Corona Virus & Travel Industry

Corona has affected everyone in this globe except Mother Nature. Everyone is falling sick but Nature is healing day by day reason being everyone is at home. But this healing seems inversely proportional to tourism sector as corona has put a complete break in its operations. It’s a fact that tourism is the first one to get affected and will be the last one to recover from this pandemic.

Lockdown looked the only solution as there is no vaccination of Corona but even after the vaccination (Hope it comes soon) curbs on business travel are likely to stay, even in the medium to long-term, leading companies across India. Corporates will be more conscious of travel spends, especially where technology can be effectively utilised instead. I guess slowly corporates are moving towards to virtual meetings like Skype, Zoom rather than personal meetings. Why to spend money in flights when you can have a face to face interaction through video calling? Subsequently Business travel will decrease significantly. Already Zoom meetings have become the norm. Corporate advisories are out in most multinationals negating travel unless its very important. A significant proportion of companies are actively seeking both to reduce business travel and to cut the number of employees commuting even to the workplace,. Things are not looking good.

Tourism may look inwards, be more domestic directed. Thankfully, traditional domestic travel destinations like Himachal, Ladakh, Goa, Uttarkhand, Andamans, even Pondicherry have remained largely inert to the virus. So much of the honeymoon and holiday traffic may stay within India. Which is surely a silver lining in another wise gloomy scenario. Unfortunately, Kerala and the Golden Triangle of Delhi/Agra/Jaipur are pretty badly impacted. But in a disaster situation, as they say, whatever gets saved from the inferno is a bonus. So we should focus more on domestic now as domestic is something big in future.

Mother Nature will triumph again in all likelihood, nature and wildlife will be preferred over monuments and history in the months ahead. So, the hills, the sea resorts, wild life reserves and slightly isolated locations will win over crowded favourites of yore. This may benefit all the camping and outdoor brands of ITC Hotels, Taj and Oberoi. And AirBnB accommodations, and homestays. 

So the gist is simple. Considering international tourism is badly affected , every Indian should focus on promoting Indian destinations... let’s hope for the best and all the best to everyone.

Hoping everyone will uncover their masks soon and inhale the fresh air once again by travelling to new destinations. Stay safe and save tourism.