Abstract
With its labor-intensive nature, the tourism sector is critically important for providing employment volume and foreign exchange reserves in the national economies. The tourism sector is influenced by the events such as economic crises, wars, and epidemics faster than other sectors. The world is facing an unprecedented global health, social, and economic emergency as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel and tourism are one the most impacted sectors with a great amount of decline of international demand amid global travel restrictions to constrain the virus. In this study, first of all, the literature on the effect of the COVID-19 virus on the workforce in the tourism sector was included. It identified the impacts of technology on the tourism sector with the pandemic, and suggestions for the future of employment in the tourism sector were presented.
TopIntroduction
The tourism movements, which tends to grow continuously in the absence of extraordinary circumstances, are among the economically priority livelihoods of many countries across the world. Although tourism mobility is an important economic resource for countries, it is not always possible to maintain its control. Many events such as war, terrorist incidents and natural disasters may interrupt tourism activity. Diseases and epidemics can be listed among these events. Likewise, tourism activities, which were affected by the epidemics such as Ebola, SARS, bird flu in the past, are now exposed to the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic that broke out in Wuhan, China and spread nearly all over the world, and that was declared as a “pandemic” by the World Health Organization (Özaltın Türker, 2020: 208). The whole world is paying great efforts to combat this virus, and yet, it has led to hundreds of thousands of people losing their lives, the emergence of the most significant economic problem of the century, and the increase in the number of people who are unemployed, unhappy and worried about the future. This epidemic undoubtedly affects all sectors more or less. But perhaps it has caused the biggest damage to the tourism sector (Alaeddinoglu and Rol, 2020: 251).
The world has faced many economic crises, major and minor, over the last hundred years. The measures taken to prevent the spread of the epidemic have decreased the production volume, leading to a decline in supply. The measures for business life have reduced production and also caused millions of people worldwide to lose their jobs, in other words their income. Experiencing such a situation leads to a global weakness in demand (Bulut and Pınar, 2020: 222-223). Millions of workers in various labor markets around the world are seen to have severely been influenced by the pandemic through job and income losses as a result of the spread of the COVID-19. The fact that states close their borders and take measures to reduce human mobility inside and impose prohibitions for preventing the spread of the epidemic leads to restrictions on economic activity. Some businesses are downsizing, while others are closing temporarily or permanently (Kara, 2020: 279).
This study aims to provide information on effects of the COVID-19 epidemic that has engulfed the whole world on employment in tourism sector. This information gives details about the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic in Turkey and the world, and the impact of the epidemic on employment in the tourism sector and what can be done in this field in the future. It also examines the possible changes in the tourism sector in terms of technology during the pandemic. The study also provides international and national statistical information.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Technology: It is the whole of all theoretical and practical knowledge and skills used in creating products and services as well as in their production and distribution processes.
COVID-19: Coronavirus (CoV) is defined as a major virus that causes a variety of diseases ranging from the common cold to more serious diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).
Tourism: It is the contribution of the movement, to the economy, which emerges with the arrival of foreigners from another country, city or region and with their temporary stay.
Economy: It is the whole of the ways by which a community of people or a country produces and divides them in order to survive, and the relationships resulting from these actions.
Smart Tourism: Smart tourism aims to develop information and communication infrastructure and capabilities in order to improve management/ governance, facilitate service/product innovation, enhance the tourist experience, and, ultimately, improve the competitiveness of tourism firms and destinations.
Employment: It is the optimal use of labor, which is one of the production factors, and participation of it in the production process.
Unemployment: It is the inability to find a job by people that are at the working age and willing to work and that do not have a disability to work.