The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has impacted global travel tremendously since early February. While the initial stages of the outbreak was largely limited to China, it has now spread to over 83 countries across the world. The travel and hospitality industry has been particularly-hit by the outbreak. Given that COVID-19 has now reached a global dimension, Riskline stands ready to assist clients by providing the latest intelligence on the outbreak.
The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has impacted global travel tremendously since early February. While the initial stages of the outbreak was largely limited to China, it has now spread to over 83 countries across the world, with major outbreaks reported in South Korea, Japan, Iran and Italy. Over 95,000 cases and 3,00 deaths have been reported worldwide as of 5 March and health officials from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warned that the crisis is well on its way to becoming a global pandemic.
The travel and hospitality industry has been particularly-hit by the outbreak. Inbound and outbound travel to China – one of the largest travel and tourism markets in the world – remains literally at a stand-still. In addition, airline companies and hotels have incurred heavy financial losses as tens of thousands of flights and hotel bookings have been cancelled across the world as the outbreak worsened, with Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific being the most impacted. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimated that airlines alone could incur total losses as high as USD 113 billion in revenue this year due to the outbreak.
In line with flight and hotel bookings, hundreds of business meetings, conferences and events have also been either cancelled or postponed, as governments across the world started banning large public events. Among these cancelled/postponed events include trade shows such as the ITB Berlin, sporting events like the Chinese Grand Prix and even World Bank and IMF meetings, as well as various concerts and festivals. Given the severity of the outbreak, there are also serious considerations to cancel the upcoming Tokyo Olympics in July. The outbreak has significantly reduced global meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) activity.
A survey released by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) in late February estimated that the business travel industry is projected to lose up to USD46.6 billion per month due to these cancellations.
Given that COVID-19 has now reached a global dimension, Riskline stands ready to assist clients by providing the latest intelligence on the outbreak. We have a Special Report on COVID-19 available on our web portal that is updated daily. The report details the extent of the outbreak by country, with regularly updated case numbers and travel restrictions as well as steps to take to mitigate the risk of infection. In addition we also maintain and regularly update Travel Advisories for the countries worst-hit by the outbreak, detailing any country-specific information a traveller needs to know. Last but not least, our team of analysts work around the clock to provide up-to-date Alerts on any major developments, be it mass flight cancellations or new travel restrictions, related to the outbreak. We firmly believe that our suite of our intelligence products will enable organisations to be better prepared to weather the global storm caused by COVID-19. You can download a free sample of our special report here.
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