Page 14 - newsletter 14 aug

Impact of COVID-19 on Impact of COVID-19 on
Health Sector Tourism & Hospitality

Industry
Saksham Muradia, XII C R a j n e e s h M a g o o , X I I D
In the current situation of pandemic, the health The impact of the pandemic on tourism is about 50
sector workers, doctors, paramedics, nurses, per cent during January and February 2020, while it
hospital staff, pharmaceutical employees, are may be higher at 70 per cent in March
working on the frontline to contain the situation alone,following the suspension of international
and to find solutions against it. Yet, the most flights.
active sector is facing a slowdown like every During April-June, the Indian tourism industry is
other economic sector. expected to book a revenue loss of Rs 69,400
The health sector is highly capital intensive and crore, denoting a year-on-year (y-o-y) loss of 30
is in the distress of liquidity often, even pre- per cent. “During H2 2020, assuming the virus
pandemic as well. Today, the hospitals are not impact subsides, we expect FTAs to still be lower
only the sites of war being fought, but also affecting the FEEs (foreign exchange earnings) by
possess threat of transmitting the virus. Due to about 50 per cent to reach Rs 56,150 crore vis-à-
this, the footfall in OPDs and elective surgeries vis Rs 112,300 crore during H2 2019," the

have fallen giving a cash crunch. While there is report said.
an urgent need of money to invest in PPEs,
ventilators and manpower to make the sector The most visible and immediate impact of Covid-19
robust and ready to fight this. is seen in the hotel and tourism sector in all its
The problems are not only faced by the hospitals. geographical segments - inbound, outbound and
The medical devices industry is also facing a domestic and almost all verticals - leisure,
lump. Although, the demand is there, the supply adventure, heritage, MICE (Meetings, Incentives,
chain has been broken due to trade conflicts Conferences & Exhibitions), cruise and
with China. Talking about the biggest revenue corporate.
generator of this sector, the pharmaceuticals have Given various travel restrictions imposed by the
become our only hope to get us out of this Indian government as well as governments across
problem by developing a vaccine. the globe, forward bookings for various conferences
This has made them diverting all the resources and leisure travel bookings to foreign destinations
from other important, revenue generating projects have already been cancelled. In India, most of the

to this highly uncertain one. summer holiday bookings (for the states of
This slow is going to be there for a longer period of Kerala, Rajasthan and Goa) have also been
time as the purchasing power of the people cancelled (about 40-50 per cent), thereby
have also been affected so they would want to impacting domestic tourism.
spend less on non-urgent ailments. The impact on the inbound and outbound
Since it is very important to strengthen the health passengers is expected to be most severe in the
sector in this time, the government should next couple of quarters. India’s total foreign tourist
prioritise in mitigating the economic impacts on arrivals (FTA) stood at 10.9 million and the foreign
this and infuse some liquidity temporarily in exchange earnings (FEE) stood at Rs 210,971
the system and give certain tax exemptions so crore during 2019, with Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu,
that its functioning doesn’t come to a halt.
Uttar Pradesh and Delhi accounting for about 60
per cent of foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs). However,

now with travel restrictions in India for over 80
countries and most of the flights of major airlines
" T h e I n d i a n t o u r i s m i n d u s t r y i s p r o j e c t e d t o
b o o k a r e v e n u e l o s s o f R s 1 . 2 5 t r i l l i o n i n
being suspended, along with the lockdown till
c a l e n d a r 2 0 2 0 a s a f a l l o u t o f t h e s h u t d o w n o f
March 31, 2020, the Indian domestic as well as
h o t e l s a n d s u s p e n s i o n i n f l i g h t o p e r a t i o n s a f t e r
foreign travel and tourism industry is expected to
t h e o n s e t a n d s p r e a d o f t h e c o r o n a v i r u s
( C o v i d - 1 9 ) p a n d e m i c .
witness a sharp negative impact in 2020.