Coronavirus: global tourism in quarantine

Text by: Myriam Berber

The tourism sector has been hit hard by the coronavirus epidemic (Covid-19). The number of tourists in the world should drop by 3% in 2020. This is what emerges from the first estimates of the World Tourism Organization.

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Tourism is starting to count its losses. Around the world, reservations for travel to Asia have collapsed. In France alone, there are less than 99% departures from China, and less than 60% for Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

But today, it's not just Asia. In Europe, Italy, France and Germany have also become infrequent. To reduce the spread of the virus, some countries, such as Israel, Russia and even Vietnam no longer want to welcome Italian and French nationals. For its part, India has decided to prohibit the entry of its ports to all foreign cruise ships, considered to be virus nurseries.

Very heavy losses

Even if it is still too early to assess the full impact of Covid-19 on world tourism, the first estimates from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) are rather worrying: " The number of tourists in the world should drop by 3% in 2020. A figure that rises from 9 to 12% for the Asia-Pacific region ”. This should translate into an estimated loss of 30 to 50 billion dollars in tourist spending. And the losses could be even greater if the epidemic were to continue.

After the 2001 attacks in the United States, the SARS epidemic in 2003, the financial crisis of 2008 or even the terrorist attacks of 2015, the tourism sector is used to crises but the difficulty of this epidemic of coronavirus is that the situation is changing day by day. The cruise industry is already experiencing a sharp decline. Saudi Arabia has closed pilgrimage sites in Mecca while religious tourism - which represents more than 3% of GDP and more than 600,000 jobs in Saudi Arabia - is a considerable financial windfall in these times of declining oil prices.

Partial unemployment

" In Europe, the coronavirus epidemic has cost the tourism sector one billion euros per month, " said European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton. In France, the world's leading destination, tourism represents more than 7% of gross domestic product. Faced with the crisis, nearly 900 companies have already asked to benefit from partial unemployment measures for around 15,000 employees. And among them, many tourism, hotel and catering companies. The Confederation of Tourism Actors (CAT) demands a survival plan for the sector.

Pending these support measures, tour operators, organizers of business trips to seminars and trade fairs are organizing to try to limit the economic consequences of the coronavirus on their activities. Airlines, like Air France, cruise lines or transport operators, like SNCF are implementing commercial measures to cancel or postpone their trip without charge. On the business travel side, virtual or remote communication is used for conferences. The “Laval Virtual” fair scheduled from April 22 to 26, 2020 thus envisages the virtualization of all or part of the conferences, thanks to the virtual, and streaming.

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