Covid-19 and tourism sector: A perspective of saudi arabia

Abstract

The current paper attempts to analyze the relationship between COVID-19 and tourism in Saudi Arabia from the period 2nd March 2020-15th Nov 2020 as COVID-19 cases started to increase in March 2020. Along with this, predicted data is also used for the year 2021 in order to know the situation of tourism in the coming year if COVID-19 cases continue to increase. Ordinary least square, as well as quantile regression, is used to have a detailed overview of the nexus between COVID-19 and tourism. The findings of the study clearly indicate that tourism in Saudi Arabia is declined significantly due to COVID-19 in 2020. Besides this, it is also found that if COVID-19 cases continue to increase in 2021, then tourism will continue to decrease in the coming year as well.