On the verge of collapse due to long months of inactivity and still with various restrictions, the tourism industry begins to operate in important Latin American markets.
The Covid-19 pandemic has generated a true collapse in world tourism and Latin America has not been the exception. In fact, IATA just announced that Latin American airlines experienced a 95.0% drop in demand in July, compared to the same month in 2019. Capacity fell 92.6% and load factor plunged by 27.1 percentage points to 58.4%, the highest among the regions.
STR presented days ago a report describing the current situation in the hotel market. The hospitality industry in Central and South America reported a slight improvement month-over-month, but an overall low performance, according to data from July 2020. Occupancy was only 19.0% which marks a drop of 68.6%. Over the previous year. The average daily rate (ADR) has been $ 53.40 and the revenue per available room (RevPAR) has been $ 10.13.
Absolute occupancy and RevPAR levels were the lowest for any month of July in STR's database in Central and South America.
With those numbers in hand, the challenge will be recovery from now on and there arises a huge unknown, as far as being bold in generating demand since without a vaccine in the remainder of the year, the states still face a challenge. health problem.
The airlines and airports of Latin America and the Caribbean ask the governments of the region to harmonize their actions against COVID-19, so that air transport can restart with clarity, speed and, above all, in a coordinated manner in the region. This includes minimizing quarantine requirements for travelers, allowing effective recovery in the aviation and tourism industry. At the same time, this would provide peace of mind for travelers and would restore mobility to citizens who want to travel for different reasons.
“Protecting its citizens must be the top priority of governments. But too many governments are fighting a global pandemic in isolation with the vision that closing borders is the only solution. It is time for governments to work together to implement measures that allow economic and social life to resume, while controlling the spread of the virus, ”said Alexandre de Juniac, Director General and CEO of IATA.
“No government wants to import COVID-19. Likewise, no government should want to see the economic hardships and health impacts associated with mass unemployment. Successfully overcoming this crisis requires careful risk management with effective measures. If government policies focus on allowing a safe restart, aviation is well prepared to comply. Risk management is a well-developed discipline that airlines rely on to keep travel safe and secure” de Juniac said.
Gloria Guevara, President and CEO of WTTC, stated: “Travel and tourism is a highly interconnected sector, the devastating impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on businesses throughout the global travel and tourism sector is also causing damage. extraordinary events outside our industry impacting millions of jobs and livelihoods around the world".
