The tourism industry is a constituent part of daily lives across the globe. For many countries, international tourism accounts for two-thirds of their GDP. The impact of tourism is shown through its boosts in revenue of the economy; the creation of thousands of jobs such as tourists, drivers, and guides; and the development of the main infrastructures of a country. In turn, tourism is a great economic booster, but also allows tourists to experience different cultures, meet new people, and learn about new lifestyles. Such vast experiences and knowledge gained from travel, can broaden the scope of a person’s view and allow them to open their eyes to new pastures.
Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, much of the tourism industry was hit, causing internal and external damage that has still yet to recover. In fact, tourism receipts worldwide are not expected to recover to 2019 levels until 2023. Due to the severity of the virus, many have refrained from international travel. International arrivals are estimated to have dropped to 381 million in 2020, down from 1.461 billion in 2019 — a 74 percent decline. An estimated loss of $1.3 trillion in global export revenues occurred; such figures were 11 times the loss that occurred in 2009 during the global economic crisis. Such figures show the magnitude that Covid-19 was able to strike. Without any vaccine at the time, many individuals would avoid driving to a local McDonalds, let alone travel across the world to have a tropical vacation. Regardless of how cheap one’s stay was, many deemed it not worth the health risk and nothing could force them to leave their protective bubble. A virus that many thought would last a couple months turned into a couple years, and caught the tourism industry entirely by surprise.
Although there are now vaccines, boosters, and other precautions to prevent the spread of Covid-19, traveling is still extremely formulated with virus restrictions, testings, and quarantines for flyers. The amount of restrictions and lack of normalcy that comes with a vacation is prevalent, making the want to travel less enticing. On top of the extreme pain to travel, the costs of travel are also rising back to pre-pandemic levels. But unlike before, many people have been laid off, meaning they do not have a job, or do not live in a stable environment. Before the pandemic, tourism accounted for one out of every ten jobs around the world, a staggering numerical value. So with many of the industries being severely damaged the disposable income needed for travel just was not available for the average citizen. Without a stable job, the need to put food on the table was more dire than to commit to entertainment and luxury expenditures.
Amidst the reduction of travel and tourism lies key benefits to our world environmentally. Combating global warming, the amount of carbon emissions emitted by aircrafts and daily transportation fell by nearly 50 percent last year. Also, CO2 emissions from fossil fuels dropped by 2.6 billion metric tons in 2020. In general, skies are bluer, air quality is better, and there is less pressure on tourist destinations. With such benefits, tourist places are able to ecologically restore their original beauty and prosperity. Before Covid-19, many incidents of erosion, landslides, and earthquakes occurred in high populous areas that were epicenters of tourism. But looking now, there is more caution to preserve our environment for future generations to come.
In reality, the future of the tourism industry is bound to rebound better than ever, but the virus’s severe damage toward the industry shocked the world through unemployment, less travel, lack of money, and a compulsion towards a new lifestyle for many. With the bad also came good, detailing the environmentally friendly impacts the virus had on multiple industries. Now seeing both sides of the spectrum, we as humans can understand and learn from the extremes and enjoy the beauty and rich culture that tourism provides, while refraining from harming our environment while doing so.
