Threats and Opportunities of the COVID 19 on Tourism Industry in Sri Lanka and South Asian Region

Abstract

Covid 19 Global pandemic has now brought the entire socioeconomic structures in to a standstill state all over the world. It has already challenged the global operations of several business sectors. Time has come to rethink how to recover and regain of the economy, employment and business functions with a fresh beginning in most of the worsened economic sectors. the Maldives) with a population of 1.8 billion has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic due to poor public health infrastructure, pervasive informality and poor coverage of social protection. The key sectors such as MSMEs, tourism and labour-intensive exports such as readymade garments have been most adversely impacted, leading to loss of jobs for the millions of people in the sub-region. The economic growth has come to a grinding halt and the threat of rising incidence of poverty, hunger and inequality is real. This sudden fall in tourism industry have created severe economic and social consequences within and beyond tourism in the region. Sri Lanka is a country with open economy, has hit badly under this circumstances, in particularly the Sri Lankan export market. Sri Lankan Rupee is depreciating and U.S Dollar has increased to Rs.. As a result of Covid-19 global pandemic outbreaks, many countries imposed travel restrictions and locked down no of cities/countries. Sri Lankan government imposed Island wide curfew on 20 th March 2020 resulting tourism industry dropped to the bottom while crippling the Sri Lankan economy. For Sri Lanka, tourism sector's contribution towards countries development is been quite considerable. This paper discuss the present situation, how to recapture the tourism market and to create new opportunities for future growth in this foreign currency earning very important sector in Sri Lanka as well as in South Asian Region.