Introduction
As countries around the world open their borders after a long lasted lockdown, many people are thinking of traveling again and taking a decent vacation. Months of quarantine and restricted movements have made exploration even more attractive, but pandemics have also forced people to rethink their travel habits and the industry as a whole. As the tourism industry begins to recover, it has the potential to build a more resilient and sustainable tourism economy that values the environment while providing economic benefits to millions of people around the world. It is clear that in the future, hotels and hospitality will need to prioritize health and safety while strengthening their commitment to the environment. The essay will discuss how COVID-19 has influenced the sustainability sector of the tourism industry. Particularly, such aspects as energy use, socio-economic growth, the future requirements for tourism business, impact on animals and biodiversity will be covered.
Tourism and Sustainability
Key Literature and Concepts
Pandemic has had a significant impact on a company’s long-term performance. Mubeen et al. (2020) suggests that the role of the CEO in making new decisions to revive economic interests is important. According to Lin and Kishore (2021), in the COVID-19 pandemic, social media channels have provided information to various stakeholders. Leisure, travel, and inbound tourism activities declined more rapidly, resulting in a loss of $ 2.86 trillion, or more than 50% of revenue (Wut et al., 2021). In the first part, this study examines the meaning and context of the current occurrence of COVID-19 (Wut et al., 2021). The study explores how innovation and transformation can help the tourism and leisure industries move to the next normalization (Cuomo et al., 2021). In the time of COVID-19, tourism is one of the most vulnerable industries in the world.
The Changes in Energy Use
Strict lockdowns in the early days of the epidemic resulted in a significant fall in worldwide transit volumes. The current pandemic, COVID 19, is a global issue that includes renewable energy, carbon emissions, economic and health crises, and spillover effects on global businesses such as tourism and travel that are making a significant contribution to the global service economy (Abbasi et al., 2021). Highways, airports, railroads, and waterways were empty without passengers, resulting in higher substantially and brighter skies around the world.
The Impact on Socio-Economic Growth
Tourism, as a key sector for local and national socio-economic growth, is strongly reliant on energy use. To support the transformation, any increase in tourist arrivals necessitates an increase in energy demand (Iorember et al., 2020). As a result, when combined with the corresponding increase in travel owing to increased tourism, it has certain environmental repercussions (Usman et al., 2019; Iorember et al., 2019). The recent breakout of the COVID19 pandemic, which has interrupted global economic operations, has dealt a serious blow to tourism development both globally and in the subregion. Following the relaxing of lockdowns and the start of full internal air travel, there is a need for coordinated strategies to boost tourist arrivals, expand clean energy use, and ensure economic and environmental sustainability (Usman et al., 2019). Pandemics affect not only energy consumption habits but also globalization and tourism, and innovation needs to be rethought for long-term recovery.
Finances for agricultural spending and household welfare programs were also hit by the outbreak. The stock market has been affected by the pandemic and has led to inflation (Goshit et al., 2020; Dabwor et al., 2020). Europe’s travel and tourism industry is the second most affected sector, with arrivals down 58%, followed by Middle Eastern countries by 51% (Joo et al., 2021). Meanwhile, in Africa and the United States, visitor arrivals fell by 47% (Joo et al., 2021). Most travel and tourism studies focus on the impact of socio-economic and cultural factors that are perceived to have a significant impact on the people at their destination (Mamirkulova et al., 2020; Joo et al., 2021). Inbound travel and tourism activities have a significant impact on the community as their positive impact on the arrival of international tourists impacts the social, cultural, and socio-economic growth and prosperity of residents (Jordan et al., 2021). The number of international visitors decreased by 56% from January to May, decreased by 97% in April, and decreased by 98% in May 2020 (Jordan et al., 2021). Since mid-March 2020, outbreaks of the virus have affected travel and tourism activities, leading to the collapse of global travel.
Future Requirements for Tourism Business
The epidemic reveals the potential for completely unexpected disasters, and as a result, resilience is becoming more equitable. COVID enhances both sustainable business relevance and expectations, with 40% predicting future shifts and additional requirements for such businesses (Jordan et al., 2021). Despite the financial difficulties many companies faced in 2020, many companies have doubled their commitment to sustainability and contributed to a safer, more environmentally friendly, and healthier future for 2020 (Jordan et al., 2021). Companies are now recognizing the importance of developing long-term business plans that can absorb major setbacks, while significant human casualties lead to more accommodation.
With COVID-19’s regulations, there was a surge in the hobby in tourism websites that have been best a quick force away or off the standard route, with much fewer crowds. Many protection-aware vacationers started to set up visits in the direction of domestic flights so one can keep away from being uncovered to lengthy multi-step journeys. COVID may also have even stored the sleeper train: fear that flying in 2020 led to an upward thrust in reputation for numerous lengthy-distance rail lines, consistent with one tour operator searching at 2021 European bookings (Zenker & Kock, 2020). While the boom in railway bookings is possible because of protection issues and airport constraints, there is a desire that hobby will maintain for different reasons.
The Impact on Animals and Biodiversity
COVID quarantine around the world has allowed certain animals to invade human territory, but the epidemic has helped protect some of the world’s most economically vulnerable and biodiversity areas. The lack of patrols has increased illegal fishing and poaching, increased deforestation, and left millions of people in extreme poverty (Abbas et al., 2021). This led to the loss of biodiversity as people became increasingly dependent on indigenous timber, bushmeat, and fuel. Increased land use and development increase the risk of infectious diseases by bringing people closer to pathogen-carrying wildlife and disrupting disease-free ecological processes. Nearly 75% of emerging infectious diseases come from other animals, and increased land use and exploitation of infectious diseases by bringing people closer to pathogen-carrying wildlife and disrupting disease-free ecological processes. Nature and its services generate nearly $ 4 trillion in economic value, which is more than half of the world’s GDP (Winter et al., 2020). Biodiversity has traditionally been a lower priority than climate change, but since 2020, government and industry leaders are aware that both need to be addressed (Olsen, 2020). In addition to health, biodiversity is essential to the economy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, since the pandemic is strongly connected with energy use and human activity, it has a significant impact on the environment. The changes that appeared along with the pandemic and lockdowns had changed the approaches to energy consumption and environmental sustainability. Overall, the pandemic has positively influenced the sustainability trends associated with tourism and its consequences for the environment. Such major aspects as biodiversity, climate change, and socio-economic factors are affected by the COVID-19 in the context of the tourism industry.
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