Tourism has been one of the main sectors hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic with an immediate effect following the extremely high health and safety alerts and the travel restrictions imposed by almost all countries around the world. As of now, there is no clear indication of border opening soon.
The countries’ lock down is almost immediately translated in to a complete shutdown of air travel, hotels reservation and tourist destination sites leaving jobs, revenues, cash flow and operations in limbo.
The latest figures from the World Travel and Tourism Council shows that 50 million jobs are at risk in the sector globally. In many countries, tourism is the largest contributor to GDP, forex and employment as well. In Africa alone, up to 20 million jobs in the formal and informal sectors could be lost because of COVID-19, according to a new study estimate of the African Union. There is no doubt about the negative consequences the sector is most likely to face in the months and years ahead of us.
The tourism sector contributing up to 10% of the country’s GDP(2019) and employing more than 12,000 work force, the prevailing challenge facing Ethiopia today is not an exception and it forces the government to allocate an ETB 3 billion bailout. Short term actions are critical and it is imperative to take more measures. Generating alternative revenues, minimizing revenue loss, reducing the tax burden, providing liquidity and close communication between the government and the industry are some of the available and advisable instruments the government and businesses need to take in the short term.
Once the world contains the COVID-19 pandemic, faster recovery is as critical to bring the sector back to normal, in a new way. The industry will face a fierce competition and every player will likely be in full force to enlarge the pie as early as possible. There are ongoing signals taking place around the world. The competition is going to be positive for the faster recovery of the overall sector growth as competition will enhance the health and safety standards in destinations with a relatively lower prices, ultimately building confidence in international leisure and travel sooner.
In terms of looking ahead, Ethiopian tourism sector clearly falls behind in many aspects. Beyond weathering and handling the current circumstances, the industry could collaborate more among themselves and with the government of how the sector can prepare itself to tap opportunities as they happen. There is no normal anymore and new strategies should be devised well ahead of time. The least the sector could have done is that of virtual events, seminars, workshops and webinars, for example, updating the current status of affairs, promoting products and services and conveying the how to visit messages to international customers.
“It is in our human nature for people to want to explore across the earth and travel will resume for sure, yet in a new way”,
said Brian Chesky, CEO & Co-founder, Airbnb, in his live interview at LinkedIn recently
Brain thinks, “travel could resume first : locally before international; through cars as opposed to air; in remote destinations than to cities; leisure against business; in small numbers against in masses; and with shorter booking cycles (weeks, months) than longer schedules (years).”
Driven by our individual needs and wants over the years, we all lost our identity as human beings and COVID-19 provides an opportunity to regain our lost social identity as human beings. Moreover, people are being forced to work at home and in a virtual environment where person to person interaction is going to be lacking.
Hence, post COVID-19 travelers will likely seek for more human to human interaction, connection and relationship than the pre COVID-19 normative individualistic status quo, and look for enhanced health and safety standards in tourism destinations. Those who repurpose their strategy to the demands of the future travelers quickly are accelerating their success in to the new normal of business.
So, the question for now should be how is Ethiopia preparing itself to the new normal of leisure and travel business as the lock down is declared over?
Or in the words of Brian,
“How we make a principle based decision, a decision where we would be remembered in a changing world, far more than a sole business based decision, a decision where we maximize the business outcome much of where we are today”?
