Coronavirus impact in Kerala was the first effect of COVID-19 seen in India on January 30, 2020. A medical student studying at Wuhan had returned to his home and was found positive. Afterwards all the 3000 he was in contact with were quarantined and ‘state calamity warning’ was imposed. The state was under high alert from February 4th to February 8th. After four days the warning was uplifted. But soon the second wave was seen from March 9 in the state. At present as on 28th August, 2020, the total reported confirmed cases are 69,304. Out of which 23,111 are active and 45,858 have recovered. The deaths reported due to COVID-19 are 274 in the total 14 territories of Kerala.
Different sectors have widely been under the impact of COVID-19. But the major impacts of COVID-19 here in the state of Kerala can be seen on the Tourism sector. Tourism to be announced as an industry was first in Kerala with 10% of Kerala’s GDP with 23.5% of employment in this sector. But due to the pandemic the Coronavirus Impact in Kerala can be widespreadly seen.
Watch video for more details, Impact On travel and Tourism Industry
Kerala is a state of natural beauty with picturesque scenic views of Hill stations and beaches. Most of the tourists visit these places from December to March. It’s the peak time. Unfortunately this year the COVID Impact on Kerala tourism has been devastating and at lowest ground focusing in past years. The national lockdown had restricted the movement of the domestic tourists as well as international tourists to visit Kerala this year and has highly affected the Kerala Tourism Sector.
The beaches and the hill stations were found deserted this year compared to every year. The famous Kovalam beach was totally empty. According to a report, Rani George IAS, secretary of Kerala Tourism says, ‘The impact of Covid has been very high on our tourism. Right now, we are not sure when we can reopen. In 2019, our revenue in the travel and tourism sector stood at Rs 45,000 crore. Based on that, we estimate that if it takes a few more months for the sector to reopen, our losses would amount to Rs 20,000 crore this year. With absolutely no business in March, April and May, we lost completely on domestic tourists.’ The amount of loss is tremendous considering the Kerala Tourism sector.
Also read, The Most Hit Sector In COVID-19: Travel and Tourism
Coronavirus impact on Kerala can be seen especially on the vulnerables who are the vendors at the beaches and earn daily and eat daily. The situations they are facing are disastrous. From a study done by Gulati Institute Of Finance and Technology (GIFT), it was found that a total of 17000 crores of monetary help is needed to at least save the economy of the state from drowning. Though there will not be any immediate effect, it will still take at least more six months for the tourism sector to stand back
There was a positive ray of hope that at least after the lockdown if taken off the tourist might get attracted to the beauty of Kerala, but that was too unlikely. The tourists, keeping their health and safety first, might have decided not to travel this year as the condition of the COVID endemic is still not stable and the Coronavirus Impact in Kerala can be highly seen dwindling the economy of the state.
