It brought entire travel and tourism activities to a standstill and impacted human life and society causing misery and leaving behind a deep scathe among people in various countries with varying degrees of severity. As the tourism sector was hard hit by COVID-19, this triggered a loss of confidence among travelers, impacting socio-economic life.
The harsh data
According to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak caused the travel and tourism sector to suffer losses of almost USD 4.9 trillion, with its global contribution to GDP declining by 50.4% year-on-year, compared to a 3.3% decline of the global economy. There was a glimmer of hope in 2021 as travel and tourism’s contribution to GDP increased by USD 1 trillion (+21.7% rise) in 2021 to reach USD 5.8 trillion, while the sector’s share of the whole economy increased from 5.3% in 2020 to 6.1% in 2021. Additionally, the sector saw the recovery of 18.2 million jobs, representing an increase of 6.7%. The projection of growth rate is bright which brings cheers among stakeholders as travel and tourism GDP is set to grow on average by 5.8% annually between 2022 and 2032, outpacing the growth of the overall economy (2.7% per year) creating nearly 126 million new jobs within the next decade.
Travel and tourism GDP could return to 2019 levels by the end of 2023. However, much depends on the proactive role by the governments and travel-trade sector by preparing for future crises, coexisting with COVID-19 by taking collective behavior and individual responsibility, easing of conditions in opening destinations, and better communication and planning, to name a few.
Tourism was also hard-hit in the Asia Pacific region as it registered an 82% drop in tourist arrivals in 2020 compared to 2019. Nepal also showed a slump in tourist arrivals. Nepal registered 230,085 and 150,962 in 2020 and 2021 respectively. Between January-August 2022, the total number of arrivals was recorded at 326,667. Tourist arrivals in 2020 almost declined by 80% as compared to 2019 (1,197,191).
Changing travel behavior
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed travel behavior. Travel behavior involves certain decisions, activities, ideas, and experiences that satisfy consumer needs and wants. Ongoing studies across the world on the impacts of COVID-19 and the future of travel and tourism are predicting that the travel and tourism consumption patterns may change in the post-COVID-19 era. An Economist Impact survey of more than 4,500 travelers in the region—across Australia, Japan, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand—shows that more than 7 in 10 (71.8%) respondents agree that COVID-19 has changed the way they think about sustainable tourism by making it more important to them.
The survey result shows that 57% of tourists want to avoid overtourism, while 69.9% are likely to avoid traveling to crowded destinations.
A similar percentage (71.7%) show that they are more likely to travel to destinations that allow them to avoid crowded spaces. Undoubtedly, there is an urgent need to seriously think of ways to develop practices that may help to recover and sustain tourism in the post-COVID-19 era.
Double jolt to world tourism
After much deliberations among the Member States, the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) this year returned to focus on the future on World Tourism Day (September 27) with the central theme “Rethinking Tourism” expecting tourism to bring hope and opportunity to millions who are suffering due to the double jolt of both COVID-19 and the Ukraine war. UNWTO highlighted the opportunity to rethink tourism in a better way by putting people and the planet first, and bringing everyone from governments and businesses to local communities together around a shared vision for a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient sector. UNWTO hoped that World Tourism Day would be celebrated as the shift towards tourism was being recognized as a crucial pillar of development, and it appears that progress along those lines is well underway. In a nutshell, the theme is an attempt to regenerate the global tourism industry in the post-COVID-19 pandemic and war situation.
In Nepal
Nepal should look for new ways to reboot tourism . Recently, the government announced 73 tourism activities after rigorous discussion with the travel-trade sector to strengthen tourism. Kathmandu Valley (one of the fastest-growing metropolitan regions in South Asia) tourism is mainly driven by its rich cultural heritage having 7 protected monument zones which are designated as UNESCO World Heritage sites. Nepal needs to move further ahead and approach UNESCO for listing in the Intangible Cultural Heritage list that brings paramount importance to cultural values of a country. For example, 14 Intangible Cultural Heritage elements from India have now been inscribed on UNESCO’s list. Nepal with its unique culture can look forward to the same. Gai Jatra and Indra Jatra, celebrated only in Kathmandu Valley, carries a lot of weight and has tremendous potential to reconnect with the rest of the world.
In the 70s, Nepal pioneered wildlife tourism and was well-known on tourism maps, being much appreciated by the world. Former US Defense Secretary and World Bank President, Robert McNamara, appreciated Nepal’s pioneering approach in wildlife tourism along with conservation. Henry Kissinger, former US Foreign Secretary, also was in awe with Nepal’s wildlife tourism. Former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was inspired by Nepal’s forest management and tourism so much that she admitted that there are lots of things to learn from Nepal. Wildlife tourism caters to the needs of high-end tourists, and Nepal has to reposition itself as a high-end tourist destination through wildlife tourism as the country has both comparative and competitive advantage over it. The rich past glory of Nepal has to be revived to boost tourism.
Shining a light on sustainable tourism
The Sustainable Tourism for Livelihood Recovery Project (STLRP), a joint initiation by both the Nepal Tourism Board and UNDP, was launched in 2021 with programs totally designed for the benefits of the bottom of pyramids working in the tourism sector. The STLRP specifically worked on providing immediate livelihood needs through short-term employment opportunities to vulnerable tourism dependent communities, particularly women and people from disadvantaged groups in the tourism sector that have lost their jobs or income due to COVID-19. It also addressed generating employment and income for tourism workers through the renovation and development of tourism products in major tourist destinations. Partnerships with different tourism associations were made to impart skill-based training such as river guide training, advanced cooking guide training, trekking guide training, and restaurant and bar standard management training to develop quality human resources.
This project collaborated with 8 local governments for the construction of small-scale tourism infrastructures which created 5,450 person days of employment until May 2022.
Also, STLRP supported the fortification of the settlement through the construction of an embankment along the high flood risk zones in at Pheriche village (4,300 meters) in Khumbu where a gabion wall around 390 meters was constructed to protect against overflow from the nearby rivers and glacial lake outburst floods reflecting its commitment towards local communities, economies, and sustainability. Unlike other countries who were totally concentrated on a top-down approach and designing recovery programs for those in the higher end of the pyramid, the STLRP totally took care of the bottom of the pyramid by reinventing and rethinking tourism and revitalizing local communities
The biggest challenge is restoring confidence in tourism which is only possible through travel. It has to combine an old man’s wisdom and a child’s delight and curiosity. The time is ripe to rethink tourism and reinvent it with new responsibility in a meaningful way. Undoubtedly, the theme has rightly come at a time when people are looking at the tourism sector to bring succor to end their misery by rethinking tourism for development, including through education, jobs, capacity building, trained human resources, and of course tourism’s impact on the planet and opportunities to grow more sustainably. UNWTO has aptly asked everyone to rethink newer approaches to revive overall tourism.