Munaza Kazmi
Throughout the human history, nothing had killed people in masses than the infectious diseases. Justinian in 6th century has perhaps killed half of the global population of the time, Black Death in 14th centaury have horrified the world by killing 200 million, 100 million died in 1918 with Spanish Flu: a figure lot more than the casualties of World War II, then 300 million expired resulting small pox and then the cruelest event of last year 2019 “Bush Fire” Australia, which not even taken 800 human lives but the loss of 1.25 billion innocent little creatures and now in year 2020 we are under another horrific event. So, we can say our planet had gone through a number of pandemics since its creation or to the known human history, although none of them was akin to the recent one namely COVID-19 or Coronavirus. It can be presumed that, the reason of its being dangerous the most and distress and alarm in populace is its unpredictable nature and the slow unbearable death. Along with its severe implications on the global economy, routine business and unpredictable nature and on top with no medicine, no solution to undergo at least till yet. The product of this pandemic is so overruling that it had made the de facto authorities of even the most powerful countries and regions handicapped. All of a sudden, the entire world had moved to a halt, with no proper means of cure, nothing but restrictions on global and domestic travel, rulings of social distancing and prolonged quarantine, which had devasted every business of life, what to say of mere economy or any other entity.
Resulting this unforeseen and unpredictable hurricane of Corona virus, the world had entered in a strange mystery, in every nook and corner we see shutdown and verdicts of distancing, even from our dear ones, every business is under lockdown but the most vulnerable is the tourism and hospitality. Following the pandemic measures, the industry of tourism and hospitality seemingly entering into tornado of huge crises. Consequently, Pakistan’s tourism and hospitality industry is at great risk, as people are unable to visit Pakistan following the fear of disease and viral measures. The world had come to a strange standstill, in a short period of time there came a sudden shift from over tourism to no tourist.
The industry of tourism and hospitality had entered into tornado of huge crises due to the devasting effects of the pandemic of Coronavirus. In the hindsight the industry of tourism and hospitality is at a great risk as people around world are unable to travel shadowing the viral measures and the risk of spread. Airlines, roadways, cruise had been temporarily stopped their operations, the hotels and resorts had paused their services for the time being following the government orders in order to stop the spread of virus, which had caused a serious hit to the economy of Pakistan and also it is a big setback to the pains and labors in the way of reviving the industry of tourism and hospitality to the current regime of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Industry of tourism and hospitality of Pakistan is an emergent market and from last few years, Pakistan had pinned her hopes on the upcoming arrival of international tourist and was preparing for a healthy and warm welcome, since Pakistan once known in world by terrorism only had shed the old leaves and was budding with new, as it had earned a lot goodwill among the world and favorably good reviews and support from international media, the year of 2019 was proved lucky for the prospects of tourism. The tales of love and hospitality were ringing in the ears of the people around the world, moreover Pakistan went famous for its hospitality where on social media we can find a number of stories one of them namely “Trevor James” from “Food Ranger” have shocked the world’s hospitality by making the famous line “Everything is Free in Pakistan! I Never Paid Once! (I tried!). Similarly, the government had done a lot for enhancing the tourism and in making the tourist arrival comfortable and easy; relax visa policies, visa on arrival, improved security and improvement in tourism infrastructure, even thou Islamabad the federal capital of Pakistan had featured as “among world safest capital” in World Crime Index report, furthermore many of the giant hotels of the world had signed agreement with Pakistan and some have been started their construction also in mega cities and metropolis. Next to say the fruits of efforts were started to appear as all the hotels, resorts and flights were booked for the upcoming spring and then what came upon the world was never even thought in the wildest of our dreams; the pandemic of Coronavirus.
However, last year some recovery had observed, but due to our negligence again the number of registered cases started to increase with increase in death rate. This forced the government to halt the industry once again, which is not only affecting on the macro level but on the micro level as well, since a lot of family’s bread and butter is dependent on the income from hotels and tourism. Moreover, Pakistan as a developing country whose economy is highly dependent on agriculture, manufacturing and service industries, it can be realized how shutdown measures, prolonged quarantine and disruptions in transportation and supply topple with travel restrictions had impacted the industry overall scenario and to the economy of Pakistan. a further increase in the miseries.