We have seen in our previous posts how COVID-19 has been denting tourism leading to a 70% dip in international tourist arrivals starting from the January of 2020. The devastating pandemic has ensured the borders are sealed completely. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought untold suffering to different sections of the society, and has raised many serious questions on the future of the industry. The pandemic brought the global tourism industry to its knees in 2020. As the entire world expected the roll-out of vaccines against COVID, which eventually came to public use in India in the beginning of this year, the shortage of vaccine in several regions of the country only worsened things further. Now when international travel can actually resume in the immediate future is a question that will haunt the travel and tour operator and agencies world over.
Even before COVID-19, there was a hue and cry for tourism given a large picture than life (read as planet). There was even a pressing demand to scale back tourism for an environmentally sustainable earth and support overly touristed destinations turning more resilient to crises. The beginning of March in India saw a sudden spike of COVID cases, especially in Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Madya Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka among others. Inter-state travel especially to states highly hit by the pandemic is restricted. Therefore, domestic travel in India is still in jeopardy.
Even as we discuss this, states such as Tamilnadu, Kerala, Maharashtra and others have been imposed partial to full lockdown to bring down the daily increasing COVID-19 cases. The struggle to restore normalcy is on, but a daunting task indeed, with mounting deaths a concern for the government. The government has also been urging people to wear face masks, maintain social distancing and use sanitizers regularly, in addition to increasing vaccination drives for breaking the chain and saving people’s lives. Will vaccine do the trick in restoring travel operation? Let’s find out in the subsequent series of the blog.
