The tourism sector plays an important role in the economy of countries. Countries such as France, the USA and Turkey are some of the countries where the tourism sector has a very large place in the country’s economy. The tourism sector can be affected very quickly by political and social events. The Covid-19 virus has taken the whole world captive in 2020.
The tourism industry has come to a standstill in most countries. Still, the tourism sector continues to lose its power and it is not clear when this situation will improve. With the quarantine method, people try to minimize the effect of the pandemic by putting social distance between them. Especially in the period when the corona virus spread, the tourism sector is undoubtedly one of the sectors that suffered the most. In 2020, when the pandemic began to spread, countries hosting tourism around the world suffered great losses. While Spain’s visitor loss was 76%, Greece lost 81%. Turkey is one of the leading countries in the world in terms of annual tourist visitors.
Turkey hosted approximately 40 million visitors in 2018 and Turkey’s tourism income this year is approximately 30 million dollars. In April 2019, Turkey hosted 3 million 260 thousand tourists. But if we look at April 2020, we can say that this number is around 22 thousand with a decrease of 99%. It is known that the tourism sector is very important for Turkey, so the pandemic has created very negative effects.
Travel restrictions imposed due to Covid-19 have minimized tourists’ freedom of movement. Global tourism is expected to recover between 2023 and 2024. However, it is also stated that we will not see the tourism revenues in 2019 before 2023. The tourism sector includes many different businesses. Examples of these include many businesses such as food and beverage businesses, travel agencies, accommodation agencies, transportation businesses. All of these businesses have stopped during the pandemic. The stoppage of all of these businesses has greatly affected the tourism industry. It can be said that the importance to be given to hygiene and health will increase in the next touristic trips. In the choices made by the tourists, the health opportunities of the places they will go and how prepared they are against the virus will be effective. As a result of the withdrawal of people to their homes as a result of the coronavirus, nature has begun to heal its wounds.
Carbon emissions in the world have decreased to a great extent, and our water resources in the city and the air we breathe have also started to be cleaned. For example, it can be said that the waters in the Venetian canals seem cleaner.
Dolphins have started to appear on the island of Sardinia in Italy, as ferry services have decreased. People will want to see these natural beauties when the pandemic is over. Despite all the negative developments brought by the coronavirus, thanks to technology and digitalization, consumers can now go to places they want in the world with virtual glasses without leaving their homes, even if it is limited. If this pandemic had happened maybe 20 years ago, it would not have been possible to use virtual glasses or to find the places we want to go easily on the internet. But since we are in 2021, we can now access most of the things we want to access from the phone in a few seconds. The tourism industry is also on its way to digitalization.
Thanks to this forced digitalization, places that perhaps people who did not have enough time or money could not experience before, will be accessible from digital environments. This is beneficial for both parties. Some museums around the world have started to hold online exhibitions at this time when people have to stay at home. The fact that museums can be visited in digital environments can be attractive even for people who have never heard of this museum before or have never thought of going. If they like the museum, these people can become new visitors to those countries when the pandemic is over.
