GLOBAL AND LOCAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON TOURISM

Abstract

The article analyzes the global and local impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry. National assessments are complex and do not always reflect the magnitude of the impact on tourism and the challenges of forecasting a rapidly changing and uncertain situation. Restrictive measures have a strong impact not only on tourism, but also on the economy as a whole, given the interconnected nature of this sector. The crisis has jeopardized millions of jobs in the tourism sector. The magnitude of the job loss is not yet clear as government support has protected employees from the full impact of the pandemic.

Tourism recovery will depend on the interrelated effects of the economic and health crisis to overcome the pandemic, as well as on the influence of supply and demand factors: the development of the epidemiological situation, the availability of vaccines, alternative control measures, the lifting of travel restrictions, the ability of tourism enterprises to meet demand in the context of a pandemic, changes in consumer preferences of travelers, the level of effective aggregate demand, the level of development of the economy as a whole. The difference between the modern crisis lies in the globality of its scale, duration, persisting uncertainty and interconnectedness of economic, social and medical factors of influence. The resumption of domestic tourism will help bolster the tourism industry, but real recovery will begin with the recovery of international tourism. This requires coordinated risk-based solutions to safely lift travel restrictions. The survival of tourism businesses is under threat, so it is imperative to minimize job losses and support job recovery in this volatile and changing environment. Tourism policy needs to be more flexible, and in the long term, it will move to systems that can adapt more quickly to changes in policy orientation based on crisis management.