RESEARCH REPORTS FOR COVID-19 AND TOURISM

There has been an extraordinary growth of tourism recorded in 2020 in the world 1.5 billion), Africa (71.2 million) and Kenya (2.05 million).
The COVID-19 emerges as one of the greatest challenges facing the world today and threatening the achievements made in the travel and tourism industry.
The first case of COVID-19 was reported on 12th December, 2019 in Wuhan City of China. Since then, there were over 5.9 million known cases of COVID-19. Over 360,000 deaths and over 3 million recoveries had been recorded as at 31st May,
2020. Over 3 million cases were active.
Tourism is currently one of the most affected sectors worldwide. The UNWTO has emphasized the need to ‘putting people and their wellbeing first’ through the slogan; ‘By staying home today, we can travel tomorrow’. The WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11th March 2020. Since then, the COVID-19 virus has spread to over 200 countries globally.
The airline sector of the tourism industry is adversely affected.
There is a ban on international travel worldwide, including Kenya.
The COVID-19 outbreak could cause 50 million job loses; which may translate to a global loss in tourism revenue of about USD30 to USD50 billion in 2020.
Airline loses are estimated to be more than US$113 billion in revenue in 2020 in
the world.
Exhibitions have lost over USD145 billion from cancelled contracts worldwide.
Airlines in Africa had incurred a combined $4.4 billion in losses by 11th March
2020.
Associated revenue losses could reach $125 million while 36,800 jobs would also
be at risk in African in 2020.
MICE sector could lose roughly KSh163.56 billion in Kenya.
WTTC has called on governments to remove or simplify visas wherever possible……..read more