Tourism Crisis: Covid-19
Reduction
• Travel ban
• Cancellation or postponement of major
festivals and events, and restrictions on
public gatherings (indoor and outdoor) in
many countries, the impact of COVID-19
on global tourism has been overwhelming
and immediate.
• Tourism business are shutdown.
Response
• Lifting travel restrictions and working
with businesses to access liquidity
supports, apply new health protocols for
safe travel, and help to diversify their
markets.
• Preparing comprehensive tourism
recovery plans, to rebuild destinations,
encourage innovation and investment,
and rethink the tourism sector.
• Restoring traveler confidence and
stimulating demand with new safe and
clean labels for the sector, information
apps for visitors and domestic tourism
promotion campaigns.
Readiness
• Domestic tourism has restarted and is
helping to sustain jobs and businesses in
some countries, but real recovery will
only be possible when international
tourism returns. This requires global
coordinated, risk-based solutions so
travel restrictions can be safely lifted.
• The crisis has been a call to action to
governments at all levels, and to the
private sector, to respond in a
coordinated way, given the
interdependent nature of tourism
services.
• Flexible policy solutions are needed to
enable the tourism economy to live
alongside the virus in the short to
medium term. At the same time, it is
important to take steps to learn from the
crisis, which has revealed gaps in
government and industry preparedness
and response capacity.
Recovery
• Restoring traveler confidence and
supporting tourism businesses to adapt
and survive
• Sustaining domestic tourism and support
safe return of international tourism
• Already starting to build toward more
resilient, sustainable tourism