Victor Sanchez

Although the contagions in the Latin American region appeared in this month, since January the interest of tourists to travel began to decline, damaging the industry since the beginning of the year. With the appearance of Covid-19 (Coronavirus) at the end of last year in China, Latin American countries showed different scenarios in terms of tourism, as time passes and the virus spreads to different parts of the world, it has left a negative impact on the sector's finances. Ostelea, an international university center specializing in the training of leaders and managers in the Hospitality and Tourism industry, presents a reflection on these effects on these industries. "The consequences will be notable in the short term. Moreover, they are very hard for the companies as we are seeing, but even more so for the workers in the industry. We cannot forget that tourism is a highly seasonal and, on many occasions, precarious sector. This emergency with such complex characteristics will undoubtedly bring about a significant level of layoffs, relocations and readjustments on different fronts," said José Antonio Mansilla, a lecturer at Ostelea's School of Tourism Management. In addition, added Mansilla, this scenario opens up a new learning scenario for the tourism industry in the face of the different volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous contexts. Likewise, the challenge is to design strategies that are being applied in affected countries such as Spain, ranging from making cancellation policies more flexible, temporarily closing hotels, implementing regulations for the management of temporary jobs, ceding facilities to the health service and even requesting public institutions to activate specific aid for the sector. "It should also be very clear, tourism comes from a few years of transformation that has affected some players, that is, they are not only in trouble because of Covid-19, for example, the acceleration of digitization had an impact, but with the global pandemic, their situation worsened. In Latin America, although the initial impact is less than in Europe, it is expected to be similar. Borders are closing and the movement, in countries that depend, to a great extent, on foreign visitors, has almost completely stopped", explained the Ostelea professor. When analyzing the case of Mexico, a study on the Impact of the Coronavirus on Latin American tourists reveals that in January, when the spread of the virus in China began to be known, searches increased for both domestic and international destinations, although it is worth clarifying that, although the trend was the same for domestic destinations, the volume did not increase as much as at other times of the year such as Easter and Summer, perhaps because the inconvenience caused by Covid-19 was somewhat visible. The study shows that New York (+29%), Los Angeles (+36%) and Madrid (+47%), were the most searched cities by Mexicans, while within the country the most googled destinations were: Cancun (+26%), Acapulco (+32%) and Guadalajara (+27%). The hotel and tourism sector will have to contribute in some way to tourists, to go in line with corporate responsibility and gain followers as several organizations have already done worldwide. They can start by facilitating cancellations on vacation plans or reservations that are within their reach, saving them so that travelers do not lose money and feel supported. Discounts for those who, for some reason, lost investments, will be another useful tool to show the solidarity of the sector. Human talent (especially management) will have to be up to the task of making strategic decisions, as this Cancun Airport Transportation company, where they will have the challenge of assembling their teams with proactive people to provide solutions to the hundreds of thousands of requests that they will surely receive during and after the crisis. Tourists will want to resume their vacations, ask for refunds or schedule a break after all the commotion that has been generated, so the agility of the processes will be vital to reactivate the sector. At this juncture, we must be more resilient than ever and see the opportunities that open up, which can be taken advantage of with the deep analysis of everything that happened to tourism as a result of Covid-19, for example, that insurance is offered to tourists for cancellations without cause, coverage in the case of border closures and even under parameters of atypical situations.