With over 664,241 confirmed cases and 30,894 deaths since the outbreak, Coronavirus has utterly destabilized every possible aspect of human life that once occurred normally.
Notwithstanding the fact that the health authorities are excellently persisting to fight, COVID-19 is a step further.
With the number of cases increasing each day (even each minute to be more precise), the economy has gone into a loop of recession.
While there were things like sanitizers and face masks that noticed a ridiculous spike in sales, a majority of small scale businesses incurred a severe loss.
CNBC reported in one of its recent articles- “There was a hike of 255% in the sales of sanitizers in the UK, while the liquid soaps and house cleaners saw an increase of 7 to 10% respectively.”
In Italy, the sale of hand sanitizers soared by 1807% in February as compared to last year.
Coronavirus is not just confined to Italy, China, or the USA anymore.
The effect could be even seen in India where the demand for face masks has just doubled within a month. Abhay Pandey (National President, AFDLHF) confirmed, “Demand was earlier 600,000-700,000 a month. Now sales are about 1-1.2 million a month,”– (source- Economic Times).
That being said…
An increase in the sales of such products doesn’t validate the normality of all businesses, a number of business sectors are suffering a humongous loss every single day.
Malls closed!!!
Canceled trips.
Shutdown gyms.
And the list goes on…
Although there is nothing to blame it to the government or authorities as it’s what they can do at max at the moment, the current emergency calls for an immediate solution.
That being said, diseases always have an associated reason for their spread.
And…
Unfortunately, in the case of Covid-19, the virus surfaced as a killer microorganism which spreads when an infected person comes in contact with others surrounding them.
As a result…
The precautions that plated later struck hard for some of the businesses.
“Staying Home“ being one of the prominent those (precautions), ultimately knocked off the travel industry altogether.
And when it comes to the travel industry, travel bloggers are the most to suffer beside hotels and airlines that sponsor these influencers to promote them.
Blanca and Albert (Los Traveleros), a couple travel blogger, from the past 5 years usually spend most of their time traveling around the world.
She told us how the current pandemic affected her recent trip around Mexico and brought them back to home.
Blanca (Los Traveleros) says, “We travel almost every very month. It may be a short getaway followed by some weeks at home, then we travel abroad for a couple of months… We don’t have a structured plan, it varies every year. But we end up spending half of the year traveling and the other half at home.”
“We had to interrupt our trip around Mexico. When we left home, there were barely any cases in Spain but the situation escalated quickly. Only two weeks later the government forced everyone to stay home to stop the spread. We immediately decided to be responsible and travel back home to spend this really disturbing period. Luckily, we are safe and healthy at home,” she added.
Maya Santino (mayyserafim, 25), another travel blogger tells how this Corona thing has drastically impacted her travel blogging.
Maya (mayyserafim) explains, “Coronavirus has affected my travel blogging a lot. In February I started to plan my trip back to the US, I am in the process to do an exchange program and my plan was to go back in the end of May or June. However, I think I’ll have to postpone my plans for a couple of months ahead because of the current situation. The American Consulate here in Brazil is closed temporarily with no return date so it’s impossible to take the visa. Everyone is on quarantine, which is necessary, so any way we can’t travel anywhere. I’ve already paid some of the agency fees for that, but not everything. Even though we’re at home, there’s nothing we can do or anywhere we can go.”
The current situation not only put the planned trips on rest and brought financial loss, but also impacted the young travel bloggers from planning their trips further.
Isabella Malatesta (iam.becoming, 19) adds, “I don’t get to travel that often. It is typically about 3 big trips a year, plus a few more weekend getaways to various locations in Michigan, Ohio or Illinois. This year though, I already have been on two big trips and have 3 more planned, that is if Corona doesn’t cancel them.”
Federica Gentile (federicagentile_fg, 25), an Italian travel blogger who has been into this industry for the past 3 years told us how despairing it is to see her follower’s reactions.
She mentioned, “When I posted photos of my last trip, I noticed the reactions that my followers were sad which ultimately annoyed the lightheartedness of my posts. So currently I am being careful not to hurt their sensitivity. I believe it is a bad situation because our work is practically useless. People no longer dream of the next place to travel but dream of getting out of this nightmare.”
I completely agree with that one! Things have been even understandable, had it been for a few days. But it doesn’t seem to stop pretty soon and that is what alarms everyone even more.
Not only has it affected the income sources of all travel industry, but a few people can’t even go back home due to the current pandemic.
Most of the flights are getting canceled and many people are stuck at the place where they are.
Federica (federicagentile_fg) says, “The last trip to Romania cost me a lot because all the flights were canceled and I could no longer go back to Italy. To return I had to take a very expensive flight with two stopovers in two different countries. Between the canceled (not refunded) and the paid flights, I spent around € 500. I had many problems while returning home. At times it even felt like if I would be able to go home or not.”
The situation is indeed tough for those who are stuck at the airport or waiting for flights, and even worse for those who are stuck in some other country amid this pandemic.
Blanca (Los Traveleros) describes her recent trip how it was all like amid all this tense scenario.
“We were fortunate enough because we could change the flight date to return home without paying any extra fees or having problems. The plane was half empty, most passengers were wearing masks and you could cut the air with a knife. Although our families warned us about the seriousness of the situation in Spain, we didn’t truly realize until we landed at Madrid airport. It was dead. All the stores were closed and there weren’t more than 100 people in the terminal,” Blanca told.
Additionally, it came off quite strange to her when she saw that there wasn’t any special health protocol in Cancun, Mexico City nor Madrid even in such a serious situation.
Isabella (iam.becoming) had a trip to Italy just 4 days later when the first case of Corona popped up in Northern Italy.
She mentions, “Thankfully, I had a layover in Lisbon both ways and our airline was able to cancel the part of our trip that took us to Milan. My boyfriend and I ended up spending a week traveling between Madrid, Seville, and Lisbon. We were worried that we would be stuck in Lisbon (not that it would have been the end of the world), but we returned to the States just a few days before the travel ban was put in place. Since I got back, I was at first ecstatic that the flights were so cheap. Like, round trip to Florida for $32? Count me in! But soon after, reality set in. Sure, I could fly to Florida, but besides the fact that it is dangerous and irresponsible, all of the beaches are closed as well. So, unfortunately, I have put traveling on hold for a few weeks. I have a trip planned to southeast Asia at the end of April, so my fingers are crossed that things will go back to being at least somewhat normal by then.”
I just also wish everything gets normal pretty soon.
Moreover, staying at home and seeing your business stagnant could be a little nerve-racking especially when your livelihood completely depends on traveling and promoting hotel industries, airlines, etc.
Blanca Ojeda (Los Traveleros) explains how their blog has been affected since the recent outbreak of COVID-19. She says, “Even if we’re not traveling we have lots of things to work on. It can feel a bit discouraging because not even us are focusing our thoughts on planning trips, so the blog has fewer visitors than ever. But sooner or later everyone will resume their normal lives and hopefully keep traveling. That’s why we keep posting lots of information and useful tips about our last trip to Cuba and Mexico. We also have lots of pictures which never made it to our feed, so this is the perfect opportunity to go back to them.”
Blanca further added, “This whole Corona thing may feel banal while thousands of families are ill or even losing their loved ones. But at the same time, it’s also refreshing to keep inspiring and being inspired by the nice content everyone’s putting out there. Hearing about the virus all the time is overwhelming and not the best thing to keep mental balance.”
True indeed!
Corona has deeply cratered the travel blogging during this phase as one can neither move out and promote nor does the rates seem to slow down in the coming days.
As a result, it is travel bloggers who are to suffer the most as it posts the time.
Albert (Los Traveleros) goes about the loss that the current situation caused. Albert says, “Our income has been reduced drastically. All the signed deals we had to promote travel services have been suspended until everything’s back to normal. It’ll take some after the virus is gone for the travel industry to recover. We lost the money we paid for a domestic flight in Mexico (plus the new flights we needed to book) and two nights which the accommodation refused to cancel without charging us.”
That’s what exactly happened with numbers of other influencers too.
Worst part- There is nothing one can do about it but to stay at home.
Although the stats are continuously hiking and things are getting worse, I believe with the whole world contributing and not being a carrier of such a deadly virus, we can stop it to a great extent.
Isabella (iam.becoming) has some positive remarks regarding this-
“It will end sooner than you will think. A few weeks are only a blink of time in your life. Think about the bright side of quarantine, it is a nice break to catch up with family, clean your house, read the book you’ve been meaning to get to, and simply reconnect with yourself. Try not to take this all too seriously, while still being safe, but appreciate the break from life.”
That was indeed a great amount of positivity that our readers would surely like.
Being quarantined for weeks now is making us realize what matters in life.
With so much negativity all around, I believe we should see the positive and do our part by staying at home and spent time with our family.
We are healthy, we have a place to stay safe and lots of entertainment options.
All these “simple” things make us fortunate.
To this, Blanca (Los Traveleros) adds, “Going out to our balcony every evening at 8 PM has become part of our routine. Everyone claps to thank medical staff, pharmacists, supermarket workers, drivers and everyone who’s risking their health so everything’s okay soon. It’s a really beautiful and touching moment. Every country should do that! Hopefully, this community sense remains after the virus is gone and everyone becomes a bit kinder and more thankful.”
That being said, it is indeed a high time we fight against this pandemic and come up stronger. If it didn’t stop now, the scenarios are going to be worse than ever.
So…
Do you part as a responsible person and stay at home so you don’t serve as a carrier.
Stay Home!
Stay Safe!
P.S.- Here are some of the trustworthy links of websites you can refer to regarding any information about COVID-19.
Caution- Don’t trust just any fake news regarding COVID-19 and report it to the authorities if you find one.
Let me know your views and suggestions in the comments section below.
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Till then?
See you next time!
And?
Bye-bye.