Overtourism is officially canceled. The global travel and tourism industry is in a freeze-and-wait mode.
US President Donald Trump announced today he is declaring a national emergency because of the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic opening up nearly $50 billion for state and local governments to respond to the outbreak.
At the same time, the World Health Organization (WHO) moved the epicenter of the global disaster to Europe. The United States banned most European visitors from entering the country and required American Citizens returning to the states to be home quarantined.
Italy seems to be unable to contain the virus, and the national health system appears to be unable to catch up and is forced to make life and death decisions, some simply based on age.
Germany promised the industry the government will make unlimited government-guaranteed loans available, so no German company would go bankrupt over the crisis.
This happens while Lufthansa Group is slashing 50% of all flights and rumors remain that the carrier may stop their entire operation completely.
Israel, the Czech Republic, India, Italy, South Korea, China, and Nepal are among other countries that are closing their borders.
The African Tourism Board suggested to their governments to follow the example of Nepal and close their countries to foreign tourists. They called it the Nepal approach. The Government of South Africa responded which shows authorities may not fully understand the approach in rejecting the idea presented by the African Tourism Board that there is a shortage of diagnostic kits. They do not understand this was exactly the point to temporarily stop tourism to catch up without officially stopping foreign inbound travel.
The World Travel and Tourism Council said the coronavirus crisis may put up to 50 million jobs in danger worldwide.
Events everywhere in the world are being canceled.
Experts in the United States predict the peak of the outbreak to continue for about 2 months before it gets better. President Trump’s announcement today, however, did create an unexpected major upswing in the stock market, which is good news for the American business world.
