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BUS302 Assignment

Submitted by
Neehal Islam Dastagir
Student ID - 18204069

Research Method in Business Management (BUS302)

Section: 5
Spring 2021

Submitted to
Mr. Jubairul Islam Shaown
Lecturer

BRAC Business School

BRAC University
10th April 2021
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Tourism during COVID-19

Broad objectives:

The broad objective of this study is to find out how COVID-19 has changed tourism.

Specific objectives:

1. Finding out what the world’s tourism industry was like before COVID-19 and how it
impacted the industry and their profitability.
2. Identifying what impact COVID-19 and COVID-19 health guidelines had on tourist
accommodations.
3. Finding out how the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine passports might make a difference
in the tourism industry.

Literature Review:

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Tourism industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the world significantly, it has changes many aspects of
our lives and has hit economies and businesses hard. To tame the virus, lockdowns and travel
restrictions were introduced and this meant industries such as Tourism were in trouble. Before
the COVID-19 pandemic began, the travel and tourism industry accounted for 10 percent of
global GDP and more than 320 million jobs worldwide. (Behsudi, 2020). The pandemic has
made serious damage to the industry. The global revenue of Expedia Group, Inc. which is one of
the top tourism companies, has more than halved in 2020 over the previous year. (Statista, n.d.).
Statista also highlights the fact that other industries related to tourism were also affected, Qatar
Airways, one of the top airlines also reported a loss amounted to 1, 13 billion Qatari riyals, down
from over four billion Qatari riyals in 2019. Uber's revenue declined to $3.54 billion in Q1 2020
and $2.24 billion in Q2 2020. However Uber was able to soften the blow with Uber Eats as
everyone stayed home and ordered food. (Sonnemaker, n.d.) Uber even tried to help people in
the pandemic by delivering critical goods like masks with zero profit pricing where Uber Freight
operates and offered free rides to frontline workers. If we break down the tourism industry, we
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will find smaller components other than transportation and accommodation, such as
entertainment, restaurants, education and financial service. All of which were impacted by the
pandemic and they either directly or indirectly hurt their profitability. Entertainment factors are
one of the key factors tourists consider while traveling. Musical concerts, sporting events and
movie theaters recorded a loss as they remained closed during the COVID-19 pandemic however
online entertainment like Netflix continues to boom as people are stuck at home. Restaurants
also remained closed and recorded losses however food deliveries helped keep some restaurant
chains afloat. The pandemic also significantly reduced international student mobility and
education was pushed online. (Mok et al., 2021) Financial services can be linked to the travel
industry in many ways, one being the provision of insurance products, which offer financial
protection in emergency situations, or when medical treatment is needed. Additionally, financial
services may be connected to currency exchanges. All these services performed poorly in the
pandemic from lack of customers. (Revfine.com, 2020)

How the Tourism industry tried to keep its customers safe during the
pandemic

While some industry related to travel like airlines have no option but to shut down, other sectors
in the tourism industry like accommodation have the ability to adapt. These are really
extraordinary times and in order to keep up with COVID-19 and its impacts, tourist
accommodations introduced changes according to the World Health Organization’s health
guidelines. WHO prepared a document named “Operational Guidelines for Covid-19
Management in the Accommodation Sector” which was designed to make sure that the
accommodation sector can protect its customers and staff. Hotels and Airbnb hosts around the
world were to comply with these guidelines in order to keep themselves and their customers safe.
The document outlined basics prevention methods like making masks mandatory, hand
sanitization stations, temperature checks, and use of gloves, protective apron and disinfectant
wipes. In addition, the WHO document even included an action plan which discussed training
and information, mobilization of resources, logbook of actions and several other strategies. There
were guidelines for the maintenance of rooms, kitchens, air-conditioning, and sanitization of
certain objects like door handles and other tactics included in the WHO document.
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(www.who.int, n.d.). Some countries had a stricter lockdown, and there were no arrivals from
abroad, so the accommodation sector faced a shortage of customers. In some countries hotel
rooms were used as make-shift hospitals and quarantine zones for COVID-19 patients. Other
sectors in the tourism which were operating on limited capacity had to follow general health
guidelines too. The WHO guidelines are meant to cope with the virus, it is not a solution to the
pandemic. The tourism industry can only return to pre-pandemic conditions with the help of a
vaccine. Once herd immunity is gained around the world, only then will the tourism industry
reopen fully. Recently, Škare, Soriano and Porada-Rochoń, (2020), pointed out that the
COVID-19 pandemic is different; and recovery of the tourism industry worldwide will take more
time than the average recovery period of 10 months.

Innovative prospects for the tourism industry

For now, COVID-19 Vaccine passports might help the tourism industry however COVID
vaccine passports are a hotly debated topic. A vaccine passport system might sound promising
on paper but several legal, ethical, and operational questions must be resolved before making
vaccine passports a routine part of travel. (Review, 2021). According to Prayag, G, (2020), the
COVID-19 pandemic could reset the whole tourism industry. In order to understand the changes
made by the reset, the author proposes adoption of a three-level approach (macro, meso, and
micro) as a research agenda on COVID-19 and tourism system resilience which could help to
further understand the scale of change (temporal and spatial), impacts, and resilience. We have
an opportunity to rethink what tourism will look like for the coming times. (Brouder, 2020).
Furthermore, Brouder, (2020) suggests that a transformation in tourism can be realized if
enough institutional innovation takes place on both the demand and supply side of tourism.
According to Brouder, (2020), COVID-19 pandemic presents a rare opportunity where the
institutional pump is primed for transformation but if that leads to a radical transformation in the
tourism sector remains to be seen but the imprint it will leave behind will have long-term
impacts. Innovative ideas such as conducting tourism in isolated regions, quarantining on a yacht
or golf course and sustainable tourism could all be explored.

References:
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 Behsudi, A. (2020). Impact of the Pandemic on Tourism – IMF F&D. [online]

www.imf.org. Available at: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2020/12/impact-
of-the-pandemic-on-tourism-behsudi.htm.
 Statista. (n.d.). Expedia: revenue 2020. [online] Available at:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/269387/revenue-of-expedia/#:~:text=Due%20to
%20the%20coronavirus%20(COVID [Accessed 7 Apr. 2021].
 Statista. (n.d.). Qatar Airways: operating profit 2020. [online] Available at:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/691470/operating-profit-of-qatar-airways/ [Accessed 7
Apr. 2021].
 www.who.int. (n.d.). Operational considerations for COVID-19 management in the
accommodation sector: interim guidance. [online] Available at:
https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/operational-considerations-for-covid-19-
management-in-the-accommodation-sector-interim-guidance.
 Review, T.R. (2021). A Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Passport System Is Still Premature |
The Regulatory Review. [online] www.theregreview.org. Available at:
https://www.theregreview.org/2021/04/05/yang-rahimzadeh-digital-covid-19-vaccine-
passport-system-still-premature/.
 Prayag, G. (2020). Time for Reset? COVID-19 and Tourism Resilience. Tourism Review
International.
 Brouder, P. (2020). Reset redux: possible evolutionary pathways towards the
transformation of tourism in a COVID-19 world. Tourism Geographies, 22(3), pp.1–7.
 Škare, M., Soriano, D.R. and Porada-Rochoń, M. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 on the
travel and tourism industry. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 163,
p.120469.
 Sonnemaker, T. (n.d.). Uber beats Q4 2020 earnings expectations but misses on $3.17
billion in revenue amid slow pandemic recovery. [online] Business Insider. Available at:
https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-earnings-q4-2020-revenue-eps-profit-analysis-
2021-02#:~:text=After%20reporting%20revenue%20%244.07%20billion [Accessed 9
Apr. 2021].
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 Mok, K.H., Xiong, W., Ke, G. and Cheung, J.O.W. (2021). Impact of COVID-19
pandemic on international higher education and student mobility: Student perspectives
from mainland China and Hong Kong. International Journal of Educational Research,
105, p.101718.
 Revfine.com (2020). Tourism Industry: Everything You Need to Know About Tourism |
Revfine. [online] Revfine.com. Available at:
https://www.revfine.com/tourism-industry/#connected-industries.