The Travel and Tourism Industry: Pandemic and Beyond

Abstract

First to be hit and the last to recover, the travel and tourism industry is considered to be one of the most severely affected sectors from the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper tries to highlight the vulnerabilities of GDP, employment and related activities of the tourism sector by looking at it through a macro perspective using data from the World Bank, International Labour Organization, the United Nations World Trade Organization and, the World Travel and Tourism Council. In addition, the paper also attempts to substantiate the results through micro evidence in the form of case studies. The paper, using quantitative and qualitative methods, shows that the GDP, employment and related activities are susceptible to the pandemic- COVID-19 and suggests how to pandemic-proof the sector that not only contributes significantly to the GDP but weaves a thread of interconnectedness across the world.