businesses caused by the lockdown. A similar observation was documented from various regions of the world where the tourism industry faced adverse shock from the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown ( Foo et al, 2020 ; Gössling et al, 2020 ; Jaipuria et al, 2020 ; Škare et al, 2021 ; Uğur and Akbıyık, 2020 ). Every segment of the tourism sector is hard hit by the pandemic-led lockdown, including travel and booking enterprise and hospitality and small- and medium-scale tourism business ( Dube et al, 2020 ; Shafi et al, 2020 ; Sheller, 2020 ) due to sudden mobility restriction and closure of global transportation networks ( Chang et al, 2020 ; Ioannides and Gyimóthy, 2020 ; Jessop, 2020 ) that quickly led to the emptying of hotels, closing of tourism sites, and huge downturn in (future) bookings.…”

Government commitment to tourism and hospitality sector during COVID-19 pandemic

“…A similar case can be observed in India, another rising star in the tourism and hospitality industry. Because of the decline in international travel, overall job opportunities and regional development, as well as the country's ability to raise foreign exchange earnings, were disrupted (Jaipuria et al, 2020). Consequently, it is forecasted that India could lose up to 40 million direct and indirect jobs in the tourism and hospitality sector, which amounts to the US$40bn (FICCI, 2020).…”

Ocena wpływu pandemii koronawirusa na branżę turystyczną w Polsce

“…Sektor turystyki nie wyjdzie z kryzysu COVID-19 bez tak zwanych wstrząsów wtórnych. Z badań przeprowadzonych przez S. Jaipuria wynika, że proces wychodzenia z kryzysu popandemicznego w Indiach może trwać nawet dwa lata (Jaipuria, 2020). Świadczy to o złożoności problemów, z jakimi będzie musiała się zderzyć zarówno polska, jak i światowa turystyka, a także o konieczności podejścia holistycznego do potencjalnych rozwiązań naprawczych, jak słusznie bowiem zauważyła F. Higgins-Desbiolles, już teraz należy przemyśleć, jak przeorientować turystykę, by ta oddziaływała na zrównoważony rozwój zarówno ekologiczny, jak i społeczny.…”