The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) once projected a 5% expansion in the number of tourists worldwide in 2020 – to more than 1.45 billion people – potentially shattering previous records.
It was said that the tourist industry workforce had breached the 300 million mark globally at one point.
Unfortunately, the coronavirus started blowing up at the end of 2019, followed closely by the lockdown in Wuhan, China on Jan 23,2020, marking the start of the virus’ unstoppable and very quick global spread.
In summary, we have been put on “pause” so many times, it’s hard to see when things will finally improve. So far, the Klang Valley and a few other states have been under “lockdown” for more than 230 continuous days with no signs of when the ordeal will end.
More importantly, it is hard to see just how the tourism industry – not just in Malaysia but all over the world – is suffering from all this.