Hotels Hit Hard by COVID-19: World Travel/Tourism Group Calls for Massive Aid

The numbers are staggering. And it doesn’t look to be getting much better soon.

One weekend report says a million jobs a day are being lost in the tourism and travel industry as the COVID-19 crisis expands around the globe.

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In the Bahamas, the posh Baha Mar complex has temporarily closed its doors. Australia has closed its borders for six months. Canada and the U.S. have closed our mutual border to all but essential traffic, and it looks like Canada might be poised to take stronger action.

“The coronavirus pandemic means the world is facing a threat on multiple fronts not seen in peacetime,” World Travel and Tourism Council President and CEO Gloria Guevara said this weekend in an open letter to governments around the world.

“The Travel & Tourism sector is uniquely exposed, and we estimate 50 million jobs globally are at risk. To put it bluntly, Travel & Tourism is in a fight for survival.

“Travel is the backbone of economies around the world,” Guevara said. “It brings in essential currency and inward investment, creates jobs and stimulates every sector. WTTC figures show Travel & Tourism contributes to 10.4% of Global GDP and 320 million jobs. It is responsible of creating one in five new jobs and, for eight successive years, has outpaced the growth of the global economy.

Without Travel & Tourism, economies around the world face an existential threat,” she said. “To counter this, WTTC, which represents the global Travel & Tourism private sector, is calling upon governments of all countries to take immediate action to help ensure the survival of this critical job-creating sector. Not soon. Not in a few weeks. NOW. Any delay will be costed in millions of lost jobs and almost incalculable damage worldwide.

“Now is the time to take action. We propose three vital measures, which in addition to recovery funds, will protect the survival of the millions of people who rely on Travel & Tourism for their livelihoods and welfare in the turbulent weeks and months ahead:

Financial help must be granted to protect the incomes of the millions of workers in the sector facing severe economic difficulties.

Governments must extend vital, unlimited interest-free loans to global Travel & Tourism companies as well as the millions of small and medium sized businesses as a stimulus to prevent them from collapse.

All government taxes, dues and financial demands on the travel sector need to be waived with immediate effect at least for the next 12 months.

“Together, these measures could save a sector which is already facing collapse.

“We are calling upon the world to take urgent and immediate action to prevent this global health crisis becoming a worldwide economic catastrophe. Doing nothing is not an option.

“We implore every government to take drastic and decisive action now to preserve and protect the contribution of the Travel & Tourism sector, on which more than 320 million people and their families depend on for their livelihoods,” Guevara said.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports that most hotels, motels, hostels, temporary vacation and short-term rentals and other forms of lodging in Miami-Dade County have been ordered to shut their doors by 11:59 p.m. Monday.

“The hotel industry virtually crashed over the last 10 days. In a period of 48 hours last week, occupancy dropped by 50% across the industry," Susie Grynol, CEO of the Hotel Association of Canada, the CBC reported on the weekend. "Today we're sitting at under 10%, which is not enough to sustain business operations, so in the last two days, we've seen at least 100 hotel closures."

With borders closing around the world and airline service screeching to a halt, hotels have been forced to close and lay off staff. That includes some of the most iconic properties in the world, such as the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa and popular hotels in Las Vegas.