The coronavirus pandemic has greatly affected foreign travel. Worldwide, there has been an 85% drop in international tourist movement compared to before the pandemic. Nearly a third of the world's countries have closed their borders. Many governments have imposed unnecessary restrictions on movement.
Countries have suffered a lot due to the ban on travel. One in five jobs based on tourism in the world is lost. The World Travel Tourism Council estimates that the travel, the tourism industry has lost more than Rs 30 lakh crore to the global GDP.
Before the pandemic, the share of travel in the GDP of rich countries was 4.4% and employment was 7%. This share was very much in the tourist paradise such as Thailand and Caribbean countries. Today the restrictions on travel have been imposed keeping in mind the safety of the local people from Covid-19. But, it has not helped.
It is not practical for many countries to remain isolated. Yet they have applied misleading and irrational rules. America has banned the arrival of people from its allies and business partners Britain, the European Union while the South East Asian countries heavily affected by the Delta variant have been exempted.
Thailand has imposed restrictions on some countries and mandated a two-week quarantine for travellers from all countries. Still, there were 21038 cases on 10th August. Of these, only 19 were outsiders. Once a variant of the virus begins to spread among the local population, the infection doubles every 15 days. The ban has little effect.
There is chaos in terms of travel rules. European Union countries are opening up, but each country has imposed an average of 330 restrictions on international travel. The number of these restrictions was only five in March 2020. The International Air Transport Association's visa database was updated 200 times a day last year. There is confusion due to the different attitudes of the governments. East Asia and Australia, New Zealand are closed while the poor countries of Africa are open. The position of America and Europe is between them.
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