(TAN): The global travel industry’s performance report for March 2020 was not something to be particularly proud of. International traffic declined 57% versus the same period a year ago, primarily because of closure of airports and national borders, along with lockdown measures that were put in place in several countries worldwide, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) said.
“The world is facing an unprecedented health and economic crisis. Tourism has been hit hard, with millions of jobs at risk in one of the most labour-intensive sectors of the economy,” UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said.
South East Asian tourism suffers after Chinese visitors stop coming
One of the worst hit countries in terms of March foreign traffic was Singapore where overseas arrivals plunged 85% in comparison to the same period last year. Arrivals in other Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Indonesia crashed over 76% and 64% in March, respectively.
All these countries have one thing in common – Chinese arrivals constitute the major portion of foreign tourists for all of them. Therefore, total foreign visitor numbers dwindled after China sent fewer tourists in March amid travel restrictions caused by the pandemic, and with Wuhan in China’s Hubei province being the epicentre of the outbreak.
According to data from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) that was published on the Singapore Tourism Analytics Network website, foreign arrivals plunged 84.7% to 239,885 in March 2020 from 1,564,644 in March 2019. Of the total arrivals, China, one of Singapore’s chief source markets, accounted for just 1,486 visitors.
The last time Singapore’s tourism sector had seen a decline of this scale was in 2003, when severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS had broken out in the island nation, reports said. Singapore had reportedly received 217,000 visitors and 191,000 visitors in April and May 2003, respectively.
Thailand, on the other hand, registered a 76.4% dip to 820,000 in March vis-à-vis the comparable period a year ago, after Chinese arrivals, that account for the highest numbers of tourists to the country, reportedly went down 94.2% compared to a year ago.
As a result, spending slumped, with overseas tourists reportedly spending around THB 39.5 billion (USD 1.23 billion approximately) during the month, 77.6% less from March 2019.
Data from Indonesia’s central statistics agency Statistics Indonesia or BPS showed overseas arrivals nosedived 64.11% to 470,900 in March versus the same period last year. Further, 45.5% fewer foreign visitors arrived in Indonesia in March compared to February 2020.
BPS chief Suhariyanto reportedly said Indonesia’s foreign tourist traffic in March dropped to the lowest level since 2009. Arrivals buckled after the inflow of Chinese tourists, who usually make up one of the largest sections of foreign visitors to the South East Asian nation, plunged 97.4% year-on-year to just over 196,000 in March, reports said.
Traffic dwindled as travel restrictions were tightened
Data from India’s Tourism Ministry showed 3,28,462 overseas tourists arrived in the country in March, leading to a whopping 66.4% decline in traffic compared to a year ago. In March 2019, 9,78,236 international visitors had come to India.
The dip was caused by a collapse in travel demand and restrictions in travel enforced by the government – India extended its 21-day lockdown as number of cases began to rise in different parts of the country. It also suspended train and air movements in a bid to slow the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, another South Asian country, Sri Lanka, posted a 70.8% year-on-year drop in overseas traffic in March. It had reportedly stopped all passenger flights and ships entering the nation on March 18 in order to slow the spread of the virus. According to reports, Sri Lanka had till then received 71,370 international tourists, compared to 2,44,328 foreign tourist arrivals in March 2019.
BPS Indonesia chief Suhariyanto reportedly said worldwide restrictions in transportation and lockdowns had a negative impact on foreign arrivals.
“The number of tourists from all over the world is declining sharply because of the social movement restrictions, lockdowns and flight restrictions in effect in different countries. The drop is so severe and we need to be wary of it. Such a level of decline will greatly affect the tourism industry and its supporting sectors,” he was quoted by The Jakarta Post as saying.
Thailand, which has been massively hit by COVID-19 related restrictions, intensely depends on tourism for its economy. The country has extended its national ban on international arrivals until at least May 30, and heavily restricted domestic travel, as per reports. However, it is reportedly planning to ease lockdown by partially opening restaurants, markets and cafes with wealthy tourists in mind, especially focusing on the island resorts of Phuket, Koh Samui and Koh Phangan that can host international visitors with relatively high purchasing power.
“Because those destinations are only reachable via limited gateways, provincial authorities can ensure thorough screening of incoming visitors and provide more comprehensive prevention measures against the potential import of the virus compared to other major destinations, such as Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai,” Thailand’s head of Tourism and Sports Ministry, Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn was quoted by The Thaiger as saying.
Visitor arrivals by air plunged 53.6% to 430,691 in March 2020 in comparison to 927,246 in March 2019 in the American state of Hawaii, according to data from the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
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Of the total arrivals by air, nearly 65% less international tourists arrived in the state during the month compared to a year ago, triggered by flight cancellations to the islands which began in February, first affecting the China market. By March, most of the flights to Hawaii were cancelled, bringing down the traffic even further.
Most cruise lines suspended services of their own accord in the United States waters on March 13, which affected tourist numbers arriving to the state by cruise – visitor traffic from cruise ships decreased 64.8% to 4,165 in March vis-à-vis the earlier year.
While Hawaii Governor David Ige asked future visitors to defer their trips by at least a month on March 17, the counties had also started urging people to stay at home. Everyone arriving from outside of Hawaii were instructed to self-quarantine themselves for 14 days on March 26, leading to a 49.7% drop in total visitor days compared to a year ago. This in turn affected visitor spending, which went down 52.2% to a total of USD 720.2 million in March versus the same period a year back.
First quarter figures were affected as March arrivals sank
Overseas arrival numbers during the first three months of the year took a massive blow after fewer tourists travelled to foreign shores in March 2020.
While STB data showed foreign traffic in Singapore declined 43.26% to 2,660,192 visitors, Sri Lanka saw a 31.5% drop in arrivals to 507,311 during the quarter. During the first quarter of 2020, Indonesia experienced a 30.62% dip to 2.6 million from 3.76 million visits in the year-ago period.
India and Turkey registered similar declines – while traffic to India plummeted 22.6% to 24,62,244 during the period from 31,79, 792 in the same period last year, Turkey received 4.24 million tourists during the quarter, 22.11% less than the same period last year.
In Hawaii, United States, total visitor arrivals during the first three months dipped 16.4% to 2,125,486 – considerable declines in March “entirely offset positive results in January and February” and led to losses in visitor spending and arrivals for the first quarter of 2020.
UNWTO cautions of a grim year ahead
The UNWTO warned the travel sector could be hit with a 60% to 80% drop in international tourist arrivals during the year – up to 1.1 billion fewer people are expected to go on foreign trips in 2020, bringing about a loss of up to USD 1.2 trillion in export revenues earned from tourism, a report from the organisation predicted.
Globally, COVID-19 could put up to 120 million jobs that are directly related to tourism at risk – in what is “by far the worst crisis that international tourism has faced since records began”. The World Travel & Tourism Council had recently said the tourism sector could face 100.8 million travel-related job losses, costing the world economy up to USD 2.7 trillion of GDP.
The forecast for the entire year was built upon the figures for the first three months of the year, when foreign tourist arrivals sank 22% versus the same period last year. Export revenues worth USD 80 billion were lost in the first quarter as 67 million fewer tourists travelled abroad up to March, UNWTO said.
