COVID-19 AND TOURISM

Abstract

With the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the whole world has been in a total shutdown. It came out as a challenge to just not some specific countries of continents, but to the entire planet. With no preparation for such type of pandemic and the time and effort required to come up with a fully functional and tested vaccine, the planet went down on its knees. Non pharmaceutical methods were the first aid for the outbreak. Unprecedented country wide lockdowns, stay at home decisions, closure of global as well as local travel, closure of public gatherings greatly disrupted the world economy. International travel bans were the first to be practiced which roughly affected 100% of the world population. With restrictions on public gatherings and movement of people, tourism came to a stand-still in March-April 2020. By this time, COVID-19 had reached most of the countries and the virus was spreading like wild fire.