Impact of Covid-19

By on


 

The COVID-19 outbreak was a real life “stress test” of the travel & tourism sector worldwide. The biggest damage was to the global tourism industry.  International tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka falling by 84% from March to December 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.  The Tourism Industry in Sri Lanka took an impact from Easter Sunday incident happened in April 2019 which led to a drop in business for a period of time. The first half of the current year was particularly tough as tourist arrival to the country fell drastically after this incident.  However, the industry was able to the resumption of normal activities from June 2019 taking the necessary steps.  However just as it appeared that these measures were paying off, the COVID-19 outbreak in the latter part of the year resulted in a negative impact for the tourism industry, as all outbound and inbound travel ceased following the shutdown of the airport in mid-March 2020.

 

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), COVID-19 has resulted in the layoff of thousands of workers as a result of its consequences. In particular, a research conducted by the National Human Resource Development Council of Sri Lanka in 2020 on the sectoral impact of COVID-19 on employees in Sri Lanka discovered that many people had lost their jobs in the tourism business.  According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, as many as 100 million jobs supported by Travel & Tourism are currently at risk.

 

Comments

  1. Nilma SenadeeraNovember 14, 2021 at 3:48 AM

    This is really interesting. WOW. COVID-19 took us all away.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DilNovember 14, 2021 at 5:21 AM

    True, corona affected tourism much! WELL DONE!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Govenment Involvement & Measures

By on
Image
  After closing airports to commercial traffic in March 2020, Sri Lanka opened up again to foreign tourist arrivals under a “ Bio bubble ” concept in January 2021.  “Bio bubble” waives the quarantine requirements for leisure travellers, allowing them to leave the confines of their hotel rooms, so long as they stay at approved hotels and refrain from interacting with locals.   Fully vaccinated tourists are allowed to bypass the “bio bubble” and travel freely within the country after a negative PCR test performed on arrival, but the implementation of the program remained challenged as of September 2021.   The Sri Lankan government has cancelled visa fees for international tourists from  48 countries as of the first day of August 2019. As a result, travellers who apply for 30-day tourist visas will no longer be obliged to pay for their visas upon arrival. As a result, as a growingly popular and internationally acknowledged tourist destination, Sri Lanka ...
Read more

Impact of Tourism Industry

By on
Image
  The Tourism Industry has a strong impact on the economy of Sri Lanka.   It's a significant driver of Sri Lanka's economy and it is the primary source of foreign currency earnings . According to the Sri Lankan Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA, 2019) , tourism earnings have become the third greatest foreign exchange earner, bringing in $4.4 billion in 2018 and $3.7 billion the following year. Due to the geographical location, environmental factors, climate pattern, cultural attributes and Sri Lankan indigenous values, Sri Lanka has become very popular especially among international travellers/tourists.   Sri Lanka is referred in the world as the " Pearl of the Indian Ocean. "   There is nothing wrong with calling this small Island surrounded by the Indian Ocean such because of the natural beauty. Compared to other countries in the region, Sri Lanka tops the traveller’s bucket lists. Sri Lanka was chosen Lonely Planet's top destination to visit in 2019 for...
Read more