Since the outbreak and spread of the covid-19 disease has resulted in countries of the world placing travel restrictions and closure of their borders to movements to and from other countries. The tourism industry is one of the sectors that was greatly affected as it led to the rapid shutdowns in cities and states across the country.
Industries in the tourism sector such as airlines, hotels, entertainment and hospitality industries faced declining demand and patronage hence travel crashes and cancellations.
The increased cancellations of hotels and travel bookings resulted in billions of Naira in revenue loss and hundreds of thousands of job loss in the country.
The rise in unemployment situations in the country, has also resulted in loss of substantial revenue to the government, increasing incidence of poverty among others.
According to the Secretary General, United Nations World Tourism Organization, Zurab Pololikashvili ” it has been a challenging year in the history of tourism. Almost overnight, the pandemic brought global tourism to a complete standstill.
Pololikashvili explained that millions of people missed chances to explore different places and embrace different cultures and customs.
“And the world lost out on opportunities for tourism to create jobs, support businesses, kick-start development, and to protect and preserve the very things we leave our homes to see.
“However, in the face of such a downturn, tourism ends the year more united and determined than ever,” he said
In reaction to the effect of Covid-19, Government had to introduce stimulus packages and other policies to combat the effect of the pandemic on its citizens as so many lost their jobs and businesses were affected.
Stakeholders in the tourism and entertainment industry noted that the economy will only recover if the government implement sustainable policies.
Mr Pelu Awofeso, founder, Travel Next Door, a tour operating company says that Covid-19 is the most destabilizing force the world has seen in this millennium.
Awofeso notes that like other countries, Nigeria’s domestic tourism, which was already showing some promise, was terribly affected.
“Many practitioners in the creative sector suffered unquantifiable losses because businesses were shut down almost throughout the year.
“Airports, hotels, night clubs, bars, restaurants, travel agencies and event centres among others were shut down. Tour operators lost a lot of money as already booked tours were canceled.
“Also, business owners were not encouraged by government’s slow and insufficient palliative support, especially SME’s which are believed to be the bedrock of economies.
“Practitioners are still suffering the effects of covid-19. Many businesses took loans which they are struggling to pay back.
“There is the possibility of another wave which is likely to lead to another round of lockdown. This is bound to affect SMEs even if care is not taken,” Awofeso said.
Similarly, Emem Isong, a screenwriter, movie producer and director explains that the outbreak took a terrible hit on the entertainment industry.
According to Isong, the entertainment and education sectors were some of the worst-hit sectors.
“It has been a very trying year for me in view of the Covid – 19 pandemic.
“My business took a terrible hit as my blockbuster film “Special Jollof” was hugely affected by the pandemic.
“The film came out just as the outbreak started and as a result of the lockdown which led to the closure of cinemas people could not watch the movie,” the producer said
Isong suggests that government should give palliatives to the entertainment industry being one of the badly hit sector.
She added that utmost consideration should be given to the entertainment companies who are struggling to keep their heads above water.
Mr Femi Lawson, a tourism destination marketer noted that the pandemic affected tourism in Nigeria and in Africa negatively and positively.
Taking a critical look at the aviation industry which almost completely short down because of the forced locked down from government and other travel policies. Lawson explained that this affected the operations of most of the airline or industry operators because they experienced losses and could not pay salaries which led to the downsizing of staff and other activities of both direct contractors and subcontractors.
This he said led to multiplied and expanded job loss in different areas of the economy.
“Also because of the restriction on event and event centers, the entertainment industry income was on hold especially for night clubs and some other entertainment centers.
“More so because of the travel policies introduced by some countries that are big tourism market around the world, the local travel and tour agencies lost money and income because they could not sell outbound tourism like ticket nor tour packages to anybody both local and international.
“This very negative impact made some organization close business while some are still struggling to find their feet,” Lawson said
However, the tourism expert said that the Covid 19 Pandemic government policies and lockdown decisions are helping to promote local/domestic tourism.
According to Lawson, due to travel restrictions, people are forced to look inward.
He says some local destinations are recording patronage like never before and some locally manufactured products are getting patronage because the imported competitor could not come in and some goods are not available in the market or it’s now more expensive.
Similarly, some stakeholders in the industry recommend the need for diversification priorities to alternative sectors such as tourism, entertainment, compensation to business operators in tourism and other critical sectors.
The experts suggest that government should implement sustainable policies that such sectors can fall back on in case of any emergencies like the outbreak.
They said that implementing entertainment/tourism-friendly policies would unlock the myriad of business opportunities in the industries.
They opined that Government really needs to move from just making announcements of social/business support intervention schemes to actually doing it like it is being done in some countries abroad.
They noted that the opportunities in the sectors can only be thrown open with the implementation of the right policies while adding that the economy can and will only recover if businesses and families are bailed out.
