The Italian Costa Cruise, Europe`s largest cruise company under Carnival Group, announced on March 13 local time that it suspended all routes it operated until April 3. On the same day, a large number of cruise companies, such as the Royal Caribbean and the Mediterranean, also announced the suspension of cruise operations.
The epidemic tore down dominoes, from cruise ships to airlines, to amusement parks and entertainment industries, from Chinese tourism to global tourism, and shared a deep chill.
A multi-country travel ban tourism
U.S. local time 11, the United States announced that it will impose a 30-day travel ban on Europe, in the next 30 days, the United States will completely ban all tourists from Europe. The State Department then issued a global travel warning, second only to the highest level, the first global travel warning against an epidemic in the United States in nearly a decade, after which the warning was largely confined to terrorist attacks.
The ATA says the travel ban could cost U.S. tourism billions. According to data released by the association, european visitors to the united states accounted for nearly 30% of overseas visitors during the 2019 peak season. According to other relevant analysts, the U.S. tourism industry is likely to lose $24 billion this year as a result of the epidemic`s rapid spread, a figure that is seven times as much as the SARS 2003 tourism losses.
Australia`s prime minister, morrison, announced on march 11th that a travel ban would be imposed on italy and that any foreign national who is not australian and is not a permanent resident, whether he has been to italy or italy citizen, would be banned from entering australia unless he stays in a third country for at least 14 days. For Australian nationality and permanent residents, return from Italy to Australia is still allowed, but a two-week isolation is required.
The difference between australia`s domestic and international markets is the amount Destination Gold Coast tourists spend, according to batista, chief executive of australia`s gold coast peak tourism agency. Although international tourists account for only 8 percent of the total, their contribution to the economic of 6 billion yuan is about 25 percent. Industry insiders predict that by May 2020, Australia`s tourism industry will lose $2.31 billion, or about $10.6 billion, from the decline in Chinese tourists.
On 13 March, the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka announced that a two-week temporary travel ban would be imposed on travellers from France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria as a result of the outbreak of new crown pneumonia. South Korea, Italy and Iran have been included in the ban.
Singapore has also announced that, with effect from 11.59 p.m. on 15 March, visitors to Italy, France, Spain and Germany will not be allowed to enter Singapore for the past 14 days. And from today all cruise ships are banned from landing in Singapore. Singapore has previously banned or transited Singapore passengers from Iran, northern Italy and South Korea.
Turkey government made it clear that it would not accept entry into Turkey from five countries citizen Iran, Iraq, South Korea, China and Italy. Many Asian countries, including India, Japan and South Korea, have also made changes in visa policies.
Think long ago, more than a month ago, national travel restrictions were only aimed at chinese tourists, has caused huge losses to the multinational travel parade industry, now this restriction has to face many countries around the world, the global flow has become global everywhere is not smooth, there is no doubt that the national travel parade industry has been shrouded in a deeper haze, the overall state of distress.
The airline industry is the first
The impact and losses of the international aviation industry bear the brunt. In March, many countries around the world began to take measures to restrict entry, international flights have been suspended.
One of the main reasons for the backlash in Europe following the U.S. travel ban is the huge blow to the European airline industry, particularly the giants of Lufthansa and France-Holand, which dominate the airline market between Europe and the United States. Mike Boyd, an independent aviation analyst, believes the european travel ban issued by the us president will put new challenges and pressure on the troubled airline industry. And it`s not easy for local airlines.
U.S. airlines have generally fallen more than 50% in the past month.
Alexander D. Juniak, Director and Chief Executive Officer of IATA, urged States government to prepare for a series of possible economic consequences when taking measures. After all, the US-EU route is the world`s most profitable. In 2019, there were about 200,000 regular flights between the United States and the Schengen area, with a daily average of about 550. The volume of passenger traffic is as high as 46 million, with a daily average of about 125,000.
According to the International Aviation Association estimates, the total value of the US-Shengen market in 2019 is as high as $20.6 billion. The three markets that suffered the most were the United States-Germany ($4 billion), the United States-France ($3.5 billion) and the United States-Italy ($2.9 billion). Earlier, the international aviation association, based on march 5 epidemic data, predicted that the outbreak crisis could lead to the global aviation industry as high as 113 billion dollars in revenue losses.
The situation is much more severe today than on march 5th, and the airline`s losses are expected to expand further.
Korea Airlines, South Korea`s largest airline, has said it may not survive if the new crown outbreak is not contained quickly. The epidemic has forced the group to cut off 80 per cent of its international capacity, compared 18 per cent during the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.
Airlines have been "killed" by the outbreak.
British regional airline operator Flybe airline has entered bankruptcy operation mode, becoming the world`s first failed department affected by the new crown pneumonia. "Airline cash flows will be under enormous pressure. Flybe has been crushed. Other airlines may also be in the last straw. "The airline is in urgent need of urgent measures to survive the crisis ," said De Junak. At this dark moment, countries should government seek all possible measures and means to help industries get out of trouble.
Expanding credit lines, reducing infrastructure costs and reducing the tax burden should be part of government bail-outs. "Air transport is essential, and if government fails to provide timely assistance, the industry as a whole will face an industry financial crisis triggered by the epidemic. "
Brian Pierce, chief economics of the International Air Transport Association, said the last time the global aviation industry faced such a massive impact was during the 2009 global financial crisis.
Tourism and entertainment projects stopped
On the morning of 13 Beijing time, Disney announced that it was affected by the outbreak of new crown pneumonia ," Hua Mulan "global withdrawal, the new stage to be determined. But the impact of the epidemic on global entertainment giant Disney is far from being as simple as withdrawing blockbuster films such as Hua Mulan, which is just the beginning for Disney.
California Disneyland, California Disneyland and Florida Disneyland have been closed until the end of March. It is the first time that Disneyland has been temporarily closed in nearly 20 years and the fourth since it opened in 1955. Earlier three closed gardens were due to september 11,2001 in the united states, the Northridge earthquake in california in 1994, and a memorial day after president kennedy`s assassination in 1963.
In Asia, where Shanghai and Hong Kong Disney closed their parks as early as late January, Tokyo Disney also extended planned closure from february 29 to march 15 to the end of march.
Earlier, disney`s chief financial officer, mccarthy, said on a phone call in february that china`s two biggest disney companies were expected to lose $175 million if closed for two months. Among them, Shanghai Disney lost $135 million in two months and Hong Kong Disney lost $40 million in two months. Now that the world is facing a halt, Disney is bound to take a "blow" to the world, with professionals working with publicly available financial figures such as Disney`s earnings, predicting losses of at least $400 million.
With the exception of the giant Disney, the global cruise company has a harder time. Over the past few days, the world`s major cruise companies have suspended operations.
On march 12th the cruise giant viking announced a global suspension and immediate effect. Including more than 70 river cruise ships and 6 ocean cruise ships, will resume operations on May 1. It was the first cruise ship company to announce suspension during the outbreak.
Only one day later, on march 13, the princess cruise also announced the suspension of its 18 cruise ships worldwide for 60 days. The suspension of operations such as dominoes has since been pushed to a cruise company:
- (a) The Royal Caribbean cruise and its cruise ships suspend all flights through the United States for at least 30 days;
- Costa, Italy, announced a global suspension of cruise operations until April 3;
- MSC all flights operated by Mediterranean cruise ships in the United States are suspended until 30 April, South and South American flights will also cease;
- The Novi Sin cruise, as well as its Ocean cruise and Regent Seven Seas cruise, will be suspended until April 11;
- Landscape cruise Scenic Crusie and its Emerald Cruises, to suspend all inland cruise operations until 30 April;
- Windstar cruise suspended operation until 30 April;
- Star Hau is suspended until 1 May;
- Paul Gauguin suspended cruise operations until April 11;
- Saga cruise ships suspended until 15 May;
- CMV cruise ships suspended until 24 April;
- The Crystal Cruise cancels its voyage on the Crystal Shangning until 21 April and the Crystal and Rhyme until 8 May;
- Disney Cruises stop all March departures;
- Fred.Olsen suspended until May 23...
Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tham Desai, announced in Geneva on 11 March that WHO had assessed the new crown pneumonia as a "pandemic ". According to relevant statistics, there are now more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries worldwide. The number of confirmed cases of new crown pneumonia outside China has increased 13 times over the past two weeks, and the number of infected countries has tripled.
There is a tough battle ahead for global tourism.
