The Covid-19 outbreak caused the global economy to collapse almost immediately and the coronavirus pandemic has presented an unprecedented challenge to the hospitality sector.
Over the past two years, disturbances brought on by the spread of Covid-19 have had a substantial impact where many of the tourism properties were vacant due to travel restrictions.
The tourism and hospitality industry had the worst hit during the pandemic. The spread of coronavirus had an extensive impact on international as well as on domestic travels as the last two years of lockdowns were the toughest years ever seen by the travel industry.
Co-Founder of StayVista, shared, “With several travel restrictions, the economy became a concern for the tourism sector, seeing a complete stoppage in destination weddings, parties, corporate events and even weekend travels. Now, post-pandemic restrictions for travel have been reduced. However, people’s perspective on vacations and travel changed drastically.”
He revealed, “Guests prefer big, open spaces where they can stay active and around their co-travellers instead of being restricted to just a single room. Celebrating special moments together has more value now than ever before. Over the months, the industry is getting informed gradually amidst the circumstances Covid-19 had created and we can say that tourism is finally on its way to recovery.”
According to Vikas Suri, Vice President of Lords Hotels & Resorts, the hospitality sector, which was the worst affected due to Covid-induced lockdowns over the last two years, has witnessed a robust recovery from March 2022. He said, “The demand across sectors soared primarily driven by weddings and meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) and business travel.
Weddings, domestic leisure, long weekends, festivals along with business travel will continue to grow in the coming months. India’s wedding destinations have a very busy season ahead with hotels almost sold out on most of the days.”
He added, “Inbound travel has still not picked up to pre-Covid levels but the impact is not felt due to the surge in domestic travel, revenge tourism, staycation, daycation and short holiday breaks are the new normal.” Talking about the same, Vishal Kamat, Director of Kamat Group of Hotels, assured, “Now that the pandemic is over, the sector is slowly but surely getting back on its feet.
Aside from easing travel restrictions, the hospitality sector, which has been attracting investors’ attention with higher occupancy rates, has benefited from the relaxation of limitations on flights to and from India.
As economic activity is liberalized and limitations put in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus are relaxed, companies are seeing a rise in the value of their shares. Finally, the industry is recovering from the pandemic and the hospitality sector is a major winner amid the recovery of economic activity.”