The COVID-19 pandemic caused many countries to close or restrict their borders, the US was no exception. In 2021 alone, the tourism sector had losses of two trillion dollars, according to UN estimates. Currently, people have a need to travel, which is why tourism in the country is experiencing a rebound, however, there are various global factors that are limiting the trend from continuing.
Although tourism is expected to increase 30 percent this summer, the sector will not fully recover until 2027, so it is necessary to guarantee the conditions for the sector to continue to grow and reach the estimate.
This was stated by specialists in the field during a press conference organized by Ethnic Media Services, where they specified that it is difficult to guarantee constant growth in tourism due to factors such as inflation, climate change, internal or external conflicts in the countries, among others. However, all possibilities must be considered.
Dr. Frederic Dimanche, director of the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, explained that people are looking for new experiences and visiting their relatives after the pandemic, a fact that currently moves tourists, but external factors will be the limiting ones.
«With inflation, the cost of travel has risen dramatically, air travel in particular, and the cost of hotels. It seems that everyone wants to make up for the funds they lost during the pandemic, and all those businesses are now trying to recover some of what they lost.», he pointed out.
Traveling has become very expensive, however, the need allows us to cover the cost, although it should be considered that you will not always have the economic solvency to carry them out and it will end up limiting many who are traveling today.
For her part, Cassandra Costello, executive vice president of the San Francisco Travel Association, mentioned that tourism is essential in the economy, which is why they have invested in new programs to invite tourists.
He said that there are also new places to discover new experiences, and work was done on the renovation of parks, museums, open spaces and places that are attractive to those who want to get to know San Francisco.
"Like other cities in the United States, San Francisco is still struggling with some challenges related to the pandemic, but it remains one of the safest cities, crime has decreased by 7 percent," he said.
For Costello, the good news is that you do see an increase in tourism to San Francisco, and tourists, for the most part, want to return to visit the city and its surroundings. However, work continues with great enthusiasm to achieve the expected increase.
James Altucher, podcaster and author of «New York is dead forever», He explained that the recovery of tourism is not guaranteed in any way, since the high costs of traveling become a determining factor.
In the case of New York, he pointed out, it is affected by crime and population decline.
«Tourism has increased from 2020 to 2021, New York had 60 million tourists last year and it will surely increase more, but tourism has decreased since 2019, and if the account is taken, it will recover in 2026-2027, not yet it's known. What we do know is that tourism is affected by crime rates, crimes, taxes, inflation and others.".
Finally, Iuliana Popa, PhD student at Conrad Hilton College of Global Hospitality, stressed that employees in the tourism sector were also affected by the pandemic, since most of them lost their jobs, forcing them to change their workplace permanently.
And, now that they want to reactivate tourism, he said, it is difficult to hire personnel for this sector, since fear and anger are among the emotional affectations that have generated the loss of employment.
It is understood that the hotel and tourism industry is not responsible for external factors in the world, but it can improve working conditions that create an environment of stability and security in the workplace, he explained.
«For companies in the hotel industry it is impossible to control external factors such as the virus, but there are other immediate actions that they can do, for example, offering more competitive salaries, especially with inflation making everything more difficult for employees in the industry. hotelier".
For specialists, the increase in tourism after the pandemic is a current but not permanent trend, due to external factors such as the economic situation with inflation, climate change with extreme temperatures in various places, or internal and external conflicts in each country as is the war in Ukraine.
Given this, they agreed that it is necessary for companies and governments to seek measures that promote tourism, support attractive programs or campaigns for tourists, while taking care of employees in this sector, since they will be the ones who give the necessary impulse to continue with favorable numbers for world tourism.
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