Topic: Evaluate the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic on the UK tourism industry
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Introduction
The tourism industry can be identified as the brands that facilitate the providence of infrastructure and services to fulfil the objectives of global tourists in the context of leisure of business exploration (Camilleri, 2018). In the UK sector, the tourism industry attributes as the mass contributor to the overall GDP of the nation. Around 10% of the UK GDP is attributed to the tourism sector and it provides support to over 3.8 million inhabitants in the nation (Condorferries, 2022). The onset of the Covid pandemic created a global crisis and hindered the natural equilibrium among the resources ecosystems and the tourism societies. It carted a massive impact on the livelihood of the workers employed in the tourism sector and lead to an increment of pressure on the conservation of natural heritage and social communities of the nation. In this essay, a detailed analysis will be performed on the Covid, tourism at the UK, global crisis prevailing on the exploration sphere of UK and its impact and the respective responses.
Main Body
The onset of the global pandemic of Covid 19 marked the transmission of the infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus (WHO, 2022). It infected people and lead them to experience respiratory illness and lead to the death of many patients across the world. The virus tends to spread through the small liquid particles that are transmitted through the coughing, sneezing and speech of the infected patient. The onset of the pandemic led to the implementation of self-checking and social distancing regulatory that hindered the normal functioning of the lives and livelihoods of humans across the world. Globally the entire humankind was attributed to wearing masks, using sanitisers and maintaining social distancing and respiratory hygiene effectively. Almost 435,626,514 people have been affected by the virus globally and have encountered over 5, 92,215 deaths in the span of the last two years (WHO, 2022). In the UK the onset of the global pandemic and the social distancing restrictions have staggered and negatively impacted the social, economical and cultural spheres of the inhabitants. Over 18l.9 million propel have been affected by the disease in the UK has more than 161000 inhabitants have encountered death due to the global pandemic (BBC, 2022). The tourism sector of the UK encountered to be the fastest growing industry and catered several jobs and employs a large number of populations in the nation. It ranks seventh in the UNWTO international arrivals league and had over 37.9 million visits in the year 2017 (Condorferries, 2022). However, the implementation of the travel restrictions has impacted the sector heavily in the year 2020-2021. The domestic and international air passenger traffic in the nation fell less than 2% in April 2020 and only 20% of the hotel rooms were occupied in the country in July 2020 (ons.gov.uk, 2022). The business turnovers in the sector fell to their lowers levels in the pandemic years and accounted for 26.0% of the total customer serving spheres. In 2020, the employment accommodation for the visitor fell by 21.5% and it impacted the travel sector of the nation (ons.gov.uk, 2022). It created a huge impact on the loss of jobs across the employees working in the Covid sector and degraded their overall standards of living. Nearly 100,000 employees lost their job in the tourism sector in the UK due to the onset of the Covid 19 (reuters, 2021). The absence of proper government ailment and absence of foreign and national customers in the industry broke the survival criteria of the sphere in the UK.
The tourism industry in the UK adds a significant attribution to the economy of the nation and plays a major role in catering for the life and livelihoods of millions of employees engaged in the industry. In 2019, 237 billion British Pounds were contributed by the travel and tourism sector of the country. The total contribution of the industry in the GDP accounts for about 89.6 billion pounds (Statista, 2022). Almost 74% of the travel and tourism sphere of the national accounts from the leisure exploration of the tourists. Over 3.96 million employments are generated by the industry in the UK. The inbound visitor spending in the nation accounts for about 6.2 billion of the GDPO whereas the outbound expenditure can be summarised to about 13.76 billion (Statista, 2022). Onset of the global pandemic created a huge decline in the industry due to the loss of over four million jobs in the sector. Over 2.6 million visits were encountered in the UK by overseas residents in the year 2019 whereas the inhabitants of the nation carted about 4.5 million visits overseas (ons.gov.uk, 2022). By the year 2025, the tourism industry in the nation is bound to cross the net worth of over 257 billion pounds. UK tourism accounted for about 4 million visits in July 2019 and around 31.93 billion was spent by the tourist in the year 2017 (Condorferries, 2022). London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Oxford, Bristol, Liverpool and Cambridge can be identified as the top town and cities visited by travellers and add to the massive sphere of the income generated through the industry in the UK. Over 241,000 businesses are interlinked with the tourism sector in the country. The tourist arrival rate in 2021 increased to 1,308,000 in the third quarter of 2021 than that of the 277,000 in the second sphere of the year (TRADING ECONOMICS, 2022). Tourism sector in the UK leads to the overall boost of the economy and caters for thousands of jobs and increments the overall employment spheres in the nation. It helps in the overall development of the infrastructure of the nation and adds to the cultural exchange among the visitor and the natives in the region. The tourism sector helps in the strengthening process of the reputation of the nation as a welcoming and open country and diverts the attention of the global tourist spheres. It helps the nation increment and grow by the advancement of the economic activities and boosts the wide-scale industry revenues of the brands attributed in the sector.
Travel and tourism witnessed numerous negative impacts due to the distress caused by the global pandemic on the global sphere. The tourism sector can be identified as the contact intensive services and the implementation of the lockdown rests ructions and social distancing transformed the overall attribute and perception of the tourists to undergo exploration. In the UK, the tourism sector has been hit largely after the onsets of the lockdown restrictions and catered serious downfall in the elimination of employment of the inhabitants of the nation. The monthly] air passenger arrivals in the nation fell by 98.3% in April 2020 (ons.gov.uk, 2022). Only 20% of the total rooms were occupied in July 2020 whereas the accommodation and travel agency industries witnessed a sharp decline in the turnover levels in May of about 9.3%. In the tourism sector employment froze for the age of 16 to 24 years after the discouragement of unnecessary travels within the nation. About 2.4 million jobs were lost in the Covid sphere and faced challenges in the revenue streams for numerous brands operating in the area. The pandemic had a huge impact on the tourism sector in the nation where only 7.54r million visitors were projected to visit the nation in the year 2021 (Buckley, 2021). In the stressful conditions of the pandemic, the government devised numerous plans that can be effective to initiate the domestic tourism spheres and help in the attraction of the visitors via attribution of sociality and hospitality spheres. For the encouragement of the local travel of the inhabitants across the nation, the Government imitated alternatives for the BritRail passes to help them travel at cheaper prices (Allegretti, 2021). The tourism recovery plan included the creation of a data hub that can help in the tracking of the environmentally friendly experiences of the natives and help them to register in the accommodations easily. National Lottery has announced the attribution of 10 million pounds voucher schemes to attract and encourage travel beyond the peak seasons in the nations (gov.uk, 2022). The focus of the new plan will allow the Government to avail advancement in technology and data via the attribution of the Sustainable tourism spheres. Industries thriving in the UK tourism sector applied for the recovery preparation to cater for the welfare and safety of the staff by the implementation of healthy measures to recur the continuity of the businesses.
Conclusion
From the above essay, it can be concluded that the onset of the Global pandemic posed a great threat to the industries and the employees engaged with the tourism sector in the UK. Covid 19 spreads with the physical contact of the hams and has caused fatal deaths globally. However, the onset of the pandemic posed negative impacts on the employees and the business and the Government was forced to conduct several welfare programs to increment the overall productivity. Several recommendations can be made to boost the functioning of the industry in the post-pandemic situation as follows.
The presence of open and transparent communication with the staff and clients of the industry can help in enhancing productivity. The development of robust sanitisation procedures in the pandemic situation can help in incrementing the attraction of tourists on the global spheres. The increment of the nation’s identity and image through the social media channels can help in the restoration of the tourist spheres effectively.
Reference List
Allegretti, A. (2021) Ministers aim to spur domestic tourism with cut-price UK rail pass [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/11/ministers-aim-to-spur-domestic-tourism-with-cut-price-uk-rail-pass (Accessed: 2 March 2022)
BBC (2022) Covid-19 in the UK: How many coronavirus cases are there in my area? [online] Available at: bbc.com/news/uk-51768274 (Accessed: 2 March 2022)
Buckley, J. (2021) How the UK became the sick man of European tourism [online] Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/uk-tourism-decline-restrictions-cmd/index.html (Accessed: 2 March 2022)
Camilleri, M.A. (2018) The tourism industry: An overview. Travel marketing, tourism economics and the airline product, pp.3-27.
Condorferries (2022) UK Tourism Statistics 2020-2021 [online] Available at: https://www.condorferries.co.uk/uk-tourism-statistics (Accessed: 2 March 2022)
gov.uk (2022) New plan to drive rapid recovery of tourism sector [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-plan-to-drive-rapid-recovery-of-tourism-sector (Accessed: 2 March 2022)
ons.gov.uk (2022) Coronavirus and the impact on the UK travel and tourism industry - Office for National Statistics [online] Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/tourismindustry/articles/coronavirusandtheimpactontheuktravelandtourismindustry/2021-02-15#:~:text=The%20travel%20and%20tourism%20industries,for%20large%20periods%20of%20time. (Accessed: 2 March 2022)
ons.gov.uk(2022) Tourism industry [online] Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/tourismindustry. (Accessed: 2 March 2022)
reuters (2021) UK's travel sector facing new wave of job cuts, industry body warns [online] Available at: https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uks-travel-sector-facing-new-wave-job-cuts-industry-body-warns-2021-09-14/ (Accessed: 2 March 2022)
Statista (2022) Topic: Travel and tourism in the United Kingdom (UK) [online] Available at: https://www.statista.com/topics/3269/travel-and-tourism-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/#topicHeader__wrapper (Accessed: 2 March 2022)
TRADING ECONOMICS (2022) United Kingdom Tourist Arrivals [online] Available at: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/tourist-arrivals (Accessed: 2 March 2022)
WHO (2022) Coronavirus [online] Available at: https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1 (Accessed: 2 March 2022)
WHO (2022) WHO Coronavirus (Covid-19) Dashboard [online] Available at: https://covid19.who.int/ (Accessed: 2 March 2022)
