The Big Covid-19 Impact

Covid-19 has rudely pulled the rug from under the feet of the hospitality industry, leaving it in a state of complete disarray. India’s biggest hoteliers offer opinions on the crisis, the cost-rationalisation measures it has forced them to take, what they need the government to do, and what will it take to recover

The Novel Coronavirus pandemic has hit 150 countries, affecting over 800,000 people and leaving several thousand dead. And the count keeps goings up, every single day. Even as the world waits for the curve to flatten, for a drug cure to be found and a vaccine to be discovered, many are facing the prospect of unemployment, job loss and social disruption.

The pandemic is uncharted territory for the hospitality industry. While most industries have been badly impacted and world economies are in recession, it is the hospitality and travel industries that have been crippled globally.

Industries that depend on people travelling, for work and pleasure. With over half of the world's population under lockdown due to COVID-19, the crisis that began sometime in early December in China, before spreading its tangled web across the world, will continue to unfold for a while.

The potential losses and disruptions

India’s hospitality industry was on overdrive before things went downhill:

• India is third-largest globally in terms of investment in travel and tourism. In 2018, US$ 45.7 billion was invested in the country, says World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).
• KPMG estimates that the tourism and hospitality sector accounted for 7.5% of the country's GDP in 2019.
• KPMG expected the hospitality sector to grow at 16.1% CAGR, to reach Rs 2,796 crore in 2022.

Now, WTTC estimates up to 50 million jobs in the travel and hotel industry are at risk due to the global COVID-19 pandemic; several of those are likely to be in India.