Economic Recession and its Impact on Tourism

Abstract

Travel is witnessing a drastic change from its old forms to new forms of doing business. The economic crisis along with the increase in the airfares has changed the way travel had been earlier. In many countries there is a decline in the number of people traveling whether for business or leisure purpose. With the word 'recession' floating around, companies are looking for ways to reduce spending and have tightened their travel budgets by cutting back on air travel, enforcing stricter travel allowances and substituting trips with web and video conferencing. It is a challenging economic time, and companies are looking at cost containment efforts across the board. They can't stop traveling entirely, so they are looking at ways to travel efficiently, to generate sales and revenue by traveling wisely. Due to the high cost of travel, many professionals are forced to limit both maintenance and repair efforts to few scheduled onsite visits. One reason travel and entertainment budgets get the axe ahead of other cost-cutting measures is because these are simple steps companies can take to control the cost of business immediately. Making

flight bookings well in advance, choosing restricted airfares and sticking to the same airlines or hotel chains as much as possible are some ways to lower corporate travel costs. This article is an attempt to understand the impact of economic recession on tourism and hospitality industry and explores various ways to handle the situation.