Состојбата на патувањето и туризмот во воени времиња

bartletttarlow | eTurboNews | eTN
Аватар на д-р Питер Е. Тарлоу
Напишано од Д-р Питер Е.Тарлоу

The travel and tourism industry is facing new uncertainty, challenges, and opportunities. GTRCMC and WTN are among the first in the global travel and tourism industry to take the microphone. They have an urgent message for tourism leaders in the world.

Претседателот на World Tourism Network, Dr. Peter Tarlow today released these thoughts on the war between Russia and Ukraine and the World of Tourism.

Also, today, speaking for the Глобален центар за отпорност на туризам и управување со кризи (GTRCMC) the Hon. Edmund Bartlett, minister of tourism Jamaica, and Dr. Taleb Rifai, former UNWTO Secretary-General were urging tourism leaders today to keep a close watch on the Ukraine Russia crisis, as this event will impact the global tourism industry amid the global pandemic.

“It is critical that tourism leaders worldwide monitor the escalating activities between Russia and Ukraine with a view to preparing in the event of any fallout. It is even more imperative at this time as the world is still in a pandemic that has already battered the tourism industry.”

“Resilience must become a core function in every tourism-dependent destinations’ planning and operational infrastructure,” said Hon Edmund Bartlett.

“It is these types of global events that have the greatest ability to cause disruption and displacements and why resilience and resilience building is so important,” Dr. Rifai added, who is also the patron for the World Tourism Network.

Bartlett and Rifai are co-chairs for GTRMC.

Владите, академците ја идентификуваат напнатоста што влијае на закрепнувањето на туризмот

"На World Tourism Network is ready to work with the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre, since this center was established for this very reason, to help tourism-dependent destinations not only mitigate these types of disruptions but survive them,” said Chairman and founder Juergen Steinmetz.

On Wednesday. February 23, 2022, early morning Ukraine Time, the world changed, including the world of travel and tourism.

Russia opened the long-awaited invasion of Ukraine. 

World Tourism Network president Dr. Peter Tarlow stresses this article is not meant to be a military nor a political analysis of the events as they are unfolding but rather this article’s purpose is to examine the impact of the Russian invasion and war on worldwide travel and tourism industry.

| eTurboNews | eTN

It should be emphasized that at the time of this writing there is a great amount of information that is either not known or is highly vulnerable to change.   

Thus statements are made based on the most current information and data available at the time of this article’s writing.  Lastly, in a world of high political sensitivities, this article’s purpose is not to lay blame but rather to examine the challenges that the current situation is presenting to the travel and tourism industry. 

To do so we must first consider the following data:

  •  Due to the Covid-19 pandemic The travel and tourism industries are in a very vulnerable economic state.  Large parts of these industries, especially smaller businesses, have closed due to lockdowns. Many people have lost their jobs; others have had to seek new employment, outside of travel and tourism merely to survive.  
  • Covid requirements or people’s fear to travel are now a major hurdle for these industries. The war in the Ukraine means that there is now a war in Europe, the heartland of tourism. This war is occurring when the travel and tourism not only have not yet recovered from unprecedented economic hardships, but also in many tourism locations struggling merely to survive.  These hardships not only include loss of income for those employed in the tourism and travel industries, but also changes in travel patterns, lack of service personnel, and multiple supply chain challenges.
  • Due to the Covid -19 pandemic customer service has decreased and the fun of travel has now often been replaced with the hassle of travel.  As of the date for writing of this article, February 24, 2022, travelers are still required to wear masks in transportation terminals and while traveling, and air travelers must, depending on travel location, fill out long health forms, take Covid tests prior to departure, and in the case of international travel, they may be subjected to constantly changing quarantine regulations. The cumulative effect  of these regulations is that travel has become increasingly more difficult and less pleasant.  
  • The Ukraine crisis comes at a time when tourism is facing inflation.  Inflationary pressures not only mean price increases in goods and services, but also means that the average traveler has less disposable income.  The great majority of potential travelers will not spend money on vacations if they need that money for their children’s education or to purchase food and medicine.  
  • The current crime wave in many western nations, and especially in the United States, means that issues of travel and tourism security are on many people’s minds.  When fear enters the travel picture than often potential businesspeople and vacationers prefer to stay home rather than risk being mugged, robbed or worse in a distant land or unknown location.  Additionally, both virtual meetings and travel means that there are methods to accomplish goals without having to travel.
  • Due to anti-law enforcement bias in many media outlets, and among some political leaders, police reputations have suffered, and that suffering has translated into visitor hesitancy to turn to law enforcement for help.
  • The United States currently has an open southern border. US border patrol officials report that the nation  has now logged in approximately 2,000,000 illegal migrants from over 85 nations since January 21, 2001.  These porous borders mean that the nation is open not only to immigrants but to criminal, cartel members and terrorists.

It is against this background that the travel and tourism industry must now add an additional wrinkle to the world of travel; the first major war in Europe since the Balkan wars of the 1990s. 

The Balkan wars, however, were different in that they did not involve nuclear powers and the conflagration was isolated to one region of Europe.  

It is still too early to know if the Ukrainian crisis will limit itself to a localized area of Europe or if it will metastasize and as such involve NATO countries.

 If the latter were to occur with war spreading to the Balkan states, Poland and Germany then its impact will be felt across Europe and such a conflagration will involve multiple nuclear-armed states.  

The potential for miscalculations will increase exponentially.  As such this conflict has the potential to go from a localized conflict to a European-wide or even world war.

 From the tourism perspective here are some of the important points to remember

  • Europe is highly dependent on Russian oil. Currently the European nations have no alternative as the US under the current administration has cut back its oil production to the point that the US also now imports oil from Russia and even from Iran.
  • China might interpret perceived weakness as a reason to attack Taiwan. Should this happen the world will be facing invasions by two nuclear states. Chinese airplanes now regularly invade Taiwan airspace, and China and Russia are now working together.
  • Should the US and Europeans enter into a nuclear deal with Iran, they will free up billions of dollars for new acts of terrorism.
  • The rise in energy costs comes during the European winter and this may mean a fracturing of the NATO alliance. This fracturing has already begun as nations such as Italy, Germany, and Belgium have already sought exemptions from some of the sanctions that the west is imposing on Russia.

From the tourism perspective, the following might also occur.

 Again, It should be noted that in this writing the points below are speculation. The situation is still unfolding and changing almost by the hour.

  • The tourism industry may well see another slowdown in tourism especially if the European war expands or slows down. This will mean additional bankruptcies, lay-offs and lack of service.
  • It is too early to determine how successful the western nations’ sanctions will be against Russia and what their impact will be on the world’s travel and tourism industry
  • The airline and hotel industries should be prepared for another set of challenges, including new security regulations and the potential for passenger decreases on routes to locations such as Eastern Asia and Europe. On the other hand areas not impacted by war may see an increase in the number of travelers who seek to visit these more peaceful locations.
  • Tourism officials might see cross-border travel become more difficult as nations seek to protect their own citizens and their territory. The idea of the multi-nation tour may be replaced with more in-depth travel to single locations
  • The possibility of millions of people becoming refugees is real and were this to occur pressure on the hotel industry might increase.
  • International banking and the transfer of money might become a lot more difficult and this means that locations that offer pre-paid all-inclusive packages may become more desirable travel options.
  • Additional precautions health precautions should be considered with centers established to care for tourists on multiple levels and in a multi-lingual setting.

Although no one can predict the future tourism leaders should consider the following

  • Strengthen their commitment to all forms of security by training police in tourism security, hardening tourism sites including hotels, transportation terminals, and places of lodging.
  • Locations that are far from the European continent  should offer special packages to Europeans and to people who are now seeking new destinations
  • Work at improving tourism wellbeing and making sure that the industry communicates to its customers and clients that it cares
  • Maintain regular news updates and assure people it will be easy to communicate with their home and loved ones

Let us all work to use the tourism industry as a way to bring people together and demonstrate to the world that tourism is an instrument for peace.

Повеќе за World Tourism Network, вклучувајќи членство одете на www.wtn.патува

За авторот

Аватар на д-р Питер Е. Тарлоу

Д-р Питер Е.Тарлоу

Д-р Питер Е. Тарлоу е светски познат говорник и експерт специјализиран за влијанието на криминалот и тероризмот врз туристичката индустрија, управувањето со ризици од настани и туризам и туризмот и економскиот развој. Од 1990 година, Тарлоу и помага на туристичката заедница со прашања како што се безбедност и безбедност при патување, економски развој, креативен маркетинг и креативна мисла.

Како добро познат автор во областа на безбедноста на туризмот, Тарлоу е автор кој придонесува на повеќе книги за безбедноста на туризмот и објавува бројни написи за академски и применети истражувања во врска со прашањата на безбедноста, вклучувајќи написи објавени во The Futurist, Journal of Travel Research и Управување со безбедноста. Широкиот опсег на професионални и научни статии на Тарлоу вклучува написи за теми како што се: „мрачен туризам“, теории за тероризам и економски развој преку туризам, религија и тероризам и туризам со крстарење. Тарлоу, исто така, го пишува и објавува популарниот он-лајн билтен за туризам Tourism Tidbits што го читаат илјадници туристички и туристички професионалци ширум светот во неговите изданија на англиски, шпански и португалски јазик.

https://safertourism.com/

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