The Coronavirus health crisis has cost the tourism industry dearly. It is considered among the most affected sectors. After the suspension of all international flights, numerous reservation cancellation requests have been received.Even though it is still too early to assess the Covid 19’sfull impact on world tourism, preliminary estimates from the World Tourism Organization (WTO) are worrying. According to this organization (WTO), travel restrictions around the world, due to Covid-19, will result in a 20-30% drop in international tourist arrivals in 2020 when compared with 2019figures.This translates into a loss of US $ 300-450 billion in revenue in international tourism, or almost a third of the US $ 1.5 trillion generated globally. Concretely, between Juanuary2020 and March 2020, the websites of booking Holding, Trip Advisior, Airbnb and Expedia lost between 40% and 50% of traffic. The Booking Holding group announces an 85% drop in bookings compared to the same period last year. This downward trend is likely to continue as a result of overnight cancellations that will occur as long as this crisis goes on. This analysis concludes that the seven largest online travel agencies OTA could lose up to $20 billion in revenue this year due to the Covid-19 crisis.

In addition, millions of jobs are threatened worldwide by short-time working measures. Airlines are also undergoing a drop in their activities. Air transport has been cut by 90% in Europe, 80% in the Middle East, and 50% in North America and Asia. The International Transport Association (IATA) estimates that this crisis will represent $ 250 billion in shortfall for airlines. For Morocco, the covid-19 crisis costsDH34.1billion loss in terms in tourist turnover in 2020 and DH 14 billion for hotel industry, for a total fall of nearly 6million tourists (-98%). The same source estimates that no less than 500000jobs and 8500 could be threatened.

As mentioned above, one of the tourism institutions most affected by this crisis is the hotel sector. In most countries, hotels have had to shut down because they represent a huge threat to the country and help the spread of Covid19. This is a necessary measure but it causes a great deal of damage to the economies of each country, especially for those whose tourism is one of the most important sectors for their economic growth, the inflow of foreign exchange and investment or the creation of jobs.

In front of this situation, hotels have had to establish certain measures to keep and retain their customers, attract new prospects, and give a societal and solidarity image. Some of these measures have been made to help hospitals by providing the medical profession with rooms that can accommodate and treat people affected by the virus, as well as doctors and nurses who cannot return home to their families. Hotel chefs have also cooked all the meals that will be delivered to hospitals for patients and the medical profession.

Some hotels like Sofitel, Four Seasons Hotel, Le Rio, Ibis, Hyatt Regency have offered to host and provide meals and care for the homeless during these difficult times to prevent contamination. In order to keep their customers and attract others, hotels implemented communication strategies on social networks, on the one hand, through informative messages about the right things to do (raising hands, how to disinfect different surfaces..), or by pushing people to protect themselves and others , as well as messages of support and compassion to families. On the other hand, we find proposals for exercises by gym coaches within hotels (medication, yoga, cardio and strength training  …) to do at home or recipes of meals and drinks from chefs through video capsules in order to consume a healthy food to strengthen the immune system.

Some hotels turn on the lights of their rooms every night to create figures (smiles or hearts  …) to support the contaminated people or to reassure those who are confined. Other hotels have sold gift cards or vouchers that can be used when re-opening hotels to finance their expenses and guarantee a clientele after this difficult period.

Because of Covid-19, lockdown in the nation led to temporary layoffs of workers and huge loss of income for restaurants, heightened by taxes, and as the closure was sudden and unexpected, owners and managers couldn’t anticipate the move of the virus. Given this situation, the national confederation of tourism CNT discussed some measures to sustain tourism businesses: It’s about postponing or eliminating social charges postponement of bank maturities, lower interest rate, the maintenance of credit lines and other proposals to help them minimize losses. The aviation sector is also in a financial loss, the decline could be nearly 40%, and globally, the international civil aviation agency (IATA) has announced losses for the entire airline industry of up to $113 billion, nearly 20% of sales, depriving the industry of $252 billion in revenues this year. In this regard, Royal Air Maroc deeply embedded, has adopted some austerity measures, delayed acquisitions, suspended a part of employee’s remuneration, a part that will be paid back to them once the crisis is over, and asked staff to take unpaid leave.

Tourism is undoubtedly the industry most affected and will be permanently affected by the closure of the borders and a crisis which is expected to last, and if the time for wailing is over, the industry must become proactive and fight for its survival, and also see this rare crisis as a rare opportunity to engage in reflection and recalibration to regain growth.

If tourism is managed responsibly, it can emerge from the current crisis and become an even more important contributor to sustainable development goals. We recommend the following:

•  Encourage companies to distribute holiday vouchers to their employees.
•  Promote domestic tourism to start rebuilding national economies.
•  Promote the segments that tend to rebound faster.
•  Advancing travel facilitation.
•  Ensuring consumer protection and trust.
•  Give impetus to marketing and events and meetings.
•  Invest in partnerships.