COVID-19 – Time for tourism sector to rethink marketing strategy
COVID-19 – The year begun on a positive note for Kenya’s tourism with the country receiving 1,444,670 arrivals between July 2019 and February 2020; compared to 1,423,548 over the same period last year. What followed is the greatest health emergency of our times:
The Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) – an emergency that has almost brought the entire world to a standstill, with sectors that contribute to the thriving of economies being affected, tourism being one of the industries hit hard globally.
The disease which first broke out in Wuhan, China in November of 2019, has now found itself across the globe with over 1.3 million infections as of the last count.
This has resulted in total lockdown in some countries and with this, the closure of businesses and travel. Governments around the world have also put in place stringent travel and social restrictions to curb the spread of the disease.
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The Government of Kenya has in turn taken bold, but necessary steps to fight this scourge which include stopping of conferences and events, as well as halting international flights from coming to the country as among a raft of precautions against the spread of the disease.
Consequently, the tourism industry in Kenya is predicting losses in the Billions owing to the disruption that has been occasioned by COVID-19 globally.
Currently, several hotels and hospitality establishments have temporarily closed as human traffic to the outlets has significantly reduced as a result of the limited movement and restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the disease.
This said, it is not all gloom and doom for the travel industry. We first need to accept that recovery from this pandemic will take time and we must be patient as we recover from it.
Secondly, we need a paradigm shift on the mentality that we have if we want a quick recovery and better tourism. It is no longer about waiting for international visitors to come in for tourism to thrive.
Source – https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/