COVID-19
WTTC Reveals Pandemic’s Heavy Toll on Women and Youth in Travel & Tourism Jobs
The World Travel & Tourism Council | September 23, 2024
Belem, Brazil: The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), in collaboration with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Tourism, today launched a new report revealing the stark impact of the pandemic on woman and youth employment within the global Travel & Tourism sector. Almost 70 million people working in Travel & Tourism lost their jobs during the pandemic, but women and young people were disproportionately impacted because their roles were more likely to be in the worst affected areas such as hospitality and food services. While the sector has broadly seen a strong recovery, the ‘Social Trends in Travel & T...
The Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Switzerland and Other Developed Countries
Dr Isabella Blengini | April 6, 2023
By Dr. Isabella Blengini How Covid hit the economy The Covid health crisis translated into an economic crisis through two main channels. On the one hand, health issues reduced the availability of labor force, thus reducing production. On the other hand, the great lockdown, necessary to fight the disease, limited the ability of some sectors to produce (either because they were directly blocked or because they could not receive intermediary goods necessary for production). Besides the above-mentioned negative supply shocks, the economy was also hit by a negative demand shock due to several reasons including people losing their jobs and...
U.S. Travel: Banning Novak Djokovic an ‘Unforced Error’ for America
U.S. Travel Association | March 7, 2023
U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman issued the following statement on news of the withdrawal of tennis champion Novak Djokovic from participating in an upcoming U.S. tournament in Indian Wells, California: “America’s outdated vaccine policy for international visitors is an unforced error that is contributing to an $80 billion loss in foreign traveler spending. Novak Djokovic is merely one of millions of travelers deterred from visiting the United States due to a well-intended but antiquated policy. It is well past time for the United States to join with its peers in Europe, Australia and elsewhere and remove p...
Opportunities for Tourism Due to Post-Pandemic Travel Triggers
Dr Cindy Heo | January 30, 2023
By Dr. Cindy Heo Insights from a recent research project that analyzes the post-pandemic emotional triggers behind making travel decisions. The findings highlight how people today are deciding to travel due to a desire to make human connections, find a sense of belonging, create lasting memories and undertake affordable sustainable actions. These new values of travel are opening up important opportunities for hoteliers and DMOs to create innovative and engaging offers based on quality rather than quantity of travel demand. In brief, new opportunities for tourism abound thanks to very personal, human triggers. Impact of Covid-19 on perso...
Anger Over COVID-19 Layoffs Keeping Hospitality Workers From Returning to Jobs
The University of Houston | January 3, 2023
HOUSTON, Jan. 3, 2023– Researchers at the University of Houston Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership say many skilled hospitality workers who were furloughed or laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic are angry and unlikely to return to the industry. During the first few months of the pandemic in 2020, travel and dining out declined rapidly putting severe financial strain on hospitality organizations, especially those in the lodging and food and beverage sectors. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the hospitality industry lost nearly 8 million hospitality jobs were lost, making it the hardest-hit industr...
Strong Rate Growth and New Travelers Discovering New York State’s Resort Markets
Christian Cross | September 26, 2022
By Christian Cross While New York City and its metropolitan area have largely steered the conversation around New York State’s pandemic recovery, with some secondary discussion of larger markets such as Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, and Syracuse, in my opinion, the state’s resort markets have been the most interesting and have offered some of the biggest surprises to me and local market participants. I moved back to New York State to launch our firm’s Buffalo office in the middle of the pandemic and began working on assignments in the Finger Lakes, the Adirondacks, and the Catskills/Hudson Valley regions. While each individual ...
Quantifying the Franchise Relationship During COVID-19
Robert Mandelbaum | August 8, 2022
By Robert Mandelbaum In 2020, the average hotel in CBRE’s annual Trends® in the Hotel Industry survey experienced a 108 percent decline in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), resulting in an EBITDA margin of -5.5 percent. For hotels, EBITDA represents the cash flows from operations that are used to fund debt service and provide returns to investors. This is by far the greatest decline in EBITDA since CBRE began tracking the performance of the U.S. lodging industry in the 1930s. Facing such traumatic declines in profitability and insolvency, hotel owners reached out to their lenders, investors...
Tucson Emerges Strongly from Pandemic, Outlook is Optimistic
Zabada Abouelhana | June 28, 2022
By Zabada N. Abouelhana Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tucson’s lodging industry was reaching new heights. After eight years of growth spurred by a large-scale expansion at Raytheon Technologies, the relocation of Caterpillar and Hexagon to Tucson’s revitalizing downtown, and growth at the University of Arizona, performance had reached a new peak. This positive trend reportedly continued through the first months of 2020, which included the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show in February; however, the hotel industry begun to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic mid-March. As travel restrictions were enacted across the w...