CHALLENGES AND THREATS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOURISM INDUSTRY DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The purpose of this research paper is to examine challenges and threats to the development of the tourism industry which is an important economic sector that was heavily influenced by ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and first identified in Wuhan, China. Based on many available resources, global tourism sector is yet to recover and is expected to encounter various obstacles on a way for selfrebuilding and economic thrive. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism industry has been hit extremely hard, for instance, as practiced in most countries the pandemic fight response mainly ranged from closing the country borders to air and hotel industry shut, hence this type of response resulted in an inevitable tourism revenue loss, massive job loss and general economic crisis. Provided data in this research paper is an accumulated information from different open and free data sources. As of March 2021, majority of branches of the tourism industry sector such as: lodging operations, transportation systems and travel services are still in state of recovery. The future full recover of these branches is still a matter and question of time that may take for the process. Particularly, the dependence on the tourism industry sector may determine the period that it takes for this ongoing process.