Sustainability of Domestic and International Tourism Post Covid-19 : A Tourist's Perspective

Abstract

Tourism by nature being a service industry has taken the blunt more severely of covid 19. The industry totally depends on the movement of the people; it is run by the people and for the people. The fragile nature of services made tourism more vulnerable in pandemic times. The uncertainty of lifting restrictions on daily life made planning for tourism next to impossible in initial stages of pandemic. Everyone in this business incurred losses and damages that were irreparable in the pandemic years. With the year 2022 came some hope as we could see the pandemic waves becoming less harmful, receding gradually with vaccination in place and people getting back to routine at a slow but gradual pace. For tourism industry the domestic tourism was a boon as first the restrictions were lifted on people’s movement at state level. The international restrictions are still varying as per the norms and stages of pandemic for a particular destination for an international traveller. Tourism industry prior to pandemic was a major FX earring industry. But currently it is relying on domestic and outbound tourists. We are not seeing a boost in international arrivals for tourism in India after a quarter of year in 2022.Quarantine rules, cancellation of last minute flights due to changed international Covid-19 restrictions are still holding international tourists back from opting international travels. In this situation it would be the perspective of the domestic tourist about the tourism in India and abroad which matters for the tourism players in India. This research paper is an attempt is made to understand the perspective of a domestic tourist in the context of Covid-19 about international and domestic tourism.