Impact of COVID-19 on Hospitality and Tourism Industry of India

As, for last few years, it has been seen that Corona Virus epidemic has put an unpleasant effect on almost every sector of the Indian economy but Tourism and Hospitality industries have been the most affected. Since, Tourism and Hospitality industry has been one of the largest service industries in the world and a largest source of employability. This paper tries to fulfill the purpose to review that the Tourism and Hospitality industry has shown tremendous fall down in recent month due to Covid-19 in India. Indian government placed nationwide lockdown phase one to stop spreading of virus in the society on 24th March 2020, when the positive cases of corona were approximately 500.It showed increase in the positive cases later months of April and May and so on. Lockdown led extreme fall down in sectors of Tourism and Hospitality across the country due to sealing of borders as well modes of transports. It also created unemployment in front of millions of people associated with tourism industry. A report published by WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council) states that India ranked 3rd among 185 countries in terms of Travel and Tourism based total contribution to GDP in year 2018 and ranked 34 in the Travel and Tourism competitiveness report 2019 published by World Economic Forum. In the year 2019, Tourism and Travel industry contributed 9.3% to India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). As of 2019, 42 million jobs were created in the tourism industry in India which was about 8.5 per cent of total employment in the country [Source: India Brand Equity Foundation].World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) states that employment of more than 6 million people of the Tourism and Hospitality industry could be lost in the upcoming months and it may take up to minimum of one year to recover.